We no need no stinking beer gun...

Anyone ever try adding one of those Coopers carbonation tablets to the bottle before capping it?

Hi, I need help.

Every time I fill a growler from a keg it loses carbonation extremely fast, I've tried different things (including bottles) and nothing seems to work.
These are the steps I follow so maybe you guys can give me some light.

1.Clean and sanitized growler goes into the freezer until cold.
2.Drop keg CO2 to 3ish PSI and purge keg
3.Put the beer line inside the growler (we've done it with the spigot too)
4.Fill until foam is out of the bottle.
5.Lock growler.

Keg haves been priming at 45F with 12 PSI for 2 weeks.

We did this last night and try the beer in less than an hour and it was already losing carbonation, it wasn't flat but it wasn't fully carbed as the sample we took earlier from the keg. (the beer is correctly carbed)

This has happened with growler, ceramic bottles like Rogue, we did one with a warm bottle too. We don't really know what we're doing wrong.

I've been reading this entire post and I seems like a lot of people is doing the same thing with good results, so I've been thinking up upping the CO2 leves?

julypena said:

Hi, I need help.

Every time I fill a growler from a keg it loses carbonation extremely fast, I've tried different things (including bottles) and nothing seems to work.
These are the steps I follow so maybe you guys can give me some light.

1.Clean and sanitized growler goes into the freezer until cold.
2.Drop keg CO2 to 3ish PSI and purge keg
3.Put the beer line inside the growler (we've done it with the spigot too)
4.Fill until foam is out of the bottle.
5.Lock growler.

Keg haves been priming at 45F with 12 PSI for 2 weeks.

We did this last night and try the beer in less than an hour and it was already losing carbonation, it wasn't flat but it wasn't fully carbed as the sample we took earlier from the keg. (the beer is correctly carbed)

This has happened with growler, ceramic bottles like Rogue, we did one with a warm bottle too. We don't really know what we're doing wrong.

I've been reading this entire post and I seems like a lot of people is doing the same thing with good results, so I've been thinking up upping the CO2 leves?

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I am guessing a bad seal on the growler. Have you tried using a traditional cap on a regular bottle to see if you get the same results? Also, use some star san to see if you have a leak on the top you are using now.

chemman14 said:

I am guessing a bad seal on the growler. Have you tried using a traditional cap on a regular bottle to see if you get the same results? Also, use some star san to see if you have a leak on the top you are using now.

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The growler we used was used by another person and kept carbonation, BUT, I have another one what I'm gonna do is try that one instead.

julypena said:

Hi, I need help.

Every time I fill a growler from a keg it loses carbonation extremely fast, I've tried different things (including bottles) and nothing seems to work.
These are the steps I follow so maybe you guys can give me some light.

1.Clean and sanitized growler goes into the freezer until cold.
2.Drop keg CO2 to 3ish PSI and purge keg
3.Put the beer line inside the growler (we've done it with the spigot too)
4.Fill until foam is out of the bottle.
5.Lock growler.

Keg haves been priming at 45F with 12 PSI for 2 weeks.

We did this last night and try the beer in less than an hour and it was already losing carbonation, it wasn't flat but it wasn't fully carbed as the sample we took earlier from the keg. (the beer is correctly carbed)

This has happened with growler, ceramic bottles like Rogue, we did one with a warm bottle too. We don't really know what we're doing wrong.

I've been reading this entire post and I seems like a lot of people is doing the same thing with good results, so I've been thinking up upping the CO2 leves?

Click to expand...

Your container is the obvious item in question. after that I would increase your carb to 14 or 15psi and/or drop temp.

Is this an ale? per the force carb chart http://www.kegerators.com/carbonation-table.php 45F at 12PSI is the very min volumes of CO2 for lagers and ales. if your temp is perfect and not a bit warmer and your PSI is exact and not a bit lower your beer would be on the low end to begin with. if both are off a bit in the wrong way then you could be at 2.00 volumes instead of 2.5 that would be preferable.

BeervanaPDX said:

Your container is the obvious item in question. after that I would increase your carb to 14 or 15psi and/or drop temp.

Is this an ale? per the force carb chart http://www.kegerators.com/carbonation-table.php 45F at 12PSI is the very min volumes of CO2 for lagers and ales. if your temp is perfect and not a bit warmer and your PSI is exact and not a bit lower your beer would be on the low end to begin with. if both are off a bit in the wrong way then you could be at 2.00 volumes instead of 2.5 that would be preferable.

