bottling from a keg ?

ok im gonna be bottling a few bottles from a keg this weekend. And I am using the home made idea way picnic tap with bottling wand and stopper. I question i had is what pressure should i bottle at. Like what pressure should i set the regulator at. How much head room should i leave in the bottle

I usually set mine around 5 PSI. Start lower and add a little pressure until you find where you're comfortable...

Also make sure you chill the bottles as well to further reduce foam. I usually fill them up until a little foam comes out of the bottle.

gotcha should i freeze the bottles??

chaos2984 said:

gotcha should i freeze the bottles??

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Wouldnt hurt, just make sure everything is nice and cool

Fill them completely. When you remove the wand you'll have the correct headspace.

ok alot of good food for thought im sure it will be trial and error

I just use a growler tube attached to the tap, quick puff of CO2 in the bottle, fill until foaming over the top then cap on the foam with an Ox absorbing cap. Won't keep indefinitely but fine for even a few weeks. This is at regular keg pressure too, I don't drop the keg and depressurize just to fill some bottles or a growler.

shelly_belly said:

fill them completely. When you remove the wand you'll have the correct headspace.

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+1

how do you put some co2 in the bottle before you fill it?

I am listening too!

I fill from my kegs all the time and I never reduce my pressure. It's almost always set at 12 psi. I have no foaming issues whatsoever. And I don't freeze my bottles either. All I do is run cold tap water into them first and drain the water out. Also, I don't bother adding co2 to the bottles. If I want to store them for a long time, I shake the bottle a little and cap on foam. That's it!

Don't make more work for yourself! The back pressure from the stopper is what prevents foaming!

chaos2984 said:

how do you put some co2 in the bottle before you fill it?

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If u have a purge u can purge the bottle first to remove some o2. I use a counterpreasure bottle filