I am covered in Beer....

I am covered in beer from attempting to figure out a good way to transport beer to a party tonight. Using the cobra/rack can/ rubber stopper just ended in me taking a shower in beer. I needed the psi as a MUCH LOWER lvl!!

Anyways I have alot of growlers, and they are really what I would like to transport in. The attempt at using a flip top bottle was because I had a failed carbonation attempt in a growlers. Last night I poured abouit 2 inches of beer into a growler from my tap, screwed on the lid....and left it in my kegerator fridge over night. I was hoping to come open it today and still have it carbed....thus making me feel I can safely fill a few of these guys and bring them to my party tonight without losing carb and wasting beautiful beer. But the beer was flat.....very flat this morning.

I have come up with a few possible reasons why... 1) by filling only two inches of beer the c02 simply left the beer into the remaining air space in the growler. If that is the case then hopefully a full growler wouldnt have that prolem. 2) I have know clue what I am doing and either my lids or method of pouring are not right.

I have read post's of people saying they have plenty of success carrying growlers of their own beer. How Should I do this, so I can do it successfully?! I have seen several approachs used to filling growlers at brew pubs...some just pour right from the tab into a tilted growlers and let it fill to the to overflowing foam until the beer reaches the top then caping. And some have a hose that goes from the tap to the bottom of the jug( to decrease foam?).

I have some tubing so I can either, fill from my tap direct into my growlers fill to top...allow foam overflow and cap. Or I can use the tub method. Also I would chill the bottles before filling. Is that all I need to do? Will this work? OR will i get to the party and open up flat growlers of beer?

Wow, you got quite alot going on there. You are right that you should lower your PSI significantly when filling bottles. You just want enough pressure to push the beer out of the lines. Any more and you will cause more co2 to come out of solution. I usually try for around >3 psi (I think).

Also, the reason why you lost the pressure in the growler was what you said. Too much headspace. If you were to first chill the growler, then lower the pressure in the keg and fill completely, you will be happy with the results.

I also don't think the screw cap growlers hold pressure as well as flip top growlers, so you could be leaking pressure out the lid.

I keep a variety of them on hand, including a few 1L swing tops to use for short trips to parties and such.

#1

Release the pressure in the keg. Put just enough pressure on it to get flow (2-3 psi). It might take 5-6 minutes to fill a growler.

Wouldn't the longer and slower it takes to fill, the more time c02 can be leaving the growler and and beer

You need to read the stickiest non-sticky on the forum.

We No Need No Stinking Beer Gun.

Even includes a video that Bobb M did.

mdf191 said:

Wouldn't the longer and slower it takes to fill, the more time c02 can be leaving the growler and and beer

Click to expand...

Firstly, with the stopper on, the pressure causes the gas to stay in solution (the beer). It's not until you remove the stopper that the gas escapes.

Also, by keeping it moving "slowly" and keeping pressure there you don't agitate the beer - agitating knocks MUCH more gas out of solution that the gradual loss with an open growler.

Gas will escape over time if you put the beer in and left the top off, but it will stay in solution long enough to be closed - a pint stays fizzy while you drink it.

the growlers will stay carbonated for a couple days depending on how much you open them.

I've heard that the metal screw on caps aren't air tight. However; they are water tight. I actually used growlers to carbonate Apfelwein just by storing them up-side down after mixing in the priming sugar (reduces bottling time too).

another thing you can do to keep a better seal once they are filled and capped is to wrap a bit of electrical tape around the cap once on. I have carbonated in quart size and growlers (bottle conditioning) this way. Course, it should not be necesarry if you are filling from the keg just before you take them.