From Keg to 2L Soda Bottles?

This is my first time kegging a homebrew. Turned out great, but my partner in crime lives 40 minutes away and the keg's at my place. My frugal self wants to fill 2 liter soda bottles from the keg, rather than use bottles and a capper, a beer gun, etc.

1. How long will the beer stay fresh/carbonated in a 2L bottle?

2. Is there something I should put in between the picnic faucet and the 2L bottle to optimize the amount of beer in one try?

3. Is there a better but kinda cheap option?

Thanks

Make twice as much beer and bottle yours.

I'm not sure I understand. Are you brewing at your friends house? Why not take the keg over there? As for using 2 liter bottles, consider how long soda stays carbonated in one. Each time you open the bottle you lose gas and the soda gets flatter and flatter. With beer there's also the fact that you are exposing the beer to oxygen when the bottle is opened so it will go stale sooner. I'm making a guess on this but you may also discover that your beer tastes vaguely like whatever soda was in the bottle originally.

John

You can use the carbonator cap to keep it fresh for transport?

We're brewing, fermenting, and kegging at my house. If I was traveling to a party and coming back, taking the keg, tank, and regulator is an option, or my friend can take a bunch of 1L or 2L bottles with him. I planned on cleaning and sanitizing the bottles before filling them in, and I'd probably only get seltzer water bottles.

I take my beer places in either growlers or 2L soda bottles. The growlers look nicer, but they don't work quite as well.

One thing that would be great for you is a "carbonator cap". They hook up to a ball lock QD and fit on a soda bottle. So, you fill your bottle from the keg. (Use a BMBF or a tube to reduce foaming) Then, squeeze out all the air and put on the carbonator cap tightly. Give it a big shot of CO2 at 20 psi. It'll stay carbed a long time until you open it. After opening, it should stay carbed at least a couple of days. You could do that with a few soda bottles, so you always have some beer on hand to drink, and you could even do different sizes if you wanted. The carbonator cap is about $15, but I've seen homemade ones made with a tire chuck and a needle to fill a basketball.

Without a carbonator cap, beer in a soda bottle will stay pretty well carbed until it's opened.

Crush the 2L bottle flat and use the carbonator cap, get a liquid to liquid keg disconnect jumper and fill the flat 2L bottle from the keg.


Tada!

Ditto on Yooper. Not only are 2l soda bottles useful for transporting carbed beer, they are a nice place to put and carb extra beer if you end up with more than 5 gallons into a keg from a batch. Fill the 2l, hit it with 40 PSI or so with a carb cap, shake like mad, repeat, and drink it the next day.

As far as I'm concerned, anybody who's kegging really should have one or two carb caps around. Yes, at $13-15 per, they're pricey, but they work better than any other solution I've found.

Also, they work great for re-carbonating that flat bottle of coke or 7-up in the fridge.

So far, I am finding that the beer, going from keg to 2L bottle then to glass doesnt end up quite as fresh tasting as going from keg directly to glass. the taste is a bit cardboardy, the head retention is weak and the body of the beer seems thinner.

I have tried:
1)using a short direct connection picnic tap instead of 20' of beer line to tap
2)purging 2l bottle with water and replacing with co2 using carb cap before filling.
3)After filling pushing air out using carb cap and pushing in co2 and carbonating to 10 psi.

Next to try:
1)completely blacking out the 2L bottle using a brown paper bag.
2)purging with water then co2, and filling bottle slowly without ever losing pressure in the 2L bottle.
3)Using soda water 2L bottle to verify that bottle is not giving off flavors.

Anyone else find this happening to them or have any solutions to fix?

Has anyone tried using the perrier bottles? Those bottles have an additional liner in them as an additional oxygen barrier.

markvale5 said:

Has anyone tried using the perrier bottles? Those bottles have an additional liner in them as an additional oxygen barrier.

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Where did you hear this about Perrier bottles? And what would be the purpose of an additional oxygen barrier for a bottle of water?

orangehero said:

Where did you hear this about Perrier bottles? And what would be the purpose of an additional oxygen barrier for a bottle of water?

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I did a tour at a place that turned 2 liter bottles into new products. They showed us a Perrier bottle cut in half that appeared to have an additional liner inside the bottle. They said that the company used it as an additional oxygen barrier but they didn't believe it was actually necessary.