Keg-Carb Then Bottle?

Ive switched most of my process over to keg, at this point, but still like to bottle a few samples to take to friends as samples. The hassle comes from having to divide two batches and estimating sugar. It struck me the other day that I could just keg everything, force-carb it, then transfer a few samples straight off the keg to store in bottles. Anyone use this process? Opinions?

Yeah, look at the sticky for the we no need no stinking beer gun or something like that. It shows how to make something to transfer your kegged carbed beer into bottles without causing any carb issues.

Brewnoob1 said:

Yeah, look at the sticky for the we no need no stinking beer gun or something like that. It shows how to make something to transfer your kegged carbed beer into bottles without causing any carb issues.

Click to expand...

Here's the link: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/we-no-need-no-stinking-beer-gun-24678/

This is my normal method...do primary, then do secondary/conditioning in keg, then cold crash in keg, then carbonate in keg. Bottle from keg when desired.

Edit: All the bottles listed in my signature (except for red rocket ale) were done this way. I frequently do this when the keg is almost done and I need the space in the fridge.

There's a sticky right at the top about this: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/we-no-need-no-stinking-beer-gun-24678/ (lots of other threads on it, too)

When bottling from your tap you want to avoid foam and oxygen exposure, so that's what these kinds of devices are for. They fill from the bottom to avoid splashing and oxygen exposure, etc. The stopper creates pressure in the bottle that reduces foaming and ensures a slow transfer, etc. etc. If you're going to drink it fairly quickly, you could probably get away with filling like they fill the growlers at the local brewpub -- a tube attaches to the tap, place open end of tube at bottom of bottle, pour until overflow, cap on foam. Couldn't hurt to try it. And in the homemade beergun thread, there are lots of people who say they've used this thing and had year-old or more beers that were fine, and I've read of people using other makeshift methods that worked out fine, too. You mainly want to reduce foam that would result in half-full bottles or multiple "passes" at each bottle, so don't build/use anything with pinch-points (like a bottling wand with the stopper thing in the end), make sure everything's cold, and reduce the serving pressure a bit so the flow is slower. I just started kegging, and haven't bottled from it yet, but those are my impressions from my reading on the topic, FWIW.

Thanks a lot for the link and the responses! I check this site from my phone, so stickies don't appear at the top. I'll try this next time I brew.

If you are going to drink them quickly (within a week or two). You can bottle strait from the tap without any special equipment. Just rinse out your bottles and leave a little water inside (helps with foaming) and cut back the pressure on the keg beforehand. I bottle from the tap a lot to take beer to a friends house or for give aways. I don't even sanitize the bottles anymore. Just clean em good and store. Rinse before filling with cold tap water. Simple and easy. I don't store any of them long term though, so if you plan to keep them around for a while, you might want to go the counterpressure route.

If you are going to bottle cases at a time, then a Beer Gun is hard to beat from convenience. I bottle both ways, but bring the Beer Gun out for mass quantities. I like the way I can purge the bottle witch CO2 before filling.

This may be a stupid question but lets say i wanna bottle a sixer from my keg that is cooled and send a couple to a competition through the mail will this "skunk" my beer?

Thanks