We no need no stinking beer gun...

JasontheBeaver said:

I could see the stopper helping slow the flow if you bottle at serving pressure.
My question is why would you serve at that pressure? Am I missing something? Using a cane pressed into a picnic tap is so easy.

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I'm not sure I understand the question. You mean why would I bottle at serving pressure? Convenience, especially when bottling off just a few:

• I don't have to disconnect the keg from my kegerator (I attach the hose to my faucet)
• I don't have to dig the keg out from the back of my kegerator (because it's invariably in the back)
• I don't have to fiddle with the settings on my regulator

-Joe

Oh, ok.

I just used this contraption yesterday for the first time. Worked like a charm! At $5.99 for the replacement auto-siphon center tube and .99 for the stopper, that's $6.98 total! That's less than a tenth of the cost of the beer gun and accessory kit.

Works for me!

For those that use the BMBF for long term storage, do you clean out the picnic tap line before using to help prevent bacteria being transferred into the bottled beer?

Also, what is the longest you have stored a beer that you bottled using the BMBF before sending it on to a competition? How did it do?

Thanks!

JasontheBeaver said:

I could see the stopper helping slow the flow if you bottle at serving pressure.
My question is why would you serve at that pressure? Am I missing something? Using a cane pressed into a picnic tap is so easy.

Click to expand...

I built this and used it yesterday and it totally worked 100% for me. I was tapping from the keg tap to bottle before and it was very inconsistent carb in the bottles from fine to slightly flat.

I find this method with stopper and all produces less foam when filling and I my bottles were noticeably more carbed then my old way.

Another note, a 1L bottle was easier to fill then the 350ml.

TorribleBrew said:

For those that use the BMBF for long term storage, do you clean out the picnic tap line before using to help prevent bacteria being transferred into the bottled beer?

Also, what is the longest you have stored a beer that you bottled using the BMBF before sending it on to a competition? How did it do?

Thanks!

Click to expand...

I try to bottle my competition beers as freshly as possible. But...My "Tits Up" was in the bottles at least 5-6 months before it took home a "Grand Champion" high gravity contest.

If your sanitation methds are sound and your capping on foam, the bottles will keep as well as any commercially bottled beer.

Works like a charm, thanks.

BierMuncher said:

I try to bottle my competition beers as freshly as possible. But...My "Tits Up" was in the bottles at least 5-6 months before it took home a "Grand Champion" high gravity contest.

If your sanitation methds are sound and your capping on foam, the bottles will keep as well as any commercially bottled beer.

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Thanks for the response. I look forward to trying it out this weekend.

TorribleBrew said:

For those that use the BMBF for long term storage, do you clean out the picnic tap line before using to help prevent bacteria being transferred into the bottled beer?

Also, what is the longest you have stored a beer that you bottled using the BMBF before sending it on to a competition? How did it do?

Thanks!

Click to expand...

BM is a little humble: I just had a stout and a Tripel bottled this way from 3 years ago - perfect pour!

Cold bottles, good sanitation, balanced CO2, and this method is rock solid.

:rockin: Cheers, Biermuncher!

How many volumes of co2 do you lose by depressurizing and then capping the carbonated beer at atmospheric pressure? If the kegged beer is 2.5 volumes then what does it become after 2 weeks in the bottle?

If the beer is properly carbonated already, you're not lowering the carbonation of the beer - as long as you don't leave the pressure set low. All you're doing is lowering the dispensing pressure to reduce foaming. Once you're done bottling you should return the keg pressure to it's normal setting.

jcoxen said:

If the beer is properly carbonated already, you're not lowering the carbonation of the beer - as long as you don't leave the pressure set low. All you're doing is lowering the dispensing pressure to reduce foaming. Once you're done bottling you should return the keg pressure to it's normal setting.

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I'm not sure we're on the same page. I am talking about the pressure drop from keg airspace pressure to a bottle with no pressurized airspace. The bottle will draw co2 out of the beer over time to even the pressure between beer and bottle airspace. I'm just curious if it is more than say 20%. So if the volumes of co2 in the keg is 2.5 then when it's in the bottle with 1/2" airspace, does it drop to 2.0? Probably not a big deal, just curious.

Don't leave headspace; cap on foam.

badbrew said:

I'm not sure we're on the same page. I am talking about the pressure drop from keg airspace pressure to a bottle with no pressurized airspace. The bottle will draw co2 out of the beer over time to even the pressure between beer and bottle airspace. I'm just curious if it is more than say 20%. So if the volumes of co2 in the keg is 2.5 then when it's in the bottle with 1/2" airspace, does it drop to 2.0? Probably not a big deal, just curious.