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It's an IPA we're carbing for 2.3 co2 volumes (according to the table 45F at 12.5 psi)

I'm going to up that up to 15 psi for a couple of days since I have to bottle a couple of growlers on friday, expecting the beer to carb to 2.5 co2 volumes.

are you plugging the top of the growler while filling to keep all the co2 in solution while filling and capping right away?

I just picked up some drilled stoppers last night to try this. I have a few beers ready for kegs, and no empty kegs to put them in, so I'm bottling off what's left. I filled some 1L flip-top bottles last night and I also bought a stopper sized for a standard growler as well. It took a few bottles to get the hang of it, but way better than just using a hose into the bottom of the bottle, and much less waste.

i should have read this an hour ago, i thaught was growler filler that this used and just ordered one, and i already had all parts for this except some hose, even have spare liquid ball lock

I entered two beers into a recent competition, an American barleywine and an imperial stout, both bottled off a keg using this method within minutes of each other. The stout scored a 40, and one judge noted a "slightly vinous" character in the overall impression, but thoroughly enjoyed the beer. The barleywine scored a 24, and the comments included sherry, vinegar, and papery, none of which are found in a fresh pull.

I've used this method a few other times with no ill effects, but the beers weren't overly hoppy. So, are hoppy beers less stable using this method? Could the bottle they sampled maybe have been contaminated in some way? Has anyone else had oxidation issues lately? Just differences in judge perception?

Basically, I want consistency when bottling, and I HATE using my CPBF.

This Is great thanks

eulipion2 said:

I entered two beers into a recent competition, an American barleywine and an imperial stout, both bottled off a keg using this method within minutes of each other. The stout scored a 40, and one judge noted a "slightly vinous" character in the overall impression, but thoroughly enjoyed the beer. The barleywine scored a 24, and the comments included sherry, vinegar, and papery, none of which are found in a fresh pull.

I've used this method a few other times with no ill effects, but the beers weren't overly hoppy. So, are hoppy beers less stable using this method? Could the bottle they sampled maybe have been contaminated in some way? Has anyone else had oxidation issues lately? Just differences in judge perception?

Basically, I want consistency when bottling, and I HATE using my CPBF.

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My guess would be the bottle. There really isn't anything this could do to your flavor.

I can't get this to work consistently for the life of me... I had 2 successful attempt out of ~6? Thought I was getting the hang of it, tried again a few days ago, failed miserably.

If I vent it a bunch of times, then turn it down to 5 (or less) psi, it's just pure foam in the line. I'm using 10' lines with a 2' cane and rubber stopper.

Psylocide said:

I can't get this to work consistently for the life of me... I had 2 successful attempt out of ~6? Thought I was getting the hang of it, tried again a few days ago, failed miserably.

If I vent it a bunch of times, then turn it down to 5 (or less) psi, it's just pure foam in the line. I'm using 10' lines with a 2' cane and rubber stopper.

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Personally it worked better for me at 10 psi than it did at 5. The first bottle is foamy, but then everything is fine. I actually use only 4 or 5 feet of line with a normal bottle filler came (maybe 18"?).

gometz said:

Personally it worked better for me at 10 psi than it did at 5. The first bottle is foamy, but then everything is fine. I actually use only 4 or 5 feet of line with a normal bottle filler came (maybe 18"?).

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I guess I'll have to try again... maybe if I chilled the "wand" as well, may help a little. Just saw everyone saying how great it works and I was like.... nope.

I'm sure it'll just take some practice/adapting to my keg system.

curious but would the perlick 650 with the flow control be able to adapt for a proper pour without the need to lower the psi?

RRL said:

curious but would the perlick 650 with the flow control be able to adapt for a proper pour without the need to lower the psi?

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I'm curious about this too. I've got 6 650SS's on my kegerator, and using them to bottle would be so much more convenient!

Psylocide said:

If I vent it a bunch of times, then turn it down to 5 (or less) psi, it's just pure foam in the line. I'm using 10' lines with a 2' cane and rubber stopper.

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I don't know if this might help, maybe there is still pressure in the keg?
I unhook my gas line and vent the keg one time until there is nothing left. (In fact, I unseated the lid from my IPA and couldn't push beer until I lubed and resealed it.) Then hook up my second regulator that is set to 2 psi just enough to push beer and fill the bottles. I bottled a case from 5 different kegs earlier with no foaming from any of them.

