Getto Beer Gun??

Suggestions please. I've seen folks use their party tap with a piece of acrylic plastic tube.. like the kind used for bottling.. to fill a growler or bottles. I don't have a tube that fits tightly inside the party tap so I used a piece of vinyl tubing as a connector between the tap and the plastic filler tube.

Well, following what I thought was right, I filled the first part into a glass to get rid of the foam.. but, after that it all foamed. It was like a venturi .. in a carburetor where the gas expands. It was nothing but brew with minute bubbles flowing into the bottles.. ending up with about 3/4 of a bottle and the rest foam..

For those of you who have tried this.. how do you do it?

What pressure do you set the regulator at? My kegs are at about 45*. Do you burp and set at a lower temp or ?? Oh, my beer is at about 14 PSI in the keg. I have a Carbonator which says I should use 20-30 PSI for optimum results.

Don't want just foam.... Thanks for any help.. cuz I don't really want to make Blickman any richer if I can get away with it....

Everything you need to know: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/we-no-need-no-stinking-beer-gun-24678/. Racking canes are cheap or drill a stopper to fit your tubing.

I use BM's beergun alternative workaround above. Works great for me provided I do two things.

1) Set the regulator to no more than 2psi, you want just enough pressure to push beer through the lines, we're assuming it's already carb'd beer.
2) vent the keg prior to filling.

I do it at filling temps, and have a spare threaded ball lock liquid post that I attach to a 5' hose going to the picnic tap. When I want to fill bottles I just unhook the current beer lines, attach that one, set the psi down and vent the keg and go. I leave the keg in the fridge and just gently shut the door on the line.

i use the picnic tap and bottling wand method discussed above. when i first started doing it, i was only able to get 3/4 of a beer bottle full. now i can get nearly 100% of it full...although i aim for around 90%.

here are some tips that i find helpful:

-make sure your bottles you intend to fill are very cold. as i'm sure you already know, CO2 will escape your beer if you poor it into a room temperature bottle.

-i burp my keg from its serving PSI down to 0 PSI...and then back up to ~2 PSI to fill the bottles. i find that any PSI between 1 and 5 is effective when filling bottles this way.

-in the link above, BierMuncher explains how the bottles should be tilted and swirled at the end of filling a bottle before capping in order to purge it of oxygen. although this method works, i don't find it necessary. i'll fill a bottle up all the way to the top, remove my bottling wand, and then top it off with some foam. then i will cap onto the foam. i find this way to be nearly 100% effective in removing oxygen from your beer bottle, and i've never had a problem with oxidation.

-make sure your rubber stopper makes a tight seal with your beer bottle. the idea behind this method is that the pressure that builds up inside your beer bottle pushes the foam down and prevents CO2 from escaping your beer. when you begin filling up your beer bottle with your rubber stopper secure, do not begin wiggling it until beer STOPS coming out of your tap. this indicates the pressure of your keg and bottle have met an equilibrium, and at this point, you should begin to slowly let air out of the bottle. the slower the fill, the less foam you will have.

here's a video that i found very helpful:



again, this method takes a little practice, and after filling a six pack of bottles, i'm sure you'll get the hang of it.

i use this method all the time with GREAT results. this is a great way to bottle beers as it does not leave that nasty, yeasty sediment behind.

FYI BM stated later in the thread he no longer worries about freezing/super chilling the bottles, but does mention filling them wet really helps.

I do the same, sani the bottles then have a pitcher full of sanitizer, I dunk the bottles to give them a last minute wash in sanitizer, then fill and have zero problems with foam.

I've just been filling straight from my taps. I turn my regulator to about 2psi, purge the keg, the go. It takes about 3 minutes/bottle, and a few foam a little. I just cap on the foam and haven't had any trouble with carbonation after everything settles, even a few weeks later.

Jukas said:

FYI BM stated later in the thread he no longer worries about freezing/super chilling the bottles, but does mention filling them wet really helps.

I do the same, sani the bottles then have a pitcher full of sanitizer, I dunk the bottles to give them a last minute wash in sanitizer, then fill and have zero problems with foam.

Click to expand...

Has anyone tried using cold sanitizer with room temperature bottles? Looks like you could sanitize the bottle, chill it, and wet it all in one operation.

DeafSmith said:

Has anyone tried using cold sanitizer with room temperature bottles? Looks like you could sanitize the bottle, chill it, and wet it all in one operation.

Click to expand...

That sounds like a great idea to kill 2 birds with one stone, and you only need to find space in the fridge for one jug of sanitizer too.

I use BM's stopper on a plastic tube concept, but I go straight from my perlick tap rather than a picnic tap. To get a good seal in the tap, I use a Bowie bottling adapter (search the forums). Though the tubing that you usually use for racking fits into the Perlicks just fine much like it does the cobra taps, I decided to spend the money on something a little cleaner.
Using that method, I usually don't get any foam as long as I'm slow about the process and burp the air slow. I'm also usually too lazy to drop the pressure on my kegs and for the most part don't have a problem with it, other than the occasional filling of a bottle too much and getting a high pressure shot of beer in my eye when I go to burp the last bit (everyone needs a beer shower on occasion!).

bcgpete said:

I've just been filling straight from my taps. I turn my regulator to about 2psi, purge the keg, the go. It takes about 3 minutes/bottle, and a few foam a little. I just cap on the foam and haven't had any trouble with carbonation after everything settles, even a few weeks later.

Click to expand...

3 minutes per bottle?

Is that a typo - or do you have an extraordinary amount of patience and dedication?

Cheers!

I do them out of my regular faucets, just turn the pressure down. I do mine at 4 psi, I could do less but I am inpatient.