We no need no stinking beer gun...

I just used this method but I dont have a picnic faucet so I just shoved a 1/2" OD hose into my chrome faucet. Worked fine except for a little leaking when the pressure built up in the bottle. It wasn't much ( about 4oz after filling a gallon) and just put a bucket under the curve in the hose to catch the drips.

TimBrewz said:

Just wanted to let you know that my first foray into using the BMBF was to enter the Slurp and Burp Open in Portland. I won a gold for one of my beers that was filled with the BMBF! Thank you!

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Gotta like it when results speak for themselves.

So I have now bottled with the BMBF:
1 growler to take to work.
2-22's to take to a friends house.
The rest of the batch in 12oz bottles to keep for later.
I have to say it was relatively easy. I'm not really set up to make it a breeze, but cut me a break it was my first time. If these end up coming out well, I'm giving up on my bottling bucket. This was easy, relatively fast (although I either need a bench capper or SWMBO to do this quickly), and I love that I had precise control on my carbonation. And that I got to sample a bit from the keg before/during/after bottling.

Thanks BM!

TerapinChef said:

So I have now bottled with the BMBF:
1 growler to take to work.
2-22's to take to a friends house.
The rest of the batch in 12oz bottles to keep for later.
I have to say it was relatively easy. I'm not really set up to make it a breeze, but cut me a break it was my first time. If these end up coming out well, I'm giving up on my bottling bucket. This was easy, relatively fast (although I either need a bench capper or SWMBO to do this quickly), and I love that I had precise control on my carbonation. And that I got to sample a bit from the keg before/during/after bottling.

Thanks BM!

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I used this to transfer all 5 gallons of Ed's famous Apfelwein from the keg after carbonation to a pile of bottles. Worked flawlessly.

TerapinChef said:

...This was easy, relatively fast (although I either need a bench capper or SWMBO to do this quickly)...

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Like most things we guys do with our left or right hand...a few more sessions and you'll have everything down to a nice fluid motion...and you won't need the SWMBO.








I'm talking about using the wing capper of course.... :cross:

BierMuncher said:

Like most things we guys do with our left or right hand...a few more sessions and you'll have everything down to a nice fluid motion...and you won't need the SWMBO.








I'm talking about using the wing capper of course.... :cross:

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True on that. I sit on a small roll around chair near my keg, have all the bottles on a bottle tree to my right (sanatized) with the caps in sanitizer in the bowl on top of the tree. I grab a bottle, fill it, remove wand, top it, place a cap on it to keep bacteria out and move it over to the left & sit it on the garage floor. When I'm done, I cap them all.

I was capping them as quickly as possible. I filled about 3 then capped them. Repeat. A lot. Is this not necessary?

TerapinChef said:

I was capping them as quickly as possible. I filled about 3 then capped them. Repeat. A lot. Is this not necessary?

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I can fit about 15 bottles in a standard bucket. I fill those all...then move them to the table...cap them all loosely and then begin crimping.

Unless you have a real contaminated environment, rushing to get a cap on each bottle once it is filled is not necessary.

Just to report in:
Filling all my bottles from Cornys this way.
Using 10psi filling pressure.
Each bottle is capped as soon as its filled.
I use a 1 gallon bucket upside down inside a 3 gallon bucket as a support stand - this catches the runnoff when I am filling (for 5 gallons I lose about 1-2 bottles worth of beer)
Have also done a sparkling wine into champagne bottles at 20psi filling pressure.
My beer lasts at least 4 months with no off oxygen flavour (regular caps) - I don't know how it does after 4 months since its all gone by then.

Has this been put into a wiki yet? I think it should be considered a standard technique!

Here Here. I couldn't agree with him more. We'll get those corny sales up yet...soon even the bottlers will be kegging. Anybody carb their beer outside of the fridge/keezer to do this? I know it takes a bit more, but I just keep running low on fridge space. Man I need somebody to help me drink about 4 cases of beer. Time for a party I guess...Good thing it's almost spring.

I haven't done it in the heat of summer but in the spring and fall I can get away with putting the corny into an ice bath in a cooler for about 12 hrs before bottlling - I do have a carbonation stone in the gas line though - so I avoid having to shake the keg. In the winter time its a no brainer just set the psi and leave it alone for a few days. Then bottle.

I bottled Champagne with this last week with 4.5 CO2 (25psi@35deg.) cut my pressure to 6psi and was foaming too much increased it to 10psi and it worked GREAT, 12 bottles of Champagne in the wine cellar!!

