Bottling from a never-tapped keg?

So...I have two kegs waiting to be tapped, but the thing is, I really don't want to tap them. I want to bottle them instead. Already went through two very similar beers on tap and I'm sick of sweet and malty! I want to put them in bottles like the old days and save my taps for stuff I can actually drink with dinner. And I don't want to buy more kegs. I want to empty these ones!

They haven't been naturally carbed, so my question is-- can I open them up, siphon into a bottling bucket and add priming sugar? They've been kegged since October, so will the yeast give enough oomph to make bubbles (I'm pretty sure that's the correct scientific term)?

Is this something I can do or will I have to suck it up and keg em?

Sure, you could do that. Or you could carb them up and bottle from the keg. Either way would work.

I prefer bottling it carbed up from the keg, then there is no sediment in the bottle, but if you don't want to do that you can just use a bottling bucket and priming sugar and do it that way.

Yeah, I'm too lazy to mess with that for 100 bottles. Thanks though-- good to know it's not too late to do it the old fashioned way.

I bottled from a keg for the first time yesterday and it wasn't nearly as much of a pain as I imagined. I made a (counter pressure?) bottle filler out of a racking cane, a picnic tap, and the rubber airlock stopper for a fermenting bucket (you can use a drilled stopper too). There's a build thread somewhere on here but it's pretty simple. I cut the curved end off the racking cane and slid that into the mouth of the picnic tap. Cut the other end at an angle so it could touch the bottom of the bottle and fill without much resistance. Bleed all the pressure out of your keg and put your regulator on about 2-3 PSI or as low as it will go. The key to not getting a lot of foam was using the stopper to seal the top of the bottle to regulate pressure while opening the picnic tap. This keeps foam to a minimum. Release some pressure from the seal with your thumb (or finger of choice) as needed to fill the bottle. One worry is your beer being oxygenated. I countered this by draining the beer from the racking cane once the bottle was full from about 4-6 inches above the bottle so it foams to the top of the bottle. This will purge oxygen from the bottle. Place a cap on top of the foam and cap as usual. Cheers

That's assuming you've already force carbed the keg

No need to dirty a bottling bucket. Just add priming sugar and bottle from the keg. If you have a picnic tap, a bottling wand will fit inside the spout.

Haven't force carbed the keg-- it's just sitting there with a blanket of CO2 on top.

I have a counter pressure filler that I haven't used yet, but I don't want to tap the beer if I can naturally carbonate it. Just seems like a pain; I don't need to drink these beers right away. Plus, doesn't it not last as long that way?

Didn't think to not bother with a bottling bucket-- good, cause I don't have one at the moment! (hubby got paint in our last one, had to toss it)...So thanks!

If you're doing indiviual bottles and you don't want to force carb first I 'd recommend priming tablets. You toss a couple in each bottle and it gives you a dose of sugar for carbonation. Probably a little pricier, but should give a more uniform result.

b-boy--

Is this something you'd normally do for bottling instead of throwing in some straight corn sugar, or is there a specific reason you're suggesting this for my situation?

In any case...I'll look into it, thanks!

thistleglassgirl said:

b-boy--

Is this something you'd normally do for bottling instead of throwing in some straight corn sugar, or is there a specific reason you're suggesting this for my situation?

In any case...I'll look into it, thanks!

Click to expand...

This is so you can bottle right away (without force carbing) and don't have to worry about foaming over.

Although I have found that force carving and filling from the keg to be easier for me, I have use a 1/4 teaspoon of corn/priming sugar in the bottom of each bottle ( that is if they are 22oz bottles) and then using your filler and co2 reg to fill the bottles works really well. Then you can set them in storage until you need them again. Force carbing and filling should not have any affect on the life span of the beer. Never has for me anyways.