Counterpressure Bottle Filler?

Drunkagain · 10-26-2007, 02:34 AM

Well I'm thinking of picking up a couterpressure bottle filler, and of course I've got a couple of questions first. I haven't bottled a brew since I moved to kegging a number of years ago. In the past I always found bottle conditioning to be hit or miss - some beers carbed great others, not so much. So does using the counterpressure filler take care of this problem? Since I'll be carbing in the keg, I should be able to bottle and cap it without losing the carbination, correct? Is this a worthwhile investment or just hype?

Thanks

**Lil' Sparky** · 10-26-2007, 02:50 AM

Why don't you check this out before you go invest in a counter pressure filler.

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/we-no-need-no-stinking-beer-gun-24678/

david_the_greek · 10-26-2007, 03:04 AM

Great link, I think you just solved my dilemma of not wanting/being able to haul around a 5 gallon keg everywhere I go and being too impatient to bottle (not to mention generally too lazy)

miatawnt2b · 10-26-2007, 02:26 PM

This past weekend I filled a few bottles from the keg and it worked very well. I had some extra 3/16" vinyl tubing laying around (the regular stuff, not the extra thick) and found that it fit into the end of a picnic tap perfectly. The other end I trimmed at a 45* angle. I turned down the CO2 to about 2PSI, stuck the vinyl tube to the bottom and filled the cold bottles. After about 6 of them I was an expert and wasn't foaming hardly at all. Then capped the bottles. Simple... worked perfectly.

I tried with and without the #2 stopper, and I found that it seemed to work better without the stopper.

your mileage may vary, but it worked great for me.

-J

**FSR402** · 10-26-2007, 03:44 PM

Last weekend I had a last minute invite to a friends house for dinner. They made the food I was to bring the brew. ALL my beer is in kegs and I don't have anything to serve it outside of my chest freezer. So I took mt bottling wand shoved it into my picknic tap (I don't have a tower and don't need one) took a stopper I use for making starters in a half galon growler and placed it on the wand.
Shut off the CO2 valves and stuck the wand in a clean growler. Pushed the stopper down into the bottle, flipped the tap on full and locked. then as it started to fill I just slowly let some air out of the bottle by rocking the stopper. I did this until it was full then shut off the valve, pulled the wand out and capped the bottle. I did this for 3 growlers each one being a different brew.
It worked great and it was so fast and easy.

miatawnt2b · 10-26-2007, 03:53 PM

I should add that I also tried the bottle filler connected to the picnic tap. It seemed to me that the beer flowing through the valve in the bottom of the wand caused the carbonation to come out of suspension more than from using just the vinyl tube. It may be that I was impatient on perfecting the technique though.

-J