vendredi 23 septembre 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.

The process usually is composed of many stages all of which perform specific functions. Such would include, milling, crushing, lautering, boiling, fermentation, conditioning and packaging. The conditioning phase, being an important flavor inducing phase, has often harbored varied views with regards to the equipment to be employed. Conditioning usually eliminates undesirable flavors with the aid of yeast thereby only leaving the needed flavors.

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.

Additionally, keg barrels provide sufficient protection of the beer from both sunlight and unnecessary movements. Such movements usually result into unclear beer which is undesirable to most brewers. However, for the competitive brewers, bottles would be the only beer conditioning option as most brewing competitions lock out keg brewers from participating.

Each beer conditioning system serves to satisfy particular needs as efficiency and simplicity. Conclusively, this being an art, it would not be right to brand one system completely inefficient as each serves to paint to ones liking of the brewer.




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