Beer Gun? We LOVE the Stinking Beer Gun!

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Evan!

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Aight, I did the BMBF thing for awhile, but I keep finding that you have to leave almost no headspace to hold your carbonation over long periods. The inlaws gave me some scrilla for my b-day last week, and said I had to spend it on beer crap.

Darn. :p

So after the debacle on Friday where I bottled with the BMBF, filled to the lip, and ended up with exploding bottles once they warmed up, I decided the beer fun was definitely a go, especially after seeing ohiobrewtus' beers keeping their carb up even with headspace. I went to the LHBS yesterday and picked up the gun, because it was the same price as it was online...unfortunately, they were out of the accessory kits. So I went to lowes and picked up a 1/4" MFL x 1/4" MPT, which allows you to hook the gas up to the gun by just unscrewing the swivel nut from one of my gas disconnects and screwing it onto the gun. Luckily I have plenty of gas lines. Then, I pulled a liquid disconnect off another tap and hooked the beer gun up to that, and a short while later, I was bottling my Flanders Red like it was my goddamned job! I love this thing. Love it.

I'm ordering some gas tubing, a new liquid disconnect for the gun, and some polysulfone gas line quick-disconnects so I don't have to unscrew the gas swivel nut every time...just unhook the QD, hook up the gas line to the gun, and you're in business. This is why Northern Brewer rocks:

cpc-gas-disconnects.jpg
 
I've had a good run with the BMBF under most applications, but the higher carb of Belgians didn't seem to jive as well. The Beer Gun will be my next purchase, no doubt.
 
I can definitely say the BG is awesome. I sold mine about a year ago because I had to raise some funds, but I will likely make that investment again in the future. You can bottle a full batch in ~40 minutes if you have a helper and it is easy to get the hang of.
 
I agree, I love my beer gun and flushing bottles with CO2 before filling them is paramount if you plan on keeping them around longer than a couple weeks.
 
I love the beer gun too. I never tried BM's device, but while I respect those who make their own stuff for pennies I can't imagine that it works as well as the beer gun itself. And I'm all about convenience.

+1 to the Beer Gun.
 
What is the biggest advantage of using a beer gun? Being able to flush the bottle? Does that help hold carbonation, or just eliminate oxygen from the situation?

Just asking because I've never dug around enough to see people having carb problems with the BMBF. I drank an IPA I have bottled from about a month ago with head space, and the carbonation was still great. Would that bottle loose carbonation over a longer time?
 
I havn't kept a beer bottles for more than 2 weeks filled with BMBF, and have been very satisfied with the results.

I just don't have money to invest in a real beergun, and what I have for free works well.
 
What is the biggest advantage of using a beer gun? Being able to flush the bottle? Does that help hold carbonation, or just eliminate oxygen from the situation?

I have the same questions. Both methods let you fill from the bottom and if done carefully you can do it with essentially no foam. Using either method you leave the head space with no pressure, so you have to lose carbonation in the beer to reach equilibrium in the head space.

I guess one thing I can think of is that you can pull the beer gun up after filling and purge the head space. If you agitate when filling when using the BMBF in order to cap on foam then I guess you lose more carbonation.

I am on the verge of buying a beer gun, I only bottle big beers and would love to be able to purge before/after filling and the ease of operation will make it easier to get SWMBO to help.
 
What is the biggest advantage of using a beer gun? Being able to flush the bottle? Does that help hold carbonation, or just eliminate oxygen from the situation?

Well, I've never used BM's device so I can't speak about that. But the Beer Gun definitely allows you to purge the o2 prior to filling, and then I also give a little shot of co2 to the headspace just before capping. Maybe BM's device allows that too.

For me the biggest benefits are (1) it's brain dead easy to use, and (2) I didn't have to make it.
 
My problem with the beer gun is that the rubber tip had a tendency to come off, which completely f's up your bottling session.

Bottling lines get CO2 in the headspace by hitting the bottle with a spray of sanitized water. That creates foam, which they cap on. Capping on foam with the BMBF is eminently do-able.
 
Cool, thanks for the answers. I'm just trying to figure out if I really need to invest in one of these when the BMBF costs the price of a racking cane, a stopper and a party tap (which I already have). I guess if it came down to it, you could fill a keg with a little C02 to shoot into the bottle before filling?

Also, with a beer gun, do you just top the bottle with C02 instead of capping on foam? It seems to me that either way you stand to loose some carbonation since the bottle isn't pressurized.

