Monday, September 26, 2016

Bottling And Kegging For Brewing

By Brenda Clark


The art of brewing has been in existence since the 5th millennium BC and has over time become more sophisticated. A fact that is attributable to both technological developments, safety issues and the refined tastes of most beer consumers. Given the numerous health benefits that beer awards its moderate users, most individuals choose to craft their own beers at home therefore have to acquire knowledge on bottling and kegging.

For this to happen, the individuals would be required to mill, mash, lauter, boil, ferment and condition the beer before packaging it. Most brewers have often have different opinions regarding the set up that best serves the beer conditioning stage. This given the fact that this phase is most chief towards the creation of the perfect beer flavors through the removal of all unwanted elements as Sulphur.

Bottles are the earliest tools used for beer conditioning and are therefore predecessors to keg barrels. The use of bottles however comes with hectic bottle priming after the conditioning is done. This given the fact that the yeast used tends to be come dormant after taking up all the undesirable flavors and consequently begin to settles at the bottom.

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.

For a safe storage of beer kegs win the challenge by being able to protect the beer from direct sunlight and by being able to protect the beer from unwanted movements, which often lead to an unclear beer. Nonetheless, for those wishing to participate in home brew award winning competitions, bottle set ups would prove to be the best option, since these competitions usually demand bottle set ups as participatory preliminaries.

The efficiency and suitability of each set up usually is left for the brewer to decide on. As it is with all art, this art similarly allows the brewer to freely express his or her preference which is tasted from their product.




About the Author:



No comments:

Post a Comment

Related Posts Plugin for WordPress, Blogger...