Counter pressure filler fun

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

woosterhoot

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 3, 2007
Messages
99
Reaction score
0
So i just got a counter pressure filler. What a PITA. I must be doing something wrong because after 6 bottles with 3 inches of foam at the top and beer all over the floor and my kegerator, I would discribe it as anything but convienent. Is it normal to get beer foam off the pressure release valve after filling while bleeding off the excess pressure? I end up no matter how fast I cap it with alot of headspace and foam. I have my regulator set at 10. Open the gas purge the oxygen and then open the liquid while slowly bleeding the prv. I end up with about a 1/8" of foam when I get to the top. Then I let the prv slowly bleed and the foam starts rising. I empty the pressure with a foam purging out of the prv. I pulled the filler and was able to cap without the foam rising above the lid, but end up with alot of headspace and foam at the top of the bottle. I've bottled right off the tap with slightly more crappiness than this, but alot less time and bs. Any suggestions or is this normal. Not sure if I'll use it much if it is lol.
 
Another thing to try: Chill your bottles. When you move cold beer into a warm bottle, CO2 is going to come out of solution. Also, let the pressure off sloooooow. Don't rush filling a bottle.

Try it again with cold bottles. I think you'll find it goes a lot smoother for you.
 
I've counter filled champagne bottles at 20 PSI without problems.

Technique:

1) Pressure a clean bottle to 20 PSI of CO2. Leave the CO2 tap open.

2) Open the product tap. Nothing will flow as the bottle pressure is equal to the product pressure.

3) Close the CO2 valve. Slightly open the bleed valve. Product will flow. Don't open the bleed too much or you'll get foaming. Basically, it only takes a pressure difference of a couple PSI to move the product. Thus it is possible to keep the bottle nearly fully pressurized during the transfer.

Tips:

1) chill the product to near freezing.
2) chill the bottles if you can bear working with them
3) work quickly so the product doesn't warm up in the lines or insulate the lines.

Hope this helps.
 
Not to add thread drift, but which CPF did you buy and why? I'm considering the same thing.
 
I bought one similar to Midwest's. The reason I purchased the cfc and not the beergun was price and I understand the science (kind of, lol) of a cfc whereas the beergun doesn't create any counterpressure so im not sure of how it would work. There's alot of people that love them. I think I need to try it with my bottles cold that seems to be the resounding detail that I wasn't aware of, everything else I did similar to the descriptions above. I'll try with the psi lower also, I got as low as 7 on the first try, but I'll go to 5. Thanks for all the advice.
 
Back
Top