TerapinChef said:

Here Here. I couldn't agree with him more. We'll get those corny sales up yet...soon even the bottlers will be kegging. Anybody carb their beer outside of the fridge/keezer to do this? I know it takes a bit more, but I just keep running low on fridge space. Man I need somebody to help me drink about 4 cases of beer. Time for a party I guess...Good thing it's almost spring.

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I have keg conditioned warm with priming sugar just like you would for bottling, only I poured the sugar into my keg instead of the bucket, racked in beer, sealed and set aside.

It works fine, but takes 2-3 weeks like bottles do.

I just picked up my stopper and the racking cane at lunch today. The cane is about 2ft long and looks just the pic in the OP and has the curve at the top. Does it work ok if you keep the curve or do you need to cut the curve off and make it straight all the way. And
is the 2ft length ok.

thanks

I use a bottling wand with the valve removed and end cut at an angle. Either works fine.

i know about the 45 degree cut at the end,,I was talking about , does the racking cane part need to be straight or can it keep the the curve at the top that it came with and still work fine

thanks

joeunc said:

i know about the 45 degree cut at the end,,I was talking about , does the racking cane part need to be straight or can it keep the the curve at the top that it came with and still work fine

thanks

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I don't see how it could work with the curve. Probably better just to give it a cut.

Mine is curved and works just fine. What do you see as the issue Fly?

PS: If I'm to believe the pics in the original post it would look like BM's is as well.

Kilted Brewer said:

Mine is curved and works just fine. What do you see as the issue Fly?

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More form factor and comfort than anything else.

I'm going to give this a go too, love the innovation!

The part I'm not getting after reading all 34 pages so far is why not use a bottling wand rather than the siphon? Wouldn't that create less spillage? (But still use the rubber stopper of course to keep the foam at bay...)

fastricky said:

I'm going to give this a go too, love the innovation!

The part I'm not getting after reading all 34 pages so far is why not use a bottling wand rather than the siphon? Wouldn't that create less spillage? (But still use the rubber stopper of course to keep the foam at bay...)

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You could. IMO it would be overkill with the stopper and the wand. If you use the stopper correctly that beer stops flowing pretty quickly until you depress the stopper and release a little pressure.

Yes, but what I mean is leaving the picnic tap 'on' the whole time, and then when you go from bottle to bottle you're not spilling beer all over the place... no?

fastricky said:

Yes, but what I mean is leaving the picnic tap 'on' the whole time, and then when you go from bottle to bottle you're not spilling beer all over the place... no?

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Give it a whirl.

I'm wondering though if a bottling wand fits as perfectly into a picnic tap as racking cane.

BierMuncher said:

Give it a whirl.

I'm wondering though if a bottling wand fits as perfectly into a picnic tap as racking cane.

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Mine does. I actually cut the end off of my bottling wand to use it.

BierMuncher said:

Give it a whirl.

I'm wondering though if a bottling wand fits as perfectly into a picnic tap as racking cane.

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The bottling wand does fit just as good into the picnic tap. And here I was thinking I was a genious for thinking of that without you guy's help.

Thanks BM, I'm getting parts for a BMBF today. One question I couldn't answer after looking through 80% of the thread... a homebrew buddy (who has a Beer Gun I have borrowed) is convinced that there will be oxidation without purging the bottle with CO2 and has suggested that folks in this thread are not capable of tasting oxidation at those lower levels. Is there an explanation I can give him? It sounds like several posters have experience on bottle filler lines at microbreweries... do the microbreweries purge before filling? Is the initial exposure to oxygen at the bottom of the bottle going to bring oxidation into the beer. I'm a newby and he has brewed several hundred of batches over 15 years so I need some support.

ltbrewsit said:

Thanks BM, I'm getting parts for a BMBF today. One question I couldn't answer after looking through 80% of the thread... a homebrew buddy (who has a Beer Gun I have borrowed) is convinced that there will be oxidation without purging the bottle with CO2 and has suggested that folks in this thread are not capable of tasting oxidation at those lower levels. Is there an explanation I can give him? It sounds like several posters have experience on bottle filler lines at microbreweries... do the microbreweries purge before filling? Is the initial exposure to oxygen at the bottom of the bottle going to bring oxidation into the beer. I'm a newby and he has brewed several hundred of batches over 15 years so I need some support.

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I have beers that are in excess of 14 months old and they taste great.

Remember that by rocking the bottle just once and waiting for the beer to foam...the O2 is pushed out and then you cap on that CO2 foam.

