Taking a break from bottling...

[DUDE lesBREWski]

I want to take the next step and start kegging my homebrew. From experience, is it worth the investment? I can get a keg kit from my local homebrew store for $230. I have also been researching ways to convert mini fridges into kegerator to keep my keg cold. Which I might as well go ahead and build it if I buy the keg kit. It would be really cool to have my beer pour out of a tap. But, in the long run, will I end up breaking the bank?

[jwatkins56550]

Do it!!!

[bazookazilla]

You will not break the bank, but it a fairly substantial initial investment, but well worth it.
Be prepared to spend more $$ on ingredients as you will notice your tend to go through beer much more quickly (at least I do). It's just too damn easy.

[Jelisa08]

You will not break the bank, but it a fairly substantial initial investment, but well worth it.
Be prepared to spend more $$ on ingredients as you will notice your tend to go through beer much more quickly (at least I do). It's just too damn easy.

I have the same problem. We blow through about 5g in 4-7 days. I had to brew 3 times last week just to catch up. Thankfully, I use sanke kegs and have 6 of them in reserve just in case I can't brew weekly for a month or so.

Kegs are the way to go!

[brewinhard]

Once I started kegging I never went back to bottling (except out of the keg). Bottling sucks and I observed that over time my beers would oxidize faster which made them less shelf stable. Now I use my beer gun to package out of a keg and have greatly increased the life of my bottled beers. Maybe my bottling techniques just sucked but kegging just makes brewing more fun!

[DUDE lesBREWski]

That's all I needed, some assurance. Thanks guys, I will be purchasing my keg kit this week. The plan is to continue to bottle my 1 gal. experiments I've been doing since the fall and keg my 5 gal. batches. First brew on tap: "hIP A hop n u don't stop"...already got the tap handle with logo.

[PhillyBrewer]

I would just try to slowly obtain what you need to keg from ebay, craigslist, etc. rather than by a packaged kit which are normally way more expensive than piecing things together would be. You can get cornies for ~$25 online. You should be able to get a CO2 tank and fridge on CL if you keep your eye out. Bottling day effectively just involved cleaning and filling one bottle (the keg). The time and aggravation saved is well worth the investment.