If curiosity doesn't kill my cat... it'll kill me.

Questions.... simply because after all my batches, I know I am set in my ways and I know there are others that do things differently. I'm also asking because if I am ever given the opportunity to do something I have not tried, it's nice to have an example to refer to.

#1- If sanitation is such a HUGE issue, why risk pitching over a used yeast cake in an unsanitized bucket?

#2- After carbing bottled beer, is it necessary to move those beers into a refridgerator? Even after all the sugar has been eaten, is there still the risk of BB's and what if you don't have fridge space?

#3- I have heard through the grapevine that people bottle from their kegs. Are they talking about bottling beer carbed with c02? or just putting primed beer in a keg and using the tap like a bottle filler? Am I out of the loop by using my ole bottling bucket?

#4- I love making beer, dont you?

#5- Am I missing anything by not purchasing beer line cleaner? When I change beers, I use oxyclean free to clean my lines, as well as tapped out kegs. Followed up with starsan. Just me?

Thanks guys! Feedback is always appreciated.

#1 assuming your bucket was sanitized before the previous beer, it should still be sanitized. Nothing grew in the bucket to kill/funkify the yeast from the previous batch, so pitching on that yeast cake shouldn't be a problem...unless you open the bucket, leave it open for a while (hours to days) before filling your new beer onto that yeast cake.

#2 if you added the right amount of priming sugar AND you're sure that fermentation was pretty complete, you can leave them out of the fridge. BB's usually happen from not making sure one of those requirements was met.

#3 bottling from the keg means you're putting carbed beer into a bottle directly from your kegging system. You usually do this at very low pressure (1 psi-ish) to make sure you don't get excessive foaming. People (like me) do this if they don't like bottling their whole batch, but later want to fill bottles to take to someone's house or to enter in a competition

#4 si

#5 I use your same method, but sub PBW for the Oxy-Clean. Never had a problem. I've never used a special product called beer line cleaner.

1 - The way I understand it is you rack right onto the cake, the amount of lag time between should be kept to a minimal. There was a huge discussion on this practice because most of the time you are overpitching. The best practice is to wash the yeast and make a fresh starter. The way I understand it...

2 - I suppose the risk of infection would grow with time if sanitation was poor or you had a bit of something left in the bottle. Bottle bombs are however pretty rare. (I know you just had some.)

3 - I think there is a special device they use for this? I too, am new to kegging and would like a more solid answer...

4 - I love making beer almost as much as I love drinking it!

5 - sounds right from what I have read. If you have beer stone in the keg, I hear a PBW soak is the easy way to get it out. I know it cleans stainless stuff pretty darn well but in general I am planning exactly the same as you describe.

**Addition to #3**
If bottling beer carbed with c02 from your keg and then capping it, how long will it stay carbed?

pkincaid said:

**Addition to #3**
If bottling beer carbed with c02 from your keg and then capping it, how long will it stay carbed?

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Forever. I have a barleywine that was bottled from the keg, after 2 years it's still fine.

Get beer line cleaner, you won't regret it. Absolutely no reason to sanitize properly cleaned beer lines.

You have to cap immediately after filling each bottle. Once it's capped, it'll stay carbonated forever.

Check this out, if you haven't seen it already https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/we-no-need-no-stinking-beer-gun-24678/

Whoa dang! Forever! For some reason I just assumed filling bottles with keg carbed beer would result in it becoming flat sooner or later. **Runs to throw bottling bucket away** That seems like a so much more pleasant way of bottling. Why bother playing the bottle guessing game on wether carbonation is done, and why bother having sediment at all!

1.) The cake should not be infected unless the previous batch was fouled. The cake "should" be racked onto relatively quickly and/or kept sealed tight between racking. the cake is used because that is one giant colony of yeast.

2.) Refrdigeration just keeps the beer fresher longer. Keeps it from staling as quickly.

3.) Carbing then bottling.

3+) Until you uncap it, if it was capped properly and the caps are good.

4.) Meh. It's okay.

5.) BLC is good for BeerStone if you have it and BLC is little more than a PBW solution of higher strength. If you don't have BeerStone, you aren't missing anything.

for more on #3 - the special device you're talking about is a beer gun, but you don't have to buy something like that. The only additional equipment you need is ~10 - 12 inches of plastic tubing that fits over your tap spout snugly.

Put the tubing over your tap spout and turn your CO2 pressure down to ~1 psi, venting out the excess CO2 from your keg. It always helps me to pour a small cup first before going into the bottle so that you can get any excess foaming problems (from your previously higher pressure, e.g. 5 - 7 psi) out of the way. Once you're getting a nice steady, low flow with minimal foaming, you're ready for the bottle.

For the bottles, I star-san them first and then put them in the freezer for just a bit (5 minutes or so). You want them to be cold, but not ice-cold so pull them out when they're in that range. When you're ready to fill them, put the tubing into the bottle as far down as it will go (buy enough to get near the bottom ideally). Start filling your bottle and move the beer down so that the bottom of the tubing is always right around the level of the beer in the bottle (to avoid foaming). By the top of the bottle, you'll have a little bit of foam. Immediately cap onto this foam.

Filled this way from a keg, I've kept beers for a few weeks and still had great carbonation. Haven't tested past that, but I'm sure it would be fine out to a month. Kind of has to be, since a lot of people do this for competitions.

1) I'm not sure what you're asking here.

2) Carbed beer does not need to be moved to the fridge 'til you're ready to consume it. Just make sure that wherever you do store it is temp and light controlled. You don't want to move the beer to the fridge 'til after bottle conditioning has completed. I'm not sure what you mean by BB's.

3) As far as keg to bottle, it can be a few different options. You will probably want to look into counterpressure bottle fillers.

4) Yes

5) It sounds to me like your fine. Two additional things that I do. First, though I use a no-rinse sanitizer, I still fill my sanitized keg with clean water and purge it and the sanitized keg line. Second, I bought a small spool of tubing from my local hardware store and change my lines a few times a year. This may be excessive, but it only costs me an extra buck or so a month to have piece of mind that everything is clean and in good condition.

mc_eric said:

You have to cap immediately after filling each bottle. Once it's capped, it'll stay carbonated forever.

Check this out, if you haven't seen it already https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/we-no-need-no-stinking-beer-gun-24678/

Click to expand...

+1 on BM's beer gun. That's what I used for the ones being shipped to you. :rockin:

Yeah... I just read through that. Seems pretty easy and awesome. When it's bottled this way does it need to be immediately refrigerated? Will it keep at room temp?

Another alternative is to use the 425SS Perlick spout replacement, a bottling wand, and a no 2 drilled stopper. Freeze the glass, fill, and cap, fill, and cap, ....

pkincaid said:

Will it keep at room temp?

Click to expand...

Yeah, it'll keep just fine @ room temp. I'd refrigerate the beer if I wanted to keep it for months/years, but a couple weeks at room temp won't hurt anything.

Bob makes a great case in this thread https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f163/why-not-pitch-your-yeast-cake-166221/
about why not to pitch onto a yeast cake. FWIW, I've never done it and I never will.