entering a beer to NHC

I'm going to be entering a beer into the NHC contest this year. i keg most of my stuff. so i was thinking of kegging and then using the beer gun to bottle how ever many i need to send to NHC. is that a good way of doing it, or should i just bottle the whole batch, and bottle condition?
what do you guys typically do?
thanks

I've only entered a total of 2 competitions (including the NHC), so take my advice with a grain of salt.

The RIS I entered in NHC last year scored well (although not great), and there was no comment on carbonation level. I just cranked the pressure way down, and poured it into the bottle straight off the tap. I have a beer gun, but it just seems like too much of a PIA to get out, sanitize, hook up, etc when I'm only filling a few bottles.

I've never successfully had a bottle conditioned beer (of mine) that measured up to my force-carbed versions of the same beers. That's just me, of course. I never took to time to perfect that part because I love having beer on tap!

Lots of people bottle from kegged beer for comps. It's a perfectly fine way of going about entering.

I use a counter pressure bottle filler for bottling from my keg. I would not recommend entering a beer bottled by simply dispensing from the tap for a comp. The counter pressure filler allows you to pressurize the bottle with CO2 and remove oxygen (enemy of beer at this stage). Be sure to chill your bottle before filling to minimize foam and keep them chilled after filling. Just my experience.

Actually, if you don't (or can't) purge with CO2 prior to filling, you'd want the beer to foam up. The foam (CO2) will purge the remaining oxygen from the bottle, and if you cap on the foam, you can be assured of no oxygen remaining in the bottle.

Ace_Club said:

Actually, if you don't (or can't) purge with CO2 prior to filling, you'd want the beer to foam up. The foam (CO2) will purge the remaining oxygen from the bottle, and if you cap on the foam, you can be assured of no oxygen remaining in the bottle.

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Not quite sure this is true as the foaming is beer mixed with air.
If you purged with CO2 first and then foamed, then the mix would be ok.

I wouldn't consider it a waste to present your beer at its best by using a CPF to bottle with. That 1 point or so gained by doing it right might just be the difference between a score and a medal.

boo boo said:

Not quite sure this is true as the foaming is beer mixed with air.
If you purged with CO2 first and then foamed, then the mix would be ok.

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I don't think that's right. I remember reading a technical magazine that was discussing the method of hitting bottles with a thin stream of high pressure water (on commercial bottling lines) to promote foaming to purge the bottles of the excess oxygen prior to capping.

I'm pretty sure all the foaming is CO2.

Ace_Club said:

I don't think that's right. I remember reading a technical magazine that was discussing the method of hitting bottles with a thin stream of high pressure water (on commercial bottling lines) to promote foaming to purge the bottles of the excess oxygen prior to capping.

I'm pretty sure all the foaming is CO2.

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I have read that too.
But the way I look at it, by the time we do this, assuming we do it right in the first place, we lose carbonation before it gets capped.

I have sent in some brew to comps after bottle conditioning them. Didn't affect the scores, although I like to see sediment free bottles sent away.

I completely agree about losing some carbonation in bottling that way, no question about it.

Personally, if I'm kegging/bottling for comps, I transfer to a bottling bucket just like normal, bottle the amount that I'm bottling and then siphon the rest into the keg.

Ace_Club said:

Personally, if I'm kegging/bottling for comps, I transfer to a bottling bucket just like normal, bottle the amount that I'm bottling and then siphon the rest into the keg.

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Which I just did for a comp later in march here in Canada.

Ace_Club said:

I completely agree about losing some carbonation in bottling that way, no question about it.

Personally, if I'm kegging/bottling for comps, I transfer to a bottling bucket just like normal, bottle the amount that I'm bottling and then siphon the rest into the keg.

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i think thats what i'm going to do. this batch is 6 gallons so i have some room to play with i can make some bottles and have enough volume left for a full keg.
thanks everyone for your input.

Ace_Club said:

I don't think that's right. I remember reading a technical magazine that was discussing the method of hitting bottles with a thin stream of high pressure water (on commercial bottling lines) to promote foaming to purge the bottles of the excess oxygen prior to capping.

I'm pretty sure all the foaming is CO2.

Click to expand...

Those commercial bottling lines are double pre-evacuating the bottle with c02...

As for competitions, if you are bottling right before you send them you can cut a lot of corners you wouldn't cut if you were bottling beers to drink a year later. Many of the most successful competition brewers fill competion bottles via various ah hoc methods that do not involve a CPBF or a beer gun (who wants to clean those out between the 20 different single bottles you are filling for NHC?)

If you take reasonable precautions against oxidation the bottle is fine for a couple of weeks. The more important thing is to not lose too much co2. You should probably start a bit on the high side.

Whatever you do don't bottle condition beers just for competition. If anything there is a bias against bottle conditioned bottles from judges. It's not warranted but I can tell you that it exists.