Bottling from a keg question

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mjb34500

mjb34500

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Saw a few threads on here for techniques how to bottle from a keg - thanks to those who posted to them.

I do have one additional question: After bottling at low pressure to keep foaming down, should you add a little priming sugar just as you would if you were bottling direct from the fermenter? I'm wondering how much CO2 the beer will hold after being bottled, and if it's necessary to 'restart' the process with some sugar.

Thanks in advance for any advice!
 
If you do it right you shouldn't lose any co2. You can build a simple counter pressure filler for like $20 and some time. Or you can invest in a beer gun (like $60). I love my beer gun.
 
I've been bottling directly from the faucet, skipping the "We don't need no stinking beer gun" that I build for my picnic taps a couple years ago.

My process:

1) Properly carbonate keg with set and forget method so that the intended carbonation has been reached.
2) Turn PSI on regulator down to 1 - 2 PSI from the serving PSI.
3) Vent the keg I will be bottling from.
4) Fill a pint glass from the keg I am bottling from. I find that this "clears" the lines and gives me something to drink when I'm bottling.
5) Slowly fill the bottle from the faucet until you reach the correct fill level. You may lose some beer to foaming.
6) Place a cap over the bottle and hold in place with your thumb. Gently invert the bottle and return it to normal resting position. Carefully lift your thumb off of the cap. There should be some foaming released. Cap onto the foam.

Repeat as needed.

This has worked well for me for several competitions.
 
Darwin18 said:
I've been bottling directly from the faucet, skipping the "We don't need no stinking beer gun" that I build for my picnic taps a couple years ago.

My process:

1) Properly carbonate keg with set and forget method so that the intended carbonation has been reached.
2) Turn PSI on regulator down to 1 - 2 PSI from the serving PSI.
3) Vent the keg I will be bottling from.
4) Fill a pint glass from the keg I am bottling from. I find that this "clears" the lines and gives me something to drink when I'm bottling.
5) Slowly fill the bottle from the faucet until you reach the correct fill level. You may lose some beer to foaming.
6) Place a cap over the bottle and hold in place with your thumb. Gently invert the bottle and return it to normal resting position. Carefully lift your thumb off of the cap. There should be some foaming released. Cap onto the foam.

Repeat as needed.

This has worked well for me for several competitions.
Click to expand...

Why do you invert?
 
His idea is a great one, I believe he is displacing the o2 out of the head space.
 
Yep that's exactly it. Inverting the bottle and returning it a resting a position causes some carbonation to be released which should push out any oxygen in the head space of the bottle. The key is to release it slowly so you don't have excessive foaming.
 
I like your method Darwin. I've heard great things about beer guns, but frankly I'm cheap :) I had wondered how to properly purge the bottles of O2, this seems logical. What do mean by 'vent' the bottles....purge it with CO2?

What do you figure the shelf life is of the bottles when you do this?
 
mjb34500 said:
I like your method Darwin. I've heard great things about beer guns, but frankly I'm cheap :) I had wondered how to properly purge the bottles of O2, this seems logical. What do mean by 'vent' the bottles....purge it with CO2?

What do you figure the shelf life is of the bottles when you do this?
Click to expand...

I slowly fill the bottles at 1 - 2 psi until I reach the fill level - sometimes the beer gets overly foamy and it can take some time and patience to get to the fill level. Then I place a cap on it and secure with my thumb, invert the bottle, return to level, and carefully lift my thumb off of the cap. Inverting the bottle causes some of the carbonation to be released which drives off oxygen. Once I hear the carbonation escaping I try to cap it as quickly as possible.

This process can be a bit messy and it is helpful to have a handful of old rags on hand but it works well for me. I've got several bottles that I bottled at the end of August that I intend to enter into a local competition in two weeks. They won't be judged until October 20th - I totally expect them to hold up well.
 

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