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I was concerned about this exact same issue. Especially when I read that some people fill several bottles at a time, then cap them all at once.
Personally, I fill a bottle and immediately cap it, one by one. It might be a slower process this way but I want my beer exposed to atmosphere as little as possible for both carbonation and contamination issues.
To answer your question, bottling in this method I do not notice any difference in carb levels between my bottled beer vs. my keg on tap.

I did this method (sort of) just to see how well it worked. I just stuck the racking cane on the tap and lowered the pressure. I didn't use the stopper or cut the angle on the cane. I was surprised to find out this worked just fine! Filled about a half a case of bottles to try to open up a keg. This is awsome! Thanks for this thread best idea ever!

I am sure there is a little loss (PV=nRT and all), but I have never really noticed a difference in carb level between keg and bottle.

Note to all - Be carefully when attaching the racking cane to the picnic tap... I totally applied to much force and split the spout on my picnic tap. This caused a leak when trying to fill... made a huge mess

brettwasbtd said:

Note to all - Be carefully when attaching the racking cane to the picnic tap... I totally applied to much force and split the spout on my picnic tap. This caused a leak when trying to fill... made a huge mess

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Been there, broke that.... Shoulda warned you, my bad.

Used the plan in the OP and it worked beautifully. Also attached a second racking cane to a picnic faucet then to a keg filled with CO2 only, and used it to blow out the oxygen of each bottle before adding the beer. Not sure if this is effective, but it seemed to work.

Thanks for the great idea.

I've always had trouble with foam using this setup.. and a lot of wasted beer. last night for kicks, I tried purging the keg, and dialing up to just 1-2 psi. I filled a chilled bottle right from the tap and it worked PERFECTLY. I gave it a tap to foam, and capped on that.

Has anyone tried a similar set-up using a bottling wand? I'm looking to make a beer gun for filling a few bottles at a time (I'll never bottle an entire batch from a keg). My thoughts were to use a spare disconnect, attach some serving line, then attach a bottling wand to the end. Has anyone tried this before? Seems like its simple and should work.

Airborneguy said:

Has anyone tried a similar set-up using a bottling wand? I'm looking to make a beer gun for filling a few bottles at a time (I'll never bottle an entire batch from a keg). My thoughts were to use a spare disconnect, attach some serving line, then attach a bottling wand to the end. Has anyone tried this before? Seems like its simple and should work.

Click to expand...

Thats what I did. I think its the same diameter as the racking cane. First time I didn't have a problem, but the second time (see my earlier post) it split the picnic tap. So just be careful

Thanks. I'm gonna make an attempt at this soon.

I tried using a bottling wand and still got a lot of foam, but I was only using a few feet of 1/4" hose. I think the valve at the bottom caused a lot of turbulence at the higher flow rate I was using.

Going to try again sans bottling wand with 10' of 3/16 hose for serving and for bottling as well. I was also just using the inner portion of an auto-siphon. I picked up a racking cane for a few dollars that I'll shorten and angle the bottom of as well. I have high hopes!

Cheers!

This works great for me thanks so much for the post. I made a slight change to mine. I found that depressing the bung to release pressure was a problem as it did not leave me a free hand to drink with!. I fixed this by inserting a regular sewing needle down the side of the racking cane within the cork. This tiny vent gives me perfect fills. I get fantastic results. slow steady fils and guess what? .... I can drink with my free hand !

limeybrewer said:

This works great for me thanks so much for the post. I made a slight change to mine. I found that depressing the bung to release pressure was a problem as it did not leave me a free hand to drink with!. I fixed this by inserting a regular sewing needle down the side of the racking cane within the cork. This tiny vent gives me perfect fills. I get fantastic results. slow steady fils and guess what? .... I can drink with my free hand !

Click to expand...

thanks for the excellent tip! I will definitely try this next time...

limeybrewer said:

This works great for me thanks so much for the post. I made a slight change to mine. I found that depressing the bung to release pressure was a problem as it did not leave me a free hand to drink with!. I fixed this by inserting a regular sewing needle down the side of the racking cane within the cork. This tiny vent gives me perfect fills. I get fantastic results. slow steady fils and guess what? .... I can drink with my free hand !

Click to expand...

You, sir, are a Genius!

Were any of you guys able to do this without making a mess? It took me a few tries to cap on the foam w/o getting beer foam down the bottle. I had to wash the outsides of my bottles.

