This plus once the transfer starts you can go watch TV, have a beer, clean something, whatever while bottling takes your full attentionI can set up for a closed transfer, fill two kegs, then clean up and put everything away, in about an hour.
That's the equivalent of four and half cases of filling bottles.
But if I was only filling one keg, that'd still take a good 45 minutes. The setup and tear down part doesn't change...
Cheers!
An hour for two cases of beer isn't bad. The posts so far hopefully have given you a good idea of about kegging.With everything considered, how long does it take to keg. It seems like it may not be that much faster than bottling from videos I saw on youtube. It typically takes me <1 hour for 2 cases. Thanks
I can set up for a closed transfer, fill two kegs, then clean up and put everything away, in about an hour.
That's the equivalent of four and half cases of filling bottles.
But if I was only filling one keg, that'd still take a good 45 minutes. The setup and tear down part doesn't change...
Cheers!
i agree now days the total expense of kegging would be a high cost. i was lucky and salvaged a bunch of pin locks from scrap yard at 8$ a pop. the cost of equipment now days has almost doubled for most things since i started.I'm not sure there's a definitive time savings, or at least it's not significant enough to justify the cost on its own. Kegging and draft beer is just a different user experience. I do recommend breaking the keg down to parts in between fills, or at least every other time if you don't integrate some kind of recirculating spray/cleaning system that pushes cleaner through the ports and diptubes. So, cleaning a keg might be about the same time as cleaning 50 bottles.
It's also imperative, in my opinion, to be even more careful with oxygen when kegging because you don't have that yeast growth/refermentation that bottle conditioning offers. In that regard, doing a full starsan fill and dispense is the way I recommend purging the keg prior to filling. Pushing the beer in under low pressure CO2 also helps.
You've generated a lot of good replies here, but haven't come back to comment on any of them so I can't grok the context.With everything considered, how long does it take to keg. It seems like it may not be that much faster than bottling from videos I saw on youtube. It typically takes me <1 hour for 2 cases. Thanks
In what universe?how long does it take to keg. It seems like it may not be that much faster than bottling
Some folks will do a deep cleaning of the keg and fittings every time but I don't feel it's necessary. Do that for sure if you get a used keg and periodically. If you do get a used keg you'll want to deep clean it and replace all of the seals.Thanks everyone for getting back to me. I think I will give it a try. I have seen some kegging videos on youtube where they clean the keg with PBW and disassemble all the fittings. This seems like it may not be necessary every time. It does take me a few minutes less than an hour to bottle but I start out with clean bottles so I just need to sanitize.
Yeah what I was saying is that if you DO have a keg washer, such that liquid is flushing through the posts, poppets and diptubes then they don't need to be broken down other than the first one and then maybe once a year. If one does not have a keg washer, then I'd break them down often and get a brush down through the long diptube.Some folks will do a deep cleaning of the keg and fittings every time but I don't feel it's necessary. Do that for sure if you get a used keg and periodically. If you do get a used keg you'll want to deep clean it and replace all of the seals.
When my kegs are empty I will flush them out then use the keg washer on them. That cleans the inside and both qd/tubes with hot water and PBW. After they are rinsed with clear water, I sanitizer them, put the cover on then store them till needed.
Good point - thanks for adding that!Yeah what I was saying is that if you DO have a keg washer, such that liquid is flushing through the posts, poppets and diptubes then they don't need to be broken down other than the first one and then maybe once a year. If one does not have a keg washer, then I'd break them down often and get a brush down through the long diptube.
I can fill a keg in the time it takes to read this post.The actually time cost needs to consider all the time spent getting the keg and bottles clean, the time to fill them, and even if signficant the amount of time to get the keg or bottles ready to pour the beer into your glass.
For me, I have a keg washer that I built. For efficiency in time and PBW, I like to run 2-3 kegs through it at a time. The temperature of the solution drops off and the water gets dirty so that's why I do them as a small batch. Besides the cleaning of the kegs, I have to set up and break down the keg washer. I also periodically break down the kegs. I take off the parts, soak everything in PBW, then scrub the inside of the keg, and brush the poppets and tubes. I fusually hand rinse with a sink sprayer. I always wash the kegs between fills.
I've moved to closed transfers, so I like to wait until I run out of kegs, then push starsan through all of them at once to save on starsan.
Bottles for me require the intitial step of label removal. This time is spread out over the life of the bottle and can be avoided by purchasing new bottles. I reuse bottles. I soak them for several days in ammonia which most times drops the label, then get the stuck labels and glue off with either a paint remover or brass brush. I will reject bottles for which the label is too troublesome to remove but I don't really care much about the time. A reused HB bottle gets a quick rinse on a dedicated bottle sprayer, then dropped into one of two buckets under the sink. When the buckets get full, I add a little soap, water, and ammonia and let the buckets sit, usually overnight. They get brushed and rinsed after soaking. Prior to bottling, they get sanitized using a bottle tree with the pump on top. Caps or rubber gaskets I give a quick boil or starsan soak.
Bottling I use a bottling bucket with wand and those require cleaning and sanitizing, transfer tubes and racking cane too. I fill the bottles first and then cap all of them. Fliptops I put the gaskets on before filling if I remember to then just close. Bottles then get packaged into full and half cases and/or six packs. I bottle in the kitchen in order to use the counter, so all those bottles need to go up and down the stairs. I use DME to carbonate.
Kegging I use pressure to transfer to the kegs. This requires a clean racking tube plus the extra hardware for the cap and tubing. After transfer, I force carbonate. Usually my pipeline thins out and the keg goes in the keezer but sometimes it goes in the fermentation fridge first.
I have a tower on my keezer with four taps. Maintaining a tap system is not trouble free. There is time spent cleaning the lines and fixing any number of issues. Picnic taps are much simpler but a personal choice.
I have never timed each piece, and while attempting to be thorough, I may also be missing some other consideratioins. As mentioned by someone earlier, transferring the beer to the keg is the same as transferring to the bottling bucket. As far as cleaning and sanitizing, the keg washer does the majority of cleaning. I just walk away and come back later. It takes time to push the starsan through the keg however I'd say it takes no more time than the 25-50 bottles and possibly less. You can do something else nearby while the starsan is being pushed out. (Clean some bottles haha!) Overall, I am fairly confident that my kegging is less time intensive. I have had a number of mechanical issues with my tap system personally but these are mainly related to the complexity of my keezer build as the tower and keezer surround are homemade. Those are also initial time costs.
I wanted to get at what you are saying here but indeed the post was already rather long! There are points in the entire kegging process where little activity is needed on the part of the operator. There's a mental aspect affecting perceived effort as well. I don't mind very much washing bottles and sanitizing bottles but some people hate it so much it probably influences their perception of those tasks. Which is completely understandable. And I don't mind bottling either, which again, some find tedious. I tend to daydream and reminisce about places I've lived at years ago where I also brewed and bottled.I can fill a keg in the time it takes to read this post.
I'm kidding this is a good summary.
I still think the metric isn't as much time as it is effort or "actively engaged time". If you just start a stopwatch at the moment you begin and shut it off when you have 5 gallons in either bottles or kegs it's probably close and likely is most dependent on a person's process and how fast they push. The fact that I can get either a star san push or a closed transfer started and I can then walk away and do other brewing tasks or eat dinner or mow the lawn or whatever is a huge factor in making kegging easier. It is reducing oxygen that made me get into kegging, but based on the effort I'd never go back. Heck I bought mini kegs to avoid bottling for taking my beer on the road for things like tailgating because of it.
the way i look at it is its like one big bottle so whatever times it used to take me to bottle 48 bottles of beer its 1/48th that time. seriously tho keggin is so much quicker than bottling in so many ways like stated above. no label peeling no cleaning 48 bottles no sanitizing 48 packages etc.
kegging can actually be made even quicker. when i transfer wort to my FV the spigot is already attached to the clean sanitized purged keg. via the gas outlet. i just bleed the keg . leave the prv open. open the spigot and the beer starts to flow.
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