Piling on here and saying thanks for the setup! Bottled an AIPA for the NHC in early March. Sat for at least a month in the bottle before judging. Beer was in good enough shape to reach the mini-BOS.

Found it best to age the kegs a bit on 9 PSI and then use this setup with about 12 feet of 3/16 line.

I let the first few ounces build up pressure and then the rest of the bottle finishes quickly. Actually I don't seem to get enough foam to do the "cap on foam" trick. So might have to do a little manual tip to push the last air out.

Tom

I'm sure this has been brought up, but what's the longest anyone gone with bottles bottled like this? I would say my longest is about 3 months and I noticed no ill effects. Carbonation was still good and no oxidation.

I'm asking because I have 3 big beers that I will need to package in the coming months. These are beers that I plan to have for at least 3 years before I drink through all them. I still have a few bottles of an imperial stout I brewed in August 2012. But carbing in the bottle has been very inconsistent for me, whereas keg carbing has been very consistent for me. So I'd love to keg and bottle most of the beer off the keg. But I'm worried about keeping them for that long. What do you think?

You could always wax them too. I don't have experience with holding bottles that long but if they are sealed correctly I don't see how it wouldn't hold. My buddy just asked about doing a similar thing, we plan to try waxing them too. Though part of that is to try it and because he wants that look.

Has anyone tried using a co2 injector to purge the bottles prior to filling? I'm thinking of giving it a shot to see if it can help eliminate the guess-work in the filling/rocking stage.

I feel like if you are filling them up and capping on foam, isn't that purging most of the oxygen? I guess the bubbles will contain air, which obviously has oxygen, but it's much less then if there was no foam at all.

mtnagel said:

I feel like if you are filling them up and capping on foam, isn't that purging most of the oxygen? I guess the bubbles will contain air, which obviously has oxygen, but it's much less then if there was no foam at all.

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Agreed. I just like to eliminate any potential for contamination or (in this case) oxidation.

mtnagel said:

I'm sure this has been brought up, but what's the longest anyone gone with bottles bottled like this?

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I have a couple of bottles left of a 2-year-old Gratzer. (Session-strength smoked wheat ale.) If anything it's better now than it was at bottling. They've been kept cold the entire time and it's crisper and cleaner than it was fresh. No oxidation, no infection, no off flavors. The long storage had the added benefit of making it go from pretty cloudy to 100% crystal clear. That said, I have also had an amber ale bottled by the same method at about the same time, and it got a little tangy eventually.

Thanks for the info. I would want to keep most at cellar temp so that they continue to age. The one I've had for 3 months has been kept at cellar temp. No off flavors that I can tell. But I'm not particularly sensitive to most off flavors. I did enter it in a beer competition, so it will be interesting to see if there are any off flavor comments.

I have cider that is about 1.5 years old and it is still great. I never bottle-carb anything any more. This is by far the best way to fill bottles quickly and consistently.

I've seen bad reviews for the Blichman beer gun, but really good ones for this counter-pressure filler: http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/counter-pressure-filler

Has anyone used both the setup from this thread and that particular filler?
If so, can you post a comparison? (if this was already done, I apologize and would appreciate a pointer, I've not read the 120 pages in this thread...)

So I entered some beer that I bottled using almost this method in a competition and it scored poorly and both judges noted oxidation notes. I don't get any, but I also know from an off flavor class, that I'm not very sensitive to it. I'm ready to package some big imperial stouts and I had thought about possibly kegging and then bottling off the keg, but after seeing those comments, I think I'll just bottle like normal. I still think it works great for bottling off a few bottles to take and consume quickly, but from now on, I will only keg beers I know I'll finish in the keg. Take it for what that's worth

mtnagel said:

So I entered some beer that I bottled using almost this method in a competition and it scored poorly and both judges noted oxidation notes. I don't get any, but I also know from an off flavor class, that I'm not very sensitive to it. I'm ready to package some big imperial stouts and I had thought about possibly kegging and then bottling off the keg, but after seeing those comments, I think I'll just bottle like normal. I still think it works great for bottling off a few bottles to take and consume quickly, but from now on, I will only keg beers I know I'll finish in the keg. Take it for what that's worth

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I recently entered 8 different beers using this method and no complaints of oxidation. I did use oxygen absorbing caps just in case. I did get a judge to call me a lair though. He wrote he could taste rye in my wheat beer because it was spicy and then wrote I should identify rye if I am going to used it. His score was 5 points lower the nthe other judge. He was wrong, just a bunch of wheat and a late steeping of liberty. So maybe there was no oxidation and that was the judges imagination. They are only people after all.

