We no need no stinking beer gun...

I just wanted to chime in and say thanks! There is a home brew comp coming up in about 20 days and I just bottled my entry from the keg using this method. Really was pretty easy Any ideas on how to clean the picnic tap easily after you remove it?

Thanks again!

cvstrat said:

I just wanted to chime in and say thanks! There is a home brew comp coming up in about 20 days and I just bottled my entry from the keg using this method. Really was pretty easy Any ideas on how to clean the picnic tap easily after you remove it?

Thanks again!

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I usually just lock the tap open, drop it into a sink of sanitizing solution, give a healthy suck and let it sink to the bottom of the sink for a while.

I tried using the racking cane into spout method. my cane felt loose in teh spout so I swapped in a piece of tubing that felt snug. Well I got my two bottles filled but beer was slowly running out around the outside of the tubing as well. I went with it cause I was only filling two bottles for a coworker to try. Regardless of the fill, the comment I got about it today, It was awesome, You definitely know what you're doing!". I though. SWEET. Thanks for making me look good BM. It was your Black pepper Wit recipe.

IrregularPulse said:

...Regardless of the fill, the comment I got about it today, "It was awesome, You definitely know what you're doing!". I thought - SWEET. Thanks for making me look good BM. It was your Black pepper Wit recipe.

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Happy to oblige.

IrregularPulse said:

I tried using the racking cane into spout method. my cane felt loose in teh spout so I swapped in a piece of tubing that felt snug. Well I got my two bottles filled but beer was slowly running out around the outside of the tubing as well. I went with it cause I was only filling two bottles for a coworker to try. Regardless of the fill, the comment I got about it today, It was awesome, You definitely know what you're doing!". I though. SWEET. Thanks for making me look good BM. It was your Black pepper Wit recipe.

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The power of free beer is amazing.

I was told the other day to put a plastic stir stick inbetween the stopper and the bottle and use your thumb to release the co2. Just thought to share!

Ok. I just bottled a case of special bitter with the BMBF. I really like it! It took a little getting used to, but it worked great. However, try as I might, I could not get foam to the top of the bottle after removing the wand. I saw in the posts that it is important to "cap on foam". Looking back at Bobby M's vide he said to "loosely cap" after removing the wand to allow C02 to evacuate the remaining head space. Ain' t that the same thing? I think I have about 2 volumes on this beer in the keg. I want it kind of low carbonation anyway, to go with the style. But I don't want it to go flat. Am I worrying too much?

tundra05 said:

Ok. I just bottled a case of special bitter with the BMBF. I really like it! It took a little getting used to, but it worked great. However, try as I might, I could not get foam to the top of the bottle after removing the wand. I saw in the posts that it is important to "cap on foam". Looking back at Bobby M's vide he said to "loosely cap" after removing the wand to allow C02 to evacuate the remaining head space. Ain' t that the same thing? I think I have about 2 volumes on this beer in the keg. I want it kind of low carbonation anyway, to go with the style. But I don't want it to go flat. Am I worrying too much?

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You'll be fine. The reason for capping on foam is that foam is CO2 and where there is foam...there is no oxygen which can cause beer to go stale faster.

I generally will place a cap on the bottle, give it a quick sideways tip (holding the cap in place with my finger of course) and when the beer begins to foam up to the cap....then crimp it.

Jeesh, I feel stupid. I forgot to place the cap on when I tilted the bottles. Just couldn't get any foam to come to the top, Duh! Anyway thanks for the reply. The BMBF is one great idea you had!

i didn't read this whole shebang. but my method is similar.. bottles same temp as beer. a plastic bottling wand fits in the cobra tap nicely. i fill at about 2 psi. i have yet to have one last more than 2 weeks and had no problems.

Just one more person chiming in that this works great. I've filled both a 12oz bottle and a 2L pop bottle without even bothering to bleed off keg pressure first (~12psi). As long as I keep the pressure up the beer doesn't foam up at all while filling. Props!

DavidP said:

Just one more person chiming in that this works great. I've filled both a 12oz bottle and a 2L pop bottle without even bothering to bleed off keg pressure first (~12psi). As long as I keep the pressure up the beer doesn't foam up at all while filling. Props!

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You might want to watch out if you don't release the pressure. I'm not sure which model you're using. If it's the Poor Man's CPBF, I've had mine shoot right out of the bottle and hit me in the face while I'm filling. It doesn't feel too great.

Just using the simple stopper+cane filler. For the very last part of the fill I wasn't keeping the stopped pressed on for this very reason! I did a short squirt from the cane and then let the remaining beer in the cane drain in, and then I capped & repressurized the pop bottle.

DavidP said:

Just using the simple stopper+cane filler. For the very last part of the fill I wasn't keeping the stopped pressed on for this very reason! I did a short squirt from the cane and then let the remaining beer in the cane drain in, and then I capped & repressurized the pop bottle.

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+1 works perfect this way. I don't even know why I put the stopper on anymore but I do. "Just in case" I guess.

