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Author Topic: Opinion: Kegging or All Grain? Which first?  (Read 6115 times)

Offline BrewingRover

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Re: Opinion: Kegging or All Grain? Which first?
« Reply #30 on: September 05, 2013, 07:28:03 pm »
I guess I'm an outlier: 148 batches brewed and they've all been bottled (or will be). So I vote all grain  ;D
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coastsidemike

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Re: Opinion: Kegging or All Grain? Which first?
« Reply #31 on: September 05, 2013, 07:57:39 pm »
I guess I'm an outlier: 148 batches brewed and they've all been bottled (or will be). So I vote all grain  ;D

+1.  As others have said, it depends on your goals, but also the practicality of volume.  I don't think I'll ever bottle 5+ gallons again, it takes too long. Recent brews have involved working with others to learn brewing, and so I'm finding experimenting with an all-grain brew process to be quite enjoyable in the 2.5 gallon range.  In particular, the smaller batches make step mashing easy (i.e. just add water), but that having the kettles fitted with ball-valves and "bazooka screens" (even with small batches) helps quite a bit.

Offline duxx

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Re: Opinion: Kegging or All Grain? Which first?
« Reply #32 on: September 05, 2013, 09:12:43 pm »
So by asking which you should get first, you are really saying you want both!  Don't over think it, just add up the cost for the "starter" version of each of the systems you are considering (keg vs. all grain) then buy which ever one of the 2 will cost you the least.  That way you don't have to wait to start enjoying one of new processes.  If by chance the purchase of the 1st one leaves you with surplus cash, then it will be all the sooner to buy the second one.

For me all grain taught me more about brewing than kegging ever did.  A shout out to Denny Conn for his cheap and easy batch sparge method that works so great.  So its just that all grain brewing adds more enjoyment and value to my "beer time" than kegging.

I've got 15 kegs and 2 keggerators but frankly I don't find bottling to be all that much more work than cleaning and maintaining 2 draft systems in the long run.  A lot of folks who tell me how much simpler it is to keg, seem to forget about all the time and effort that goes into building the keggerator, cleaning and maintaining the beer lines or the time spent driving to get more CO2, etc.  You get the idea.  Its not just that you are only cleaning one keg instead of 50 bottles, there is considerably more time and effort in involved in kegging than just that.  Yes, it is cool to pour yourself a cold draft beer but it is also nice to hear that "pftttt" from a bottle conditioned beer.
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Offline AmandaK

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Re: Opinion: Kegging or All Grain? Which first?
« Reply #33 on: September 06, 2013, 01:56:38 pm »
A lot of folks who tell me how much simpler it is to keg, seem to forget about all the time and effort that goes into building the kegerator, cleaning and maintaining the beer lines or the time spent driving to get more CO2, etc.  You get the idea.  Its not just that you are only cleaning one keg instead of 50 bottles, there is considerably more time and effort in involved in kegging than just that.  Yes, it is cool to pour yourself a cold draft beer but it is also nice to hear that "pftttt" from a bottle conditioned beer.

+1

The maintenance issue compounds itself when you don't live near a city with the proper supplies. Living in rural Illinois, the maintenance was pretty bad. CO2 fill? 45 minute drive and had to take off work. Everything else was mail order. Now that I live in KC, I can find parts nearly anywhere so the maintenance issue isn't really that bad anymore.
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Offline Jarhno

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Re: Opinion: Kegging or All Grain? Which first?
« Reply #34 on: September 12, 2013, 10:50:59 am »
In my opinion I'd go All Grain first (Though take it with a grain of salt because I don't personally keg yet).

The idea being that if you have a passion for brewing, then A.G. let's you create your brew from scratch; let's you craft a brew exactly how you want it to be.
You can't be a real country unless you have a beer and an airline - it helps if you have some kind of a football team, or some nuclear weapons, but at the very least you need a beer.  - Frank Zappa