Finally, I don't bottle much beer. I'm guessing the real advantage to a beer gun would be if you bottled entire batches from the keg a lot?
 
I love my brew gun. It works well, is built to last, and the name sounds way cooler than any thing else I use to bottle.

I carb in kegs and use the gun for give-a-ways and contests. I've gone as long as 3 months with no notable loss in carbination level.
 
I could see favoring the counterpressure filler over BMBF but not the beergun. It's really just a glamorized bottle wand with a gas connection. You could still pre-purge the bottles with a glow gun on a CO2 line and BMBF which retains the counter-pressure feature.
 
cpc-gas-disconnects.jpg


Got those CPC QD's, along with hoses, a liquid disconnect, and a swivel nut in the mail yesterday. Turns out I didn't have any worm clamps left, so I had to run to Lowe's, but everything is all fixed up now.

The way this works is, in my big fridge, I have two regulators hooked up to the tank. One goes to a 3-way manifold that serves the beer in 3 of the kegs, the other goes straight to the sparkling water. What I did was, about 6 inches out from the sparkling water regulator, I cut the line, and installed the female end of the gas QD into that. Kinda sux that my existing gas lines from kegconnection are too big for the barb fittings on the QD, but it's nothing a worm clamp couldn't take care of.

Anyway, so then I installed male ends of the gas QD onto the line that runs to the sparkling water keg, and also on the line that goes to the beer gun...the other end of which attaches to the gun via the swivel nut. So now, when I want to use the beer gun, I already have gas running to the 3 beer taps, and they don't need to be touched...I just unhook the QD from the sparkling water line, hook up the QD from the beer gun line, and replace the liquid disconnect on whatever keg I'm bottling from with the one from the gun, and it's ready to go. Slick!
 
I could see favoring the counterpressure filler over BMBF but not the beergun. It's really just a glamorized bottle wand with a gas connection. You could still pre-purge the bottles with a glow gun on a CO2 line and BMBF which retains the counter-pressure feature.

While the beer-gun is not air tight, I put a stopper on the shaft of my beer gun so that I can lightly pressurize while bottling. If you make the seal too tight, beer will come out the back of the beer gun. With just a litle practice I was able to keep a light pressure while bottling.
 
Question for those with carb problems using the BMBF: What temp did you bottle at?

I ask because when I first got my keezer all set up I had the temp pretty low, like 33-34 F. All of the bottles I filled at that temp stayed very well carbed even after months (I just had a beer I BMBF'd in March last night and the carb was just as good as it was 3 months ago). But later I increased the temp to 37-38 or so and it def made a difference. The beer foams more and just doesn't seem as well carbed as before. I always chill the bottles before filling so I don't think that had anything to do with it. Also, I did increase the CO2 pressure when I increased the temp in the keezer, trying to stay at the same carb level, but I'm going by one of those cheapo gages with poor resolution. The pours straight out of the Perlicks were about the same.
 
I've had a good run with the BMBF under most applications, but the higher carb of Belgians didn't seem to jive as well. The Beer Gun will be my next purchase, no doubt.

Took longer than anticipated, but just got the Beer Gun last week.

I'm all for DIYing an inexpensive solution, but I had some poor results with the BMBF on beers carbed to over 3 volumes.
 
I love my BeerGun, I just cracked open a beer that I bottled with it 6 months ago and it tasted just as good as the day I bottled it.
 
I have a beer gun, and I have had 0 beers hold carb with it.....it should be fill a cold(ish) bottle till the foam runs out, pull gun out of liquid, hit with Co2 and cap right?

never worked
 
How much pressure are you using when you fill the bottle? If the beer is foaming significantly while filling you're probably pushing it in too quickly causing foaming and CO2 loss. I'll fill bottles with the beer gun at about 3 psi and get no foaming as it fills (takes about 15 sec to fill a bottle) and the bottles have good carbonation weeks later.
 
i carb the beer normaly, the bleed it down to 3 psi and fill. ive tried 5 or 6 different occasions, and everything was flat 2 days later.
 
I look forward to trying my gun out. I just got it but I will have to wait a few weeks until I have something to use it on.
 
Took longer than anticipated, but just got the Beer Gun last week.

I'm all for DIYing an inexpensive solution, but I had some poor results with the BMBF on beers carbed to over 3 volumes.

I don't think you'll have success bottling beers over 3 volumes with ANY filling device at the homebrew level. The beer gun should actually do worse because it doesn't have any back pressure mechanism.

The only advantage the BG should have over the BMBF is the CO2 purge. The downside is no backpressure.
 

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