bottle or keg?

[Hudson1984]

hi all,

so found somewhere still selling stuff yay!
so, i've got a cider kit coming, I intend to have a play with turbo cider but be good to get a sizeable brew on the go.

anyway, I'm torn between bottles or keg. Now I want a fizzy finish ideally, so I've read I can prime the bottles and cap. fine. But wondered if it's easier to put it all in a keg, and add C02 - like one of these:
https://www.brewuk.co.uk/5-gal-basic-wh ... bulbs.html

won't jump into a corny keg right off the bat so that's why i'm torn - long term corny keg seems the way to go and don't want to be left with a keg I don't use whereas I'm sure i'll always use bottles but at the same time, is a keg an easier route to fizzier cider?

[bitter_dave]

You are never going to get the level of fizz from a plastic barrel like that that you would by bottling. The addition of gas is mainly going to push the cider out, not carbonate it much. I’ve used plastic barrels almost exclusively in my brewing and I’m pretty happy with them (I use king kegs now), but I personally want pub ale levels for the beer I make so it suits me.

[Hudson1984]

grand thanks for the advice. Will order the bottles.

[vacant]

won't jump into a corny keg right off the bat so that's why i'm torn - long term corny keg seems the way to go and don't want to be left with a keg I don't use

I bought five used corny kegs some years ago, later sold two and as I'm brewing even less I sold the other three a couple of months ago. They seem to have a stable price of £40 for a sound one. There's a good market out there to buy and sell without losing money.

[Hudson1984]

just a case of getting them at the minute without being able to leave the house.

I think i'll bottle for the time being, I've order 50 x 500ml bottles from Ampula (bloody good prices on there!) which will get me going. I've got a cider kit on it's way and a wine kit - but got a 5ltr wine bag/box to decant that into.

My aim is to fill the bottles then have a bash at some turbo cider. Hopefully by then we're all back to normal and I can look at a corny or two as I do like the idea of a kegerator.

I'll end up with a garage full of fridges! Brew fridge, Kegerator and bottle fridge.

[Jocky]

Corny kegs are fairly cheap, but you need a fridge or freezer to keep them in while serving (possibly with temperature controller), a big bottle of CO2, as well as a regulator, and a bunch of other serving and maintenance bits. And the space for all of that. They're awesome once you're in, but the cost of entry is higher than it initially seems.

Bottles on the other hand are cheap and easy to get into, not to mention portable. Just buy a decent steel capper - a handheld one is fine and works with any size beer bottle.