I hear some judges get up tight with bottle carbed beers due to sediment possible getting mixed up, that is why I used this method and bottled from a keg.

As a side note I recently had a 1 year old bottle of kolsh I bottled with this method. It was not as good as the fresh beer, but was still tasty. When I first bottled them I kept some in the fridge and some I put in the garage. The ones that went in the fridge would give the impression of being flat on opening(no hiss or immediate rising of bubbles), but would pour with plenty of carbonation and make a nice head. The ones that sat out then got re-cooled acted like a regular bottle of beer, nice hiss on opening and rush of bubbles.

Yeah, based on how I bottle from the keg (slowly and always capping on foam), I wouldn't have thought it they would have said that. I sure hope it's not the case of 1 judge saying it and then other then suddenly smelling it. In my job I've worked with sensory analysis and I know how you can be influenced to smell/taste something after someone else does. But despite that, at least one noticed it, so I doubt that it's not there. I just don't smell it, so I'll happily drink the few bottles I have left.

The imperial stout I'm bottling today, I plan to keep some around for several years, so I figure why take the risk.

Again, take it all for what it's worth (1 test; 2 judges).

The Helles I bottled this way back in September got 3rd in category in competition (beat out by 1 other Helles and an Export). Since then I've bottled a Baltic Porter this way as well and it tasted amazing. I think the goal is to get just enough foam in there that you don't actually bottle with oxygen in the bottle anymore.

On a side note, the IPA I first tried this one had issues, but I attribute that to not carbing it enough. I ended up opening each bottle and adding a small amount of dissolved priming sugar. Once it was primed it tasted very green.

So I have probably 1.5 or 2 gallons of a real nice Imperial IPA that keeps clogging my dip tube. How could I use my poor mans beer gun for it?

Would I regret a siphon of carbed beer? Or a bottling bucket?

I'd probably do 22oz bottles just to make my life easier.

My first attempt at this did not go so well.

The drilled stopper I bought from LHBS was a little two small I think so I had to shove it almost completely into the bottle. On one bottle it actually ended up in the neck and I had to remove with screwdriver.

The hole was also too big, so co2 was leaking around the racking cane, preventing pressure from building up inside to slow/stop the flow of beer.

I ended up turning the gas completely off, and after about 5 or 6 bottles the flow was slow enough that I didn't get a lot of foam, but the first 5 or so were like half foam, I had to wait until it went down and go back and finish filling them.

In addition, everytime I removed the apparatus, beer would move backwards through the line (towards the keg) and create foam inside the line. Probably as a result of my having turned the pressure completely off to slow the flow.

I'll need to go back to LHBS with a bottle and a racking cane to make sure I get a drilled stopper that will be tight with everything, and hopefully try again.

Another problem is that I was bottling a saison, which I have set at a relatively high carb level in the keg. I don't think that helped with my situation.

So first attempt not so good

Hopefully I can get this down the next time.

I (FINALLY!!!) just ordered the equipment I need to start kegging. Since one of my favorite things about homebrewing is sharing with friends/coworkers, I knew I would still want to bottle. My original intention was to buy a wye splitter, etc. so that I could add a Last Straw or Beer Gun later. After reading this thread I, instead, spent $16 on a racking cane, picnic tap, ball lock disconnect, beer line, and all of the other miscellaneous hardware for the BierMuncher system. That's less than it would have cost me to add another gas line for one of the commercial fillers.

If this works, I just might be tempted to have my vasectomy reversed so I can name a child BierMuncher.

quadconpana said:

.......if this works, i just might be tempted to have my vasectomy reversed so i can name a child biermuncher.

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lmao!!!

I was skeptical to say the least, but it's so cheap I thought I'd give it a go...

I entered my first competition and bottled using this method, everything went great. I had to hand the bottles in 3 weeks before judging, I was worried they would be flat in that time but all three score sheets said great carbonation.

Delighted they didn't go flat

Does anyone know what size drilled stopper I should order for this?

QuadConPana said:

If this works, I just might be tempted to have my vasectomy reversed so I can name a child BierMuncher.

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HA HA! Funniest thing I've read here.