Bottling from keg

I recently bottled from a corny keg but had a lot of foam which made it a very long process. I turned the psi down to 4 when doing this. What am I doing wrong?

Guthrie said:

I recently bottled from a corny keg but had a lot of foam which made it a very long process. I turned the psi down to 4 when doing this. What am I doing wrong?

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You should have your bottles ice cold when you are bottling. When the dissolved CO2 in the beer hits the warm bottles, it comes out of solution (foam). If you keep the bottles as cold or colder than the beer, you should be better off with significantly less foam..

I'm assuming you are using a piece of hard plastic tubing (a la bottling cane) attached to a full-open picnic tap to do your bottling. If not, start there!

Yeah I'm using a bottle filler attached to a picnic tap, but I carbed at room temp because I have no fridge and used plastic bottles, not sure how cold I could get them.

Here's a thought - if you have a decent sized bucket, you could immerse the bottle in ice water while you are filling it. The important thing is that the bottle temperature is less than that of the beer.

Did you release all the pressure on the keg before dropping your psi down to 4?

Did you release all the pressure on the keg before dropping your psi down to 4?

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This.

Also make sure you have a #2? stopper (fits in the neck of bottle) to give you some counter pressure and releasing it as you fill. I would even drop the pressure down to 2psi.

Cool, thanks guy I'll give the ice bucket and stopper a go. Yeah I did release all the pressure and I also tried turning down the psi but the line just kept getting bubbles in it there was never a Steady flow of liquid.

I have a 3ft line with 2 epoxy mixers inserted in it. I used the "We dont need no stinking beer gun " technique and the bottles were room temp at 10 psi. With the 2 expoxy mixers in the line, the beer just trickles and no foam.

I've tried bottling from long lines without the mixers at lower psi and I get substantial more foam. Trust me, go get the mixers and insert them in your beer line. THe link below has them in the keg diptube, I prefer the beer line.

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

One thing is the time inbetween bottling your head pressure in the keg will increase.. I do 10 at a time and cap but before I start the next 10 I purge the head pressure again..

you didnt mention how you are bottling from the keg. I have tried bottling with just the tap and with tap+bottling wand. both have resulted in quite a bit of foam. I recently just got a stopper for the bottle and I had virtually no foam at all.

So these epoxy mixers will fit nicely into the line opposed to the diptube. So all you do is insert them and proceed as you normally would?

Don't use a bottle filler. I've heard it doesn't work well. I use the picnic tap connected to about 6 ft tubing and a cut racking cane/#2 stopper and have never had a problem. My bottles are room temp, PSI at 4-5. If you haven't heard of the racking cane/stopper setup, check this out:

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

Works like a charm.

The issue could be very simple, though- warm beer foams and doesn't "hold" onto the co2. I think it would be almost impossible to bottle warm beer from a warm keg and keep it carbonated.

Yeah there definitely was not much carbonation, I still don't have a fridge so for my next attempt I'm just keeping the keg in a fridge at work hopefully the cold will help. Any idea how much a beer gun would cost?

i still don't understand the stopper counterpressure thing, when i use one and have the bottle stopped, nothing comes out until i release the pressure. when i release the pressure, what comes out is the same as when i don't use a stopper. What am i doing wrong?

spearko520 said:

i still don't understand the stopper counterpressure thing, when i use one and have the bottle stopped, nothing comes out until i release the pressure. when i release the pressure, what comes out is the same as when i don't use a stopper. What am i doing wrong?

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Just release the pressure more slowly. If you just press in on the stopper near the mouth of the bottle until it starts flowing, you'll be golden. Once you get your technique down, you can fill a bottle in about 20 seconds with minimal foam.

By the way, I also simplified - and I think improved - the BMBF from that other thread. If you happen to have SS perlicks (may work with other faucets, but I don't know) you can dispense with the picnic tap and racking cane and just jam a length of 3/16" beverage tubing directly into the faucet. Put the #2 stopper on the other end, and you've got a flexible BMBF that takes advantage of your already balanced system so you don't have to mess with the pressure on the keg.

thanks shandini- i'll give the cobra thingee a go again - i hate my beer gun- biggest waste of money since that hooker that turned out to be guy...