Bottle filling.

This question is directed at the Kegging folks. I do not keg, I do not have the space or resources for a kegging setup.

However, I have several bottles of various styles set to go for an upcoming competition. I realized that somehow on two styles I have a bottle each that is a sam adams bottle with the raised glass name on the bottle. The rules specificly state "Each entry must consist of three (3) bottles, 12 ounces in volume, brown or green glass, and must be completely free of
paper labels, raised-glass, and/or inked brand-name lettering."

I was planning on decanting into a clean sanitized, no lable bottle. I know it can be done, as it would not be much differant then bottling from a keg. However I will not be able to flush the bottle with co2.

Should I wait until the vary last minute to do this to minimize oxidation? Will it hold the carbonation? From when I drop off the beer to when it it is judged will be about 2 weeks.

you might be able to do it without losing too much carbonation. get everything as cold as possible (i.e. put the empty bottle in the freezer) and it shouldn't foam as much. also, you could try to find a slightly smaller bottle (european 333 ml or some US11.2 oz bottle like magner's cider) which will allow you leave less headspace. if you did this right before you dropped it off and the headspace was small you'd lose some carbonation in the transfer, but would be your best bet, i think.

I would do this as soon as possible to minimize the amount of CO2 lost in the transfer. If the beer has only been in the bottles for a short time, they're probably still giving off additional CO2. After they're completely carbed, you'll notice a drop in carb levels if you transfer from bottle to bottle. Basically, the sooner the better.

I ran out of bottles before and ended up throwing a gallon in a wine jug. Realized that it would carb too much for that particular bottle, so I ended up bottling the remaining gallon from that jug the following day. There was some carbonation already in the glass jug, but they carbed just fine in the bottles as well. I have a feeling that if I waited another few days, the bottles wouldn't have carbed up as well as they did.

This beer has been sitting bottles for a few months I only have a handful left for the competition which is why I am in this dilemma. I do have a fresh batch of the same recipe , however, it will only be in the bottles for about 4 weeks before judging. I hope to only use that as a last resort.

I have several 16oz swing top bottles from the same batch, I plan on using one of those for the transfer.

Thanks for the replies.