How many of you bottle & keg the same batch?

I'm new to kegging this summer, and one of the things I know I'm going to want to do is to bring bottles of my homebrew to parties, events, etc... I was thinking I'd set aside about 12-18 bottles of each batch.

How many of you do that? And how do you do it? Do you fill carbonated bottles from the keg, or do you bottle condition the bottles?

I've done it but it has to be a really good beer that I want to save for friends later.

I fill bottles from the keg/tap. I have both the Bowie Bottler and a Blichmann Beer Gun to do this with.

IME, it's far easier to bottle from a carbonated keg than to fill X bottles from the same batch, primed and then set aside to carbonate. I actually did this on Saturday so that I could bring brew to family to have. Thus we were able to have good homebrew with dinner Saturday, and Sunday, evening. I do find that the flip-top/swing-top bottles are better for me to bottle in (I have many). I can quickly cap them once filled, unlike with long necks.

When I'm ready to keg my beer I usually bottle about 10, I use the carbonation drops, fill up m bottles, remove the bottle filler and then keg the rest, it's a pain trying to do on your own, but it can be done. I also like to taste the difference in a bottle conditioned beer and a force carbed beer

+1 to Golddiggie. I have a Beer Gun and it works fantastic. Your beer is always chilled and ready to go. Bottle conditioning is great as long as you have time to chill the bottles before the party. Personally, I only bottle condition my big beers. Do whatever works best for you.

I do the old fashion 1/4 tsp per bottle and set aside 6-12 for Competitions. The first bottle is also full of air from racking so I usually save that to get to the yeast for the next batch.

Hecliff

hey i just wanted to ask a question. i recently bought a 3 gallon keg, i wish to keg and bottle a 5-5&1/2 gallon batch. i still want to bottle condition my bottles with sugar. do you guys add the priming sugar bottle then add the rest to the keg and also let the keg naturally carbonate along with force carbonation to keep it sealed? or do you weigh out each amount of priming sugar for each bottle and keg first then bottle?

DrJekyll-HomeBrew said:

hey i just wanted to ask a question. i recently bought a 3 gallon keg, i wish to keg and bottle a 5-5&1/2 gallon batch. i still want to bottle condition my bottles with sugar. do you guys add the priming sugar bottle then add the rest to the keg and also let the keg naturally carbonate along with force carbonation to keep it sealed? or do you weigh out each amount of priming sugar for each bottle and keg first then bottle?

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I do 6 gallon batches. I fill my keg, then bottle the rest. I do carb tabs to keep it simple. Obviously I can't carb to a specific level with the tabs though. I force the rest in the keg to style or whatever I like...

I wouldn't prime the entire batch IF I was to bottle some of a batch at that point. Mostly due to not wanting a large cake left in the keg. Besides, it will take longer to carbonate the keg with sugar than it will via force carbonation. Even with the two week method I use. I also store kegs that are not connected in the basement (now) which is in the 58-62F range.

well i just bottled and i decided to charge the whole five gallons with priming sugar. i worked out the Ounces and got just enough bottles to fill while having enough for my keg. so i primed the five gallons, began bottling, filled the keg. i filled the keg to 10 psi i hope thats enough to seal the keg while allowing the sugars to be eaten by the yeast.

thank you for your input!

DrJekyll-HomeBrew said:

well i just bottled and i decided to charge the whole five gallons with priming sugar. i worked out the Ounces and got just enough bottles to fill while having enough for my keg. so i primed the five gallons, began bottling, filled the keg. i filled the keg to 10 psi i hope thats enough to seal the keg while allowing the sugars to be eaten by the yeast.

thank you for your input!

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VERY high probability that the keg will be over carbonated. You use far less sugar IF you're going to carbonate a keg that way. Just look at the different calculation sites/tools and you'll see what I mean.

Golddiggie said:

VERY high probability that the keg will be over carbonated. You use far less sugar IF you're going to carbonate a keg that way. Just look at the different calculation sites/tools and you'll see what I mean.

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hmm ok, i heard that issue from a another person. well i think ill bleed it a little in a couple days and periodically from now on to try to siphon some of that co2 out of the beer while keeping enough in the keg to seal it.

I keg my beer, then just fill a half gallon growler, or several 22oz ( works good when I fly and want to take beer), or 12 oz. for beer comps. no beer gun, just reduce the pressure a little and pour. Have held these in the fridge for months and still carbed and taste great when opened.

DrJekyll-HomeBrew said:

hmm ok, i heard that issue from a another person. well i think ill bleed it a little in a couple days and periodically from now on to try to siphon some of that co2 out of the beer while keeping enough in the keg to seal it.

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Better off letting it fully carbonate then chill it and bleed the keg after. Just like you would to an otherwise over carbonated keg. OR just put it where you serve from and connect it up to the gas to carbonate over the next two weeks. Of course, it could be a bit sweeter than you wanted this way, but you won't have to offset the over carbonation.

zacster said:

I'm new to kegging this summer, and one of the things I know I'm going to want to do is to bring bottles of my homebrew to parties, events, etc... I was thinking I'd set aside about 12-18 bottles of each batch.

How many of you do that? And how do you do it? Do you fill carbonated bottles from the keg, or do you bottle condition the bottles?

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Big beers like IPA or Stout or Porters go to bottles most of the time but something like Pale ale is keg all day every day. Bring a keg to party!!!! Cheers

DrJekyll-HomeBrew said:

well i just bottled and i decided to charge the whole five gallons with priming sugar. i worked out the Ounces and got just enough bottles to fill while having enough for my keg. so i primed the five gallons, began bottling, filled the keg. i filled the keg to 10 psi i hope thats enough to seal the keg while allowing the sugars to be eaten by the yeast.

thank you for your input!

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That's the way I do it & the extra priming sugar does not hurt anything in the keg.

Funny, I was asking myself the same question this morning when I came across this thread. So I think I'm going to just keg my brews that are fermenting but I don't have a beer gun. I've stuck a tube in my party tapper before and filled bottles that way but only for "next day" consumption. Will that do for long term or am I just wasting beer?


Edit;
Ha, ha - just read the "I don't need no stinkin' beer gun" thread. Guess I'm on the right track!