Bottling from a Keg

I did a quick search and couldn't find anything on this so I'm hoping I can get soem help from you guys.

I made a Helles for a vacation I'm going on next week as normal (from brewing to kegging - to carbonate) and now I want to bottle it for easy transport. It's at 15psi right now. Does anyone have any tips to make the bottling process as easy as possible? (i.e. should I turn the pressure down to dispense, use a shorter hose, etc.)?

Thanks for your help,
Andrew

Check this out. Seems to be a hit. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/we-no-need-no-stinking-beer-gun-24678/

Clean and sanitize the bottles. Put some foil over the tops to keep them clean until you can cap them. Put the bottles in the freezer for at least an hour. Longer is OK. Overcarbonate the beer slightly for a couple of days prior to bottling and turn the temperature down about 5 degrees too. A couple or three psi increase is all that is required, but you must give it some time to equalize to that pressure. When ready to bottle, turn the gas pressure to the keg way down so that you get only a trickle from the tap. Now remove, fill and cap the bottles one at a time. Tilt the bottle to the tap and let the beer run down the inside of the bottle. Quickly cap when you reach the desired fill level. Be prepared for some slop and foam overflowing the bottles. Cap on the foam for best results. Rinse the freshly capped bottle and return it to the fridge and grab another. Fill the bottles slowly to minimize foaming and loss of carbonation.

I recently discovered the convenience of bottling in 1 and 2L soda bottles. It's great to be able to put some kegged beer into a soda bottle and bring it to a party (or wherever it is that I am going and want homebrew). You would need to buy a carbonator cap like this:
http://morebeer.com/view_product/18250//Carbonator_Cap

I lucked out and was able to get one from my LHBS instead. But it's great. Just fill the soda bottle straight from your tap. Then squeeze out the air / foam, twist the cap on, and connect it to your CO2 line. Pressurize it to 20 psi, or whatever you're aiming for, give it a good shake, and pop it in the fridge. Good to go.

I wouldn't want to use this for storing beer more than a week (usually I drink the bottled stuff within a day or two), but if it's a short vacation, that might be an easy way to bring some of your stock with you.

snisleziggy said:

Check this out. Seems to be a hit. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/we-no-need-no-stinking-beer-gun-24678/

Click to expand...

This is the best link on the forum. Saves tons of time and money!

+1

The beer gun topic seems very useful. I will note it for later. However, I am short of time so it will not work in this instance...

I may just be S.O.L. Due to a move in progress I do not have access to my kegerator, so my keg of beer is at room temperature at ~32psi (to get the levels of CO2 I'm looking for). I thought that I'd be able to bottle from there by turning the gas down to dispense and then capping. Am I just way off the mark? Is this a lost cause (and a vacation of commercial beer)?

Thanks for all your help.

Trying to bottle warm beer will be pretty frustrating. Try your best to get it cold before you try these techniques. I'm afraid you'd get a lot of foaming over trying to bottle warm beer with that much carbonation, regardless of dispensing pressure. However it may work if you try something like this:

definitely get a piece of tubing like described above, and give it a shot on one or two bottles, using gravity feed from the keg. Do not dispense from a faucet directly into the bottle, stick the tubing in the faucet first and fill the bottle from the bottom. Chill the bottles first and the tubing and picnic faucet. Firstly sample the beer and make sure the 32psi gave you the carb you want. Should work!