Storage Heirachy

[Brewbob]

So what in your opinion is the best method to store ale. When I was a kid it was always in brown glass bottles, but I only had the red plastic caps which were frankly rubbish, but re-usable. Since I restarted I've been using PBs, for convenience, but I've got some bottles together so my next brew might go in them.

What really does a King Keg bring to a brew, or a Cornie?? I googled a cornie when I started up again and thought, Oh its an old coke dispenser. I would have thought it would over carb the beer. My favourite when I was a barman was the firkin on the bar, straight from the tap, and that is pretty much what my PB does. Does beer last longer in bottles, cornies? I've got a Hambleton O2 injector for my PB and it does add life to an emptying barrel, and has been a beer-saver in the case of my leaky gas PB (along with Blu-tak!) It makes it like Daddy's Soda Stream.

So what do you think, and why do you think so??? :hmm:

 

[artyb]

ive a couple of k kegs and i use 2 litre pet bottles and 500ml pets
ive recently been collecting 500ml swing top bottles from ebay ... :thumb:

 

[matchles1]

I like swing top bottles and mini kegs, pressure PBs to many problems. :thumb:

 

[morethanworts]

Old imperial pint amber bottles, with the screw in the neck. I've got 38 of them and they're my favourite, but bottles always mean a lot of cleaning...

 

[JKaranka]

I usually put away one or two 5l minikegs, then divide the rest between swing-top bottles (for experimental brews that I expect to drink soon), 500ml brown PET bottles, and the occasional 2l pop bottle to finish off the fermenter and take to house parties.

 

[marksa222]

I've only got my bottles in glass bottles, but that's mainly because I like me beer chilled and don't have a way to chill a pb. I'd love to make a kegerator, but i'll spend my money on AG equipment first... that can wait a year or two

 

[Hawks]

I use cornies, and occassionaly use a few bottles

You use much lower pressure than when they were used for coke, so I replicate cask pressure with mine and it serves perfectly :thumb:

 

[Dave1970]

Crown capped bottles or Cornies win out for me

I googled a cornie when I started up again and thought, Oh its an old coke dispenser. I would have thought it would over carb the beer.

Beer from a corny is usually force carbonated, although you can naturally condition ale in a corny, the beauty of this is that you can set the pressure to whatever you want. Based on a combination of temp and pressure you can use a carbonation table to carbonate your beer to any level you want. So although cornies are ex soft drink containers very few would carbonate to those kind of levels. The limit on low carbed beer is that you do need enough pressure to force your beer out of the tap, this depends on the diameter and the length of the line from keg to tap. Cornies are very good in that you get a consistent and controllable result

 

[mereside]

I must say as a newcomer to beer making i started on bottles and baught two cornie kegs and i have a stout in one now and it is very simple my stout is only at 5psi on 3/16 line and is perfect. I will still bottle some to keep but having two or three beers on the go its an awfull lot of bottles to store and i only have a small room for my beermaking and space was rapidly running out, atb wayne

 

[andyd]

Does beer last longer in bottles, cornies?

I only bottle, in my experience the beer will last at least 12 months (given the chance of course). It might change in character slightly over that timespan but not signifcantly once the initial conditioning is done.

I'd be interested in others experience of the lifespan with cornies.

 

[sam.k]

Beer lasts longer then 12 months in a bottle, I have beer I'm drinking that's over 2 years old and it's ace.