I do fill to foam comes out my little needle in the cork. I just use a large plastic container ($5 in target) and I fill my bottles in there. I use another as a Bath for the One step and I rinse in iced water before I fill them. Mess is there but its minimal. If I bottle 5g this way I lose under half a pint in spilage.

I didn't read this whole thread, but basically I am going to try a similar approach. There are these tiny CO2 cartriges for planted fish tanks with a little valve and a tube that you can place through a stopper to purge your bottles of air with a stopper on top. Then you shouldn't need to worry about tightly sealing your bottles as you fill, just dispense the beer slowly with a cut racking cane/picnic tap through an inverted carboy stopper and lift up slowly as the bottle fills, once it slightly overflows it should be just carbon dioxide left on the head. I'm trying it out for a couple of comtest beers this week, if it works I'll post some pics (by works I'm letting them sit a month before opening and compare it to bottle conditioned beers of the same brew).

This thread is amazing...just did it for the first time with no problems. Had a coffee stout to clear out of the keg to clear up space for my Honey Steam. Thanks guys so much for the brilliant idea!!

This is great, had the parts I needed sitting around to try this and a test bottle worked great. I'll have to get an extra cobra tap so I don't risk breaking my second tap (untill I get around to building my dual tower) by using it.

I'll also have to drink my test bottle tonight since I didn't sanitize everything.

I think I'll give this a full blown test next week with my IPA thats dry hopping. My last IPA batch I split half in keg half in bottle. I think the hop aroma dulled after bottle conditioning for 3+ weeks. This should allow me to bottle "fresh" from the keg without waiting for carbonation.

profbaker11 said:

This thread is amazing...just did it for the first time with no problems. Had a coffee stout to clear out of the keg to clear up space for my Honey Steam. Thanks guys so much for the brilliant idea!!

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Um... you're welcome.

Thanks for this thread! I am just starting to send some brews in to competitions and just kegged one of the best beers I ever made. No time to bottle condition the other 5 gallons so I tried a further simplified version. I only had a stopper in the size that fits a five gallon carboy so figured I would just press down hard against the top of the bottle, and let up slightly to release pressure. Worked great!

I found that the joint between the stopper and the racking cane leaked slightly when wet with starsan. This allowed pressure release at just the right level and the bottle filled slowly with no foaming. I went back a second time to fill two bottles for storage and the joint was now dry and did not leak. I was able to release pressure at the base of the stopper and control the fill perfectly. Very little spillage.

My only comcern is that I just stuffed the racking cane into my "working" picknic tap. Hoping no wee beasties are growing there. Anyway, it's off to San Antonio!

I've been doing this for a few months now and wonder how I ever bottled or filled growlers any other way. Thank you very much!

How bad is it on a beer to bottle it off the keg...then store it at room temp?

awarner322 said:

How bad is it on a beer to bottle it off the keg...then store it at room temp?

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It's fine. I have limited fridge space, so when I bottle beer from a keg with my beergun I end up storing most of it at room temp. I was worried about it at first, so I did some experimenting where I would take 2 beers bottled at the same time and keep one in the fridge and keep the other in a case in my basement. A couple weeks later I put the warm one in the fridge, waited for it to chill, and did a side-by-side tasting. Both were exactly the same, there were no defects in the one not stored cold. I can't remember where I read this, but I recall hearing that the whole "once beer is cold , it MUST stay cold or it's ruined" concern is not as big an issue as people think. As long as the beer isn't repeatedly going through big temperature fluctuations or sitting at elevated temperatures (above 72 or so) for long periods of time, apparently it's fine.

So finally got my system working with 7' of beer line, a picnic tap, a #2 stopper, a liquid tap connect, and a bottling wand. I took the bottling wand and remove the tip and ground the tip into a 45 angle. Shoved the bottling wand all the way into the picnic tap and taped around the connection. Worked great and bottled 24 bottles off my keg to empty it. No foam at all and worked great.

Did this for the first time last night with pretty good success. Seems like I always had a little bit of foam at the start when the wand is initially empty. I also had trouble finding a pressure that worked well.

EdWort said:

Here's something I found on the net a while ago. Thanks to Ken Schwartz! It rocks!

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I am kegging my first two brews in a couple weeks (need to make two more to load all four taps), so I've been searching for a way to bottle from the keg. This looks relatively simple but I did have a couple questions:
1 - where might I pick up an an air chuck for this purpose?
2 - how do I attach the chuck to an air line and the line...does it just attach to the regulator?

Thanks in advance. Kegerator (keezer) almost finished. 4way manifold will arrive Tuesday as will the tap handles! This will allow me to continue to share!