Can I rack from a growler into smaller bottles?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

klnosaj

Supporting Member
HBT Supporter
Joined
Sep 20, 2011
Messages
432
Reaction score
10
Location
Berkeley
I was up in Napa yesterday and stopped by the Napa Smith brewery. They had there one of the best Barley Wines I've ever tasted. It is available for sale only at the brewery and only in growlers. At 10% abv that's a lot of etoh. My wife is tiny, a light weight, and we're trying to get pregnant so she won't drink much if at all. So I was thinking maybe I could use my auto-siphon to transfer the barleywine from the growler into smaller bottles so that it won't go flat and stale. Any thoughts on this?
 
I'd think it'd go mostly flat just from the process of transferring.

Have a couple (or two) over for dinner sometime soon and break out that growler and share!
 
You're using an autosiphon...I guess that would be better than pouring, but I still doubt that the beer would hold it's carb and not be oxydized when you open it again.

I guess if you wanted to really make sure it remained carbed, and ate some of the oxygen, you could figure out how much sugar to add to re-carb the beer in the bottle, and boil it up some in water, with an eye dropper add some along with a few grains of fresh yeast then cap them...

But man I don't know. I'd just drink it myself.
 
I think you'd ruin it. I would invite people over and tackle it or just drink as much as you can.
 
I have done it with commercial beers a few times and it works fine. The beer will be a little different, but still good, even after a few months. I've shipped a few beers to buddies this way and their tasting notes match mine pretty closely. If you're going to tackle it, get everything as COLD as possible before your bottle. Bottles, growler, all of it.
 
I have done it with commercial beers a few times and it works fine. The beer will be a little different, but still good, even after a few months. I've shipped a few beers to buddies this way and their tasting notes match mine pretty closely. If you're going to tackle it, get everything as COLD as possible before your bottle. Bottles, growler, all of it.

Thanks for the encouragement and the tip. Now that I know it's been done successfully by someone else I'll get to it myself. :mug:
 
Maybe I am unclear how the carb tabs work. I didn't think yeast was involved. I thought they dissolve like alcaselzer and co2 dissolves into the beer, ala force carbing. No?
 
carb (carbohydrate) tabs = sugar.
yeast digests sugar and makes alcohol & CO2
without yeast, carb tabs just make beer sweeter.
 
we all learn about things at some point.
this was that point for you.
on the mechanics of carb tabs, we're now even.
we wouldn't be even, if you didn't ask.

& now, I need to go ask a question about keggerator beer hoses.
 
Back
Top