Kegging And Bottling Your Homebrew

There are many ways to store your homebrew. Individual bottles offer some advantages-for instance, you can open one bottle at a time without shortening the shelf-life of the rest of your beer. Two cases of returnable 12 ounce bottles can often be obtained by paying the deposit cost at the liquor store, and is therefore a very inexpensive method. Bottle cappers can last a lifetime, and bottle caps are cheap. My personal favorites for homebrew are my flip-top Grolsch bottles.

Individual bottles also offer distinct disadvantages, usually in terms of clean-up and effort. Many homebrewers have made the switch to kegging. 5 liter homebrewing kegs can be found at most homebrew supply stores, and the beer is served with a carbon dioxide powered tap. The most popular kegging method among homebrewers has traditionally been the soda-pop Cornelius keg. This has one added advantage over other beer storage methods-your beer can be artificially carbonated within a day or two, rather than the 1 to 2 week wait for natural carbonation to occur. Most homebrew stores now sell Cornelius keg setups and both new and used kegs.

The main disadvantages to kegging are the decreased portability and somewhat shortened shelf life. However, a tapped Cornelius keg of beer will still last a fairly long time, because the beer is maintained under carbon dioxide pressure and is therefore at little risk for oxidation.

If you decide to keg your beer instead of bottling, keep in mind that you need far less corn sugar or dry malt extract to prime the beer. 1/3 cup of corn sugar or ½ cup of dry malt extract should be sufficient.