Does anyone know what size rubber stopper a standard grolsch bottle uses, is it still size 2? If so what the heck do you use size 3 for?

underwaterdan said:

Does anyone know what size rubber stopper a standard grolsch bottle uses, is it still size 2? If so what the heck do you use size 3 for?

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I believe that's the one I use for 1 and 2 liter plastic soda bottles. Great for when you can't bring glass to an event.

Or *ahem* when you want to bring it to work so it looks like Diet Coke

-Joe

I just filled a Grolsch with the same #2 that I filled a dozen 12 ouncers...

What's the word on refridgeration after filling? Is it cool to let the bottles return to room temperature?

Spyd3r said:

I just filled a Grolsch with the same #2 that I filled a dozen 12 ouncers...

What's the word on refridgeration after filling? Is it cool to let the bottles return to room temperature?

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My opinion on this subject is not scientific at all...it's purely experience based.

I think it's wrong to let a beer warm up at any point and then re-cool it. I learned this before I even began homebrewing. If I went to the store and bought a 12 pack, then didn't finish it, I would set it aside and finish it at a later time. It would get warm, I would re-cool it, and it tasted horrible.

I concider it beer abuse, and it's why I don't buy beer cold unless I plan to drink it that night or have spare room in the fridge. Once it's cold, it needs to stay cold.

Suthrncomfrt1884 said:

My opinion on this subject is not scientific at all...it's purely experience based.

I think it's wrong to let a beer warm up at any point and then re-cool it. I learned this before I even began homebrewing. If I went to the store and bought a 12 pack, then didn't finish it, I would set it aside and finish it at a later time. It would get warm, I would re-cool it, and it tasted horrible.

I concider it beer abuse, and it's why I don't buy beer cold unless I plan to drink it that night or have spare room in the fridge. Once it's cold, it needs to stay cold.

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The only problem that I see with this is if we bottle from a chilled keg, then how do we share them? lol

I'm doing a beer swap with some guys from work...I bottled mine from the keg. Surely, they'll get warm merely from travel to work, hand-off, wait time, and then travel to final destination.

I didn't think that off-flavors would occur, but that the change in temperature would impact carbonation levels...has there been any experiences with this?

the lousier the beer: like bud light.. and the more drastic temp fluctuations equals logarithmicly crappier beer.

Spyd3r said:

The only problem that I see with this is if we bottle from a chilled keg, then how do we share them? lol

I'm doing a beer swap with some guys from work...I bottled mine from the keg. Surely, they'll get warm merely from travel to work, hand-off, wait time, and then travel to final destination.

I didn't think that off-flavors would occur, but that the change in temperature would impact carbonation levels...has there been any experiences with this?

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If you bottled it correctly, then the bottle should have the same carbonation as the keg (maybe a little less) regardless of temps.

I'm not saying beer loses all of its quality from temp changes, it's just been my experience. As mordantly stated, better quality beer tends to not show the damage from temp changes as much....unless you keep doing it.

For anyone wondering about long-term storage with this method, I just cracked open a bottle of last year's Oktoberfest lager with a date of 10/08 on the cap. I bottled it right from the chilled keg and sat it on the shelf at room temp. It was re-chilled a few weeks ago. It was exactly as I remember it a year ago - carbonation was great and no off flavors.

Also if you haven't seen it, here's a thread discussing an adapter to bottle right off Perlick faucets that works on the same principle of the BMBF.

-Joe

Suthrncomfrt1884 - Thanks for posting real live pics of the MS Paint drawing from the first page! Using your pics as a reference, I did this:



I swapped out my regulator's barbed valves for 1/4" MFL ones... So I can disconnect the gas from my opposite keg to use with the gun.





So I used a #3 stopper for 12s and 22s... But I also had a growler stopper handy. Since the valves and air needles came in 2-packs, I made a growler filler as well. I figure that can't hurt to have, although I'm sure I'll be too lazy to set it up just to fill a growler.

i dont understand how the schaders fit in

BobbyM



Just watched the video - you answered my question abt how I am going to transport some Thanksgiving Ale down to Philly ..want to share beer, but not flat beer ! Growlers wouldn't do it.. VERY clearly demonstrated, and should be no plm. Now I can start thinking about fancy labels. Glad I still have some bottles left over from the "Old days"

For what it's worth, I found this page earlier in the year and have been using this technique all year long to pull bottles from keg for sharing and for competition. I had a quite successful competition year with positive comments about the quality of carbonation virtually every time on my scoresheets.

The only semi-negative comments I had were when I ended up with slight overfills which is easier to do with this technique than with a Beer Gun (haven't tried a RPBF) because of the extra squirt of beer you put on top before tilting to help vent the remaining air. Regardless, it was always just a comment, never anything that seemed to really work against my scores.

I have a friend with a Beer Gun and I feel that this technique easily gives as high quality a bottled product as the commercial alternative and it's MUCH easier to set up and use. Oh, and for ~$2, it's MUCH cheaper, too!

Great idea, BierMuncher!!!

Now let's see someone work up a design to fill a dozen bottles at one time!

