Now that you have begun home brewing your own beer, you may be getting tired of bottling the beer you make every time. It can take awhile and can be hard to do. Or you may also be tired of always having to make beer all the time to have a good stock available. Not to mention, the fact that it can become contaminated through the transfer process. As you have become better at making your own home brewed beer, it is somewhat of a natural progression to go from bottled beer to kegged beer. However, there are few things to consider before beginning doing this.
First is the cost of kegging equipment. Purchasing the kegging equipment is expensive and is a hard sell. It can cost from a few hundred dollars up to six hundred dollars for the CO2 tanks, canisters, towers, and possibly a kegerator. Deciding to keg your home brewed beer may start to seem like you are not saving as much money as before. If you can afford it, it will over time pay for itself and still save you money. However, you need to consider space also.
Next, is the space it takes up to have a kegging system in place. You will need to be able to store everything needed for a keg system and be able to use it and dispense from. You will need to refrigerate your kegs, just like you did your bottles, that is where having a kegerator is important. The only purpose of a kegerator is to store and keep cold your kegs of beer. These are great, however they cost around the same as a refrigerator, so be prepared for the cost.
Furthermore, because you are kegging your beer now it does mean that you do not need to sanitize and clean bottles, storing the empty bottles, and waiting for a number of weeks to carbonate the bottles. You can also more easily adjust the carbonation level to exactly the way you like it. Also, using a kegging system means you can complete closed beer transfers for better sanitation and also you can filter your beer more easily.
However, as convenient and liberating kegging your beer can be, there are still reasons to bottle your beer too. When making seasonal or specialty home brewed beer batches you may not want to make an entire keg of it. Using your bottles for this will come in handy. Or if you plan on making your home brewed beer and giving it away as gifts or taking it to parties. Bottles are great too because you can add your own personal labels and look to the bottles, giving them your own look.
Whether you decide to keg your home brewed beer or bottle it, there is always a place for both. Of course cost and the amount of room you have available to you will be a consideration. Ideally, having both ready and accessible will give you more options and open up many more choices for your home brewing experience.
