Why keg when you can bottle? A better question might be, why bottle when you can keg? Kegging has many advantages over bottling - it provides an opportunity for your beer to age in bulk, it eliminates the need for a “brightening tank” to aid in clarification and maturation, and, outside of the initial outlay of coast (about $180 for a basic one-keg setup), reasonably inexpensive and far quicker compared to bottling. You’ll still want to bottle some of your beers if you enter competitions or give away your beer as gifts, but many homebrewers agree - once you start kegging, you’ll never go back.

The process of kegging for the uninitiated can be overwhleming. How much carbonation should you use? How do you keep everything clean and oxygen free? How do you avoid the dreaded pool of beer that results from a poorly sealed keg?

When I started kegging my beer, I tured to this handy set of instructions from Northern Brewer. It answered a lot of my questions and helped my first kegging session be a successful one. Even if you bought your kegging setup from someone other than Northern Brewer, these handy instructions will really help you out.
Cornelius Kegging System Instructions