Any O2 that may be resting in the bottle at the start of the fill is pushed out...plus...with the beer effervescing like it will, an immediate blanket of CO2 will work its way to the surface of the beer and create a barrier.

I'm not saying it can't happen if someone is sloppy, but I've never been dinged for oxygenation, nor ever tasted it in my aged bottles. Though it sounds like a good justification for dropping a $-hunskie on a shiny, fancy gadget.

Yeah, I thought it might be that he has a counterpressure filler and BeerGun in the cellar. Besides, like you said, there should be seriously little 02 contact since the cane goes to the bottom and the co2 would blanket the top of the beer as it rises.

ltbrewsit said:

Yeah, I thought it might be that he has a counterpressure filler and BeerGun in the cellar. Besides, like you said, there should be seriously little 02 contact since the cane goes to the bottom and the co2 would blanket the top of the beer as it rises.

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There is no way you are going to get enough O2 mixed with the beer just from filling a bottle. I doubt i could happen even if you were sloppy. You'd seriously have to shake it up to get the O2 mixed with the beer before capping in order to end up with oxidized beer.

There will be a VERY slight bit of contact with the air when you fill normally, but no more than filling bottles the normal way with a bottling bucket and priming sugar. In fact, much less, since you are then able to let the Co2 in the beer push the oxygen out of the headspace before capping. It's very nearly a fantasy to claim that you will get any noticeable oxidation by not purging first with CO2 IMO.

I just used my BMBF 2 days ago and loved it. So cheap, so easy, and so effective. It's an awesum device! :rockin:

I just used mine again last night, this time with 2 epoxy mixers tubes inserted in the 3 feet of 3/16" tubing. It worked even better this go around.

You still need to sanitize the bottles with this method
right??

JesseRC said:

I just used mine again last night, this time with 2 epoxy mixers tubes inserted in the 3 feet of 3/16" tubing. It worked even better this go around.

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Can you explain in greater detail?

bgough said:

You still need to sanitize the bottles with this method
right??

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That is correct.

Yambor44 said:

Can you explain in greater detail?

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Well so that I dont have to bring the pressure down real low, I inserted these bayonet epoxy mixers into the 3/16" line. The purpose is to reduce pressure and prevent foaming. I got the idea from this thread below. the guy was inserting them into the keg dip tube, but some folks have inserted them into their pouring line. So at 10 psi and 2ft of line I have a very nice controlled pour with 2 of thes bayonets inserted. I originally made this little picnic tap for use when I take my keg to parties , but it works really nice for this DIY beer gun.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/cure-your-short-hose-troubles-100151/

Ok I wish I had enough time to read this entire post but sadly I don't. Can you use a 20 oz bottle and the new racking cane to fill and pressureize with a carb cap? I know light is evil but if kept in the dark would that help just carb it a bit more then swap the cap for the real lid and repeat?

bobjohnson77 said:

Ok I wish I had enough time to read this entire post but sadly I don't. Can you use a 20 oz bottle and the new racking cane to fill and pressureize with a carb cap? I know light is evil but if kept in the dark would that help just carb it a bit more then swap the cap for the real lid and repeat?

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are you talking about a 20 oz pet soda bottle and a carbonator cap. If so , yes. If not WTF u talkn bout?

Exactly! That is good news that was my plan for the pool, parties, pulling the last few pints out to empty the keg for the next masterpiece. Would they need to stay cold then? This may take some testing. Oh how I hate to test drinking beer.:rockin:

they dont need stay cool, just out of light.

Has anyone else tried this without the stopper? I was bottling the other day and I didn't get much foam at all when bottling most of the beers as long as I dropped the pressure fairly low. The pale ale foamed more than the others but still not a crazy amount.

I'm just thinking it is similar to when I pour into my glass. If i leave the glass tilted then I don't get much head at all, same thing by filling with a piece of racking cane, very little disturbance to knock Co2 out of solution.

BierMuncher said:

Give it a whirl.

I'm wondering though if a bottling wand fits as perfectly into a picnic tap as racking cane.

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bgough said:

You still need to sanitize the bottles with this method
right??

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Yambor44 said:

Can you explain in greater detail?

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unless you're just filling a 6'er to take to a buddy's. This is what mine generally get's used for. make sure the bottles are clean, but I don't sanitize them. I'll be drinking them that night.
Now when I bottle some for a swap coming up of BM's Black Pepper Wit (Or at least that's what I'm calling it), I'll sanitize them.