Keg to growler?

So I am going to my first brew club meeting tonight, and would like to take some tap beer for sampling, but I dont have a CP bottle filler. Would the beer be alright if I just went from tap into a cold growler, sealed it, and drank it within an hour or so? Can I go right into a bottle and cap it?

Yeah, it will be fine for a couple hours. Just turn the dispensing pressure down really low to cut down on foaming

If you attach a hose to the faucet and run that to the bottom of the growler it will foam less as well. You can also chill down the growler in the refrigerator in order to reduce foam.

With the hose I can fill the growler without lowering serving pressure. Without the house, I'd lower the pressure down as much as possible

What size hose fits over a faucet? say a Perlick? This would be easier than getting the BMBF out if I just wanted to fill a growler instead of several bottles.

I took a pitcher (glass) over to the neighbors last night. I just chilled the pitcher for an hour or so first, poured slow and it worked out well (carb/foam wise). Now carrying it over there was a different story.

IrregularPulse said:

What size hose fits over a faucet? say a Perlick? This would be easier than getting the BMBF out if I just wanted to fill a growler instead of several bottles.

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FYI, the straight side of a racking cane fits into the Perlick opening perfectly! I just off the curved portion, and now I use it to fill bottles/growlers with no mess at all.

awesome. so you can use the BMBF but from the tap instead of opening the fridge and attaching a picnic tap? I'll have to try this.

Taking that much beer tonight is...well a lot!

IrregularPulse said:

awesome. so you can use the BMBF but from the tap instead of opening the fridge and attaching a picnic tap? I'll have to try this.

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Yeah, I did that yesterday. I used a piece of tubing along with the broken racking cane, and a stopper just like the BMBF except jammed into the Perlick instead of the picnic tap.

I think for competitions, I'll still use the BMBF with the picnic tap just because I did get a few air bubbles- probably from the longer line at a lower dispensing pressure. But for drinking in a few days, that worked great!

briewer2 said:

So I am going to my first brew club meeting tonight, and would like to take some tap beer for sampling, but I dont have a CP bottle filler. Would the beer be alright if I just went from tap into a cold growler, sealed it, and drank it within an hour or so? Can I go right into a bottle and cap it?

Click to expand...

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

Bumpity bump. I was just exercising the search button and must have learned mymethod somewhere else. To me a growler is a capped jug to be filled with beer that is going to be drunk tonight. I also sanitize with bleach, so you may need to adjust your process from mine.

Anyway, I get the word at say 1600, party at Yvette's house tonight at seven. What do you have on tap? This and that. Can you bring some that? Sure.

So T-30 minutes from departure I pull from my freezer an already sanitized growler.

Turn on the cold water inthe kitchen sink and rinse 3x. With bleach I soak the glass for about ten minutes in 10% bleach, air dry a few minutes and wipe the outside dry with a blach laden towel. Rinsing right before use (according to Uncle Charlie anyway) briefly reactivates the bleach. I haven't been burned yet.

Now that the bleach is down teh drain, plug the drain and let the sink start to fill with really cold water. Cap the growler while waiting, a couple trays of not sanitized ice cubed go in the sink.

The physics here is CO2 stays in suspension when the beer gets colder, comes out of suspension (foams) when the beer gets warrmer.

I use a picnic tap on my main serving keg in the fridge, fit a wand into the end of the tap.

Do not fool around with turing off the CO2 or venting the keg or any of that stuff. Just stick a wand in the tap so you are filling from the bottom and keep that fresh from the freezer growler mostly submerged in the ice water bath.

When the growler is as full as you want it cap and then dunk to rinse any waste/ stickiness off the outside of the bottle.

I tend to leave the growler(s) in the ice water bath until T-zero.

Wipe dry, wrap in towel, bring to party.

I use blank business cards, a sharpie, a hole punch and a wire tie for my growler labels.

Works good.

I now keep sanitized bottles in the freezer, ready to fill at a moments notice. Should put a growler or two in there too I think. Just dip in starsan and let drip on dishwasher rack a couple of minutes, then place a bit of tin foil on top and stick in the freezer.

The very cold bottles will limit foaming.

Also note, if you want to keep the carbonation, you shouldn't half fill a growler. Always fill all the way to the top and cap it. If you want to bring less, get a smaller container.

Don't really see the need for sanitizing let a lone bleaching when you're only talking couple hours. Just rinse with cold water and fill. I'm going to try the racking cane in the faucet next time. Thanks yoop

Ummmmmmm...
Should I also be sanitizing my beer glasses before pouring?







Just kidding- sorry to be a smart ass.

I don't sanitize my growlers, just like they don't sanitize them when I buy them full. I mean, they're clean. You just grab a clean one, fill with a piece of tubing to reduce foaming, and pop the lid on. Just like at the brewpub. It takes all of 3 minutes.

It's nice if they're cold to reduce foaming, but not necessary. I have the piece of tubing right next to my kegerator, with the other supplies, and just fill as needed. I also fill Grolsch bottles as needed without sanitizing, since they are going to be drunk right away, or in the fridge until they're consume. Usually, for a weekend jaunt to the cottage, I take a couple of growlers and a few Grolsch bottles since I only have one keg out there. I don't sanitize any of them, but I do store the beer in the fridge until I drink them.

For actually storing beer bottled from the keg, sanitizing and doing it "right" is imperative.

And, uh, don't ask how I know this, but if you've lost the cap to your growler, black or green McCormick spice lids will fit, if the goal is just to get the growler through the car ride without spilling.

Yeah, I know, "go buy some growler lids, cheap-@ss!"