I must say that my LHBS guy was a real a$$munch when I went in to get the materials to construct this beauty. I told him I wanted 7ft of beerline, and he asked, "What for?" I said it was for bottling homebrew, and he told me that I needed 5 feet.

I told him that it was for a homemade beer gun, and he rattled off some numbers, saying, "So this guy says that you're gonna push 5psi through 7 feet of line at blah blah blah..." I said yep, and that dozens of people had built it exactly the same way, and that it reportedly worked great.

Finally, I asked, "Are you going to sell me what I want, or am I gonna have to go elsewhere?" The guy responded, "Well, the guy who gave you the instructions is an idiot, but I'll sell it to you."

For the record, I built it exactly as instructed, and it worked great (excepting that I actually needed a drilled #3 for the larger PET bottles). Thanks, BM, for being a Biermunch, and not as I said, an a$$munch like the guy at my LHBS.

StAnthonyB said:

Now let's see someone work up a design to fill a dozen bottles at one time!

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Now there would be an interesting design!


Something I haven't seen mentioned..and yes I read the whole 43 pages today. What about having a small second hole in the stopper for pressure relief instead of tweaking the stopper around to release pressure? Put a small hole thru it and cover/uncover with your thumb to control the pressure flow. Maybe use the same hole that would be used by the tire plug?

For what it's worth, I don't have to "burp" the stopper with my finger anymore. I just position the stopper so that it *just* covers the mouth of the bottle and move the bottom of the wand into the side of the bottle. This puts the stopper at a slight angle and leaves a tiny bit of room for it to vent itself. Of course, there's CO2 coming out constantly, and I'm not having to touch the stopper with my potentially dirty finger. Works great for me and goes VERY quickly filling bottles!

pendragon said:

Now there would be an interesting design!


Something I haven't seen mentioned..and yes I read the whole 43 pages today. What about having a small second hole in the stopper for pressure relief instead of tweaking the stopper around to release pressure? Put a small hole thru it and cover/uncover with your thumb to control the pressure flow. Maybe use the same hole that would be used by the tire plug?

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That's pretty much what the tire valve is for. With mine, I just fill the bottle with co2, disconnect the chuck, fill with beer, and as I'm filling I press in the pin on the valve to release co2.

SCWells72 said:

For what it's worth, I don't have to "burp" the stopper with my finger anymore. I just position the stopper so that it *just* covers the mouth of the bottle and move the bottom of the wand into the side of the bottle. This puts the stopper at a slight angle and leaves a tiny bit of room for it to vent itself. Of course, there's CO2 coming out constantly, and I'm not having to touch the stopper with my potentially dirty finger. Works great for me and goes VERY quickly filling bottles!

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How has the carbonation been in your bottles? I thought the whole point of slowly burping was to keep a certain amount of pressure in the bottle so CO2 doesn't break out of solution. In my experience, I get nothing but foam or flat beer by allowing it the stopper to continually vent. I've only been successful by slowly filling and keeping pressure in the bottle.

sea2summit3 said:

I've only been successful by slowly filling and keeping pressure in the bottle.

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Right. Slow fills with lowered PSI on your regulator. Back pressure using the stopper. Purging the lines of any accumulated CO2 bubbles that would cause foaming.

This is a Cream of Three Crops that was around 7 months in the bottle.

nice out! and fine level of carbonation to boot.

Totally classy, BM!

Nice BM, but I think someone needs a new bottle opener!

Oh that was beautiful!

sea2summit3 said:

How has the carbonation been in your bottles? I thought the whole point of slowly burping was to keep a certain amount of pressure in the bottle so CO2 doesn't break out of solution. In my experience, I get nothing but foam or flat beer by allowing it the stopper to continually vent. I've only been successful by slowly filling and keeping pressure in the bottle.

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I cracked open an IPA that I bottled from keg ~5 months ago over the weekend and the carbonation was perfect on it. I've also sent bottles pulled from keg in this manner into competition and gotten consistently high marks for carbonation. The stopper is still very much in place and throttling pressure release the way I'm doing it. The pressure isn't escaping much (any?) faster then when I used to burp it with my thumb as far as I can tell. So far it's working really well for me, at least!

BierMuncher said:

Right. Slow fills with lowered PSI on your regulator. Back pressure using the stopper. Purging the lines of any accumulated CO2 bubbles that would cause foaming.

This is a Cream of Three Crops that was around 7 months in the bottle.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezCU0_ODvfQ

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Yeah, now that I've go the technique down, its a great way to fill!

diatonic said:

The only downside really is that it is a little messy. I might try to shorten the piece of racking cane I use. It tends to drain a bit between bottles. It is much simpler than using a counter-pressure filler though.

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Not sure if anyone has mentioned this yet... you can keep the racking cane from draining between fills by submerging the tip. You'll need a heavy/stable container (to prevent tipping from the weight of the beer gun). I used a 1 liter glass mug I got at a beer festival, and put a couple inches of Starsan solution in the bottom. If you transfer the cane fast enough, only a little beer drains out!