Filling up bottles for competitions from draft...

I have all my beer in kegs now -- I've never filled up bottles for a competition before.

Do I really need to get a counterflow filler? I was just thinking about pouring the beers in the bottles the morning I was going to drop them off. The beers will be judged one week later.

Thoughts?

XXguy said:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/we-no-need-no-stinking-beer-gun-24678/

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Is that even necessary for a bottle that will be consumed in a week?

Does Oxydation really kick in that quickly?

may not be absolutely neccessary, but it's less than 10 bucks to make and less than 10 minutes to fill a few bottles.

Is it really worth risking for a competition?

Without one, it'll take about 3 pulls between ewaiting for the foam to settle and your beer will off gas to the point of fail due to the loss of carbonation.

yep, definitely foamage and flatness with out it.

GilaMinumBeer said:

Without one, it'll take about 3 pulls between ewaiting for the foam to settle and your beer will off gas to the point of fail due to the loss of carbonation.

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Not necessarily. Just lower the PSI on the tank, bleed the keg, and then fill slowly. If the bottle was frozen you should get little to no foam.

schristian619 said:

may not be absolutely neccessary, but it's less than 10 bucks to make and less than 10 minutes to fill a few bottles.

Is it really worth risking for a competition?

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Less than $5! (assuming you already have a picnic tap)

Around $3 for the racking cane, $.75 for the #2 stopper.

XXguy said:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/we-no-need-no-stinking-beer-gun-24678/

Click to expand...

Thing is cheap, easy to use, and kicks arse...... No brainer. If your competing don't you want to send your best effort?

Hammy71 said:

Thing is cheap, easy to use, and kicks arse...... No brainer. If your competing don't you want to send your best effort?

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QFT. If you're sending in for competition, why not spend the 3-5 bucks to ensure it is good.

IrregularPulse said:

QFT. If you're sending in for competition, why not spend the 3-5 bucks to ensure it is good.

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+1 to that, if you're entering your beer in a competition you don't wanna cut corners because of laziness or cheapness....whether or not oxydation occurs so quick, why risk messing your beer up (carbonation or infection, or anything) if it's going to be critiqued?

If for whatever reason you don't wanna make a biergun, then at least get a length of hose that can fit over your tap, and carefully fill from the bottom of the bottle to the top....that way you will be voiding any o2 up out of the bottle as the beer fills, and you will be doing it gently, rather than letting the beer fall into the bottle.....

Seriously, this if for judging, just do it right.

Good luck.

Filling bottles from a faucet carries a very high risk of contamination unless everything is thoroughly cleaned and sanitized.

It will take you more time to remove, disassemble, sanitize, reassemble and reinstall your faucets.

Once you have the $10 worth of materials assembled, filling a twelve pack will take about 15 minutes from start to clean up.

...and the bottles will be competition ready and suitable for long term storage...

Carbonation will be perfect. This was a 5-month old bottle of haus pale.

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sgpQt1emCaY]YouTube - Bottled From Keg Using the BMBF[/ame]

Use the BMBF and remember to cap on foam to prevent any chance of oxidation.

It's super easy!