Bottling And Kegging For Brewing

By Brenda Clark


Having developed from the 5th millennium, brewing is currently a complex endeavor that bestows its partakers with numerous health benefits. The sophistication of brewing can be attributed to both the variant tastes of beer users, good technology and the need to create beer that is safe for consumption. It is with the knowledge of the many health benefits associated with beer usage that most people opt to craft their own beer at home; hence, the need to get info on bottling and kegging.

Such home brewing activities would see the brewer undertake steps as milling, mashing, lautering, boiling, fermentation, conditioning and the final packaging. It is in the conditioning stage that different opinions arise with regards to what equipment should be used. Conditioning works to properly flavor the beer by allowing the yeast from the fermentation stage to absorb unwanted elements such as Sulphur.

The ideas of using of bottles for conditioning is said to be the predecessor of keg conditioning, as bottles were the antecedent tools used for to condition the drink. Bottles however come with the need to be constantly cleaned, this given the fact that yeast settles at the bottom of these bottle after doing away with all the unneeded elements.

Kegs have in most cases served as a replacement to bottles and usually makes use of a kegerotor which helps maintain the brew at optimum temperatures. Economically speaking, kegs usually are much more preferable compared to bottles due to the fact that a single keg barrel is able to hold more brew compared to either a 12 packs or a 6 packs. Additionally, kegs ensure that priming is not much of a bother to the brewer.

Well versed home brewers attest that when it comes to beer flavors and beer quality, these two conditioning systems do not produce much of a difference. However, complexity sets the two apart with bottles being much simpler compared to keg set ups. This given the fact that setting up kegs require tools as clamps, pipes, carbon dioxide tanks, carbon dioxide regulators and connectors. This being apart from the large space that would be demanded by keg set ups.

When it comes to carbonation, which is considered to be a major contributor to good beer creation, keg set ups win the challenge. This given the fact that keg set ups excel at efficiently regulating the amount of carbon dioxide in the beer, by employing carbon dioxide tanks and carbon dioxide regulators. Bottle set ups on the other hand only depend on the beers yeast content to produce the needed carbon dioxide which at times is of insufficient amounts.

Additionally, keg barrels provide sufficient protection of the beer from both sunlight and unnecessary movements. Such movements usually result into unclear beer which is undesirable to most brewers. However, for the competitive brewers, bottles would be the only beer conditioning option as most brewing competitions lock out keg brewers from participating.

Each beer conditioning system serves to satisfy particular needs as efficiency and simplicity. Conclusively, this being an art, it would not be right to brand one system completely inefficient as each serves to paint to ones liking of the brewer.




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