I haven't brewed for a few years, but yeah, Corny kegs are the way to go. No endless washing and sterilizing of bottles, no priming, no waiting for carbonation.

Just chill your keg, hook it up to your CO2, carbonate it, and fill a big glass. Then another!

I'm resurrecting this hobby. Between the wife's wine habit and my beer habit we have a pretty reasonable collection of beverage making gear. Just no kegging stuff... yet.

Pro: no cleaning bottles.

Con: can’t give away beer.

It seems I always had more friends when I was bottling beer. Not so much when kegging.

Guess it depends on whether you want more booze or friends.

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My training

One of my neighbors is an organic chemist who home brews, I'd put his stuff up (especially his IPAs) up against any craft brew out there. He uses materials from his lab at work and also makes his own cleaning solution, plus keeps detailed notes on every batch. His dad lives on a farm in Vermont and grows his own hops as well. In addition to IPA's, he also does saisons, stouts and Oktoberfests; his basement has basically become a microbrewery. I usually give him empty bottles, growlers etc.

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"You can never win or lose if you don't run the race." - Richard Butler

Apparently there's something called a 'beer gun' that can be used to purge & bottle CO2 force carbonated beer. I'm looking into that too.

It's so much faster, you won't want to bottle anymore. You can use a beer gun for bottles, or a piece of tubing to fill growlers (like most breweries use now).

Make sure you are diligent in cleaning kegs. You can even make a cleaner yourself with a 5 gallon bucket, a cheap pump and some hose/fittings.

If you have any questions, fire away.

I ordered the basic kit from Ontario Beer Kegs, it comes with a regulator & gauges, cheap tap, keg fittings & ball lock corny keg. I think I boo-booed when I ordered the 5 lbs CO2 cylinder as I've since discovered that the bottler that delivers to town will supply 20lb cylinders for about $30-40 & a $50 initial deposit.

I'm thinking of adding a check valve to the gas side of the set up so that I can cheat and use the liquid side to carbonate. Not sure about that yet. Seems that some are pretty aggressive with their carbonation and accomplish in a few hours while others are saying 2 days. Makes me wonder...

Run off of 20# cylinders. Keep the 5# for emergencies. You will run out and it will be worth having.
When you get your system crank up the pressure and check for leaks.

As far as carbing, there are a lot of methods. If you have time, just set it at your norms serving pressure (8-12 pound range) and wait two weeks.
You can also force carb at a higher pressure (and shake it for 2-3 min) and do it quicker but if you over carb it you are going to have to bleed it for a few days while you have a foamy mess. Typically this method takes a day or two doing ot a few times a day.
I’ve never tried getting it done in a few hours. I’m guessing it could be done.

Do you have a 'gun'? I've heard varied reviews, some people think the Blichmann is the goto, I've seen other guns that are about 30% less money and I'm struggling to see the difference other than better ergonomics.

I have a poor mans version that a guy made for a while but stopped making it.

If you are doing beer for competitions I’d go blichman. They redid the gun a year or two ago. It’s still the best thing out there.

If it’s for friends, I use a 12” piece of tubing and just slip it over the tap and fill growers or bullets. I don’t remember the diameter.

You can do it in 15 minutes if your beer is cold enough and you rock the keg gently. To avoid over-carbonating I used to measure the CO2 going in in terms of what I called the "regulator volume". Crack open the valve on the cylinder, then close it again. Rock the keg gently until the CO2 contained in the regulator and hose is absorbed; the gauge will tell you this, but it's also audible.

That's one volume. Crack the valve and close it, rock again. That's two volumes. And so on.

It's been a while, but I used to add 25-30 volumes for a 5-gallon keg IIRC. The volume per cycle will vary depending on your cylinder, regulator, etc.

How did you make your keg cleaner? I have access to a cheap pump up sprayer, (no viton seals) and have been using one for gardening. I would think the seals would be sturdy enough to stand up to star san?

As a side note, a lot has changed in the past 15-20 years. (honestly, should have sold the brewing equipment but I digress), when I first did it, very few people did all grain brewing. Sanitizing was with chemicals that had to be rinsed off or the yeast could perish. Yeast health was making sure that I remembered to put the 1 kg bag of brewers sugar in the wort. Priming, was dropping an individual spoonful of sugar in each bottle. Quality control was you had beer, shut up and be happy! Compared to the wealth of information out there now... water chemistry, oxygenating the wort before pitching the yeast, home carbonation, temperature control (anyone brewing lagers 20 years was some sort of evil genius/god). The hobby has evolved considerably, given that in Canada for example it wasn't even legal to homebrew beer until 1985. (and we still can't legally own a distiller without a permit).

I went this route https://www.homebrewtalk.com/...-keg-cleaner.300441/

You could probably swing the hand sprayer, similar idea. Fill it with a bunch of cleaner and go. You'd just need some ball lock disconnects, some mfl screw on connectors and some tubing (and somehow connect in the sprayer to a piece of tubing. Everything in my setup has the mfl connectors (disconnects, tubing, sanke keg couplers, pneumatics) so that I can easily switch between anything and everything.

It's much easier now to brew. Starsan is your friend. Temp control is the biggest element and controllers are super cheap. You can get a dual stage for less than $20 online.

Once you go keg you will never go back. Screw washing and dealing with bottles. I can take a keg from my beer refrigerator, clean it and have it ready to refill with a new batch out of my bright tank in 10 minutes of work. I have been brewing for quite a long time and have some tips.

Get a 3-4 splitter for your gas so you can keep pressure on more than one keg at the same time.

Have two CO2 tanks because at some point you will have a leak and will find your tank empty. I run the main system, up to 4 kegs on my 20 pound and I have a 5 pound backup, that I also use to push beer around as well.

This thing will clean the heck out of your kegs in 1 minute of work. It is a real time saver and well worth the money.
https://www.homebrewing.org/...-Cleaner_p_4554.html

If you want to give beer away you can fill growlers or bottles right out of your tap with this. I bring beer to people all the time with it and just tell them the bottles are clean, not sanitized. It's no different than growlers or crowlers that breweries have. The beer will be fine for a few days simply filling a bottle like this and giving it to someone.
https://www.northernbrewer.com/growler-filler

You need some of this lube for gaskets.
https://www.morebeer.com/...m-keg-lube-4-oz.html

It's like brewing with bottles but your process gets cut down to minutes and the storage footprint is reduced by 80% or more.

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Don't hold back

Is there a link for the temp control?

I use a nicer one but this works.

Inkbird ITC-1000 Dual Stage Digital Temperature Controller Fahrenheit and Celsius Thermostat with Sensor for 3D Printer,Freezer,Fridge,Hatching ect (110 Volt) https://www.amazon.com/...cp_api_D8N1AbZNKD52E

You’ll have to wire it to cords or outlets.

Thanks! Dumb question, after adding the temp control, what devices would I be using to lower & raise the temps, for example if I wanted to brew a lager?

I’d use an old fridge or chest freezer for the cooling output.
Use a hairdryer set on low heat for heating. Set it in the door of the fridge or on the hump of the chest freezer. It won’t melt anything as it doesn’t run much.
Typically I wire cutoff extension cords to the temp controller. Then just plug in the above items.
You won’t need to mess with temp settings on the fridge or freezer. Just drop the included sensor in and go.
You might not need dual stage if it’s indoors and the temp doesn’t fluctuate much but it’s nice to have in place.

Rather than a hair dryer I use a garden seedling mat. Waterproof, silent, much lower fire hazard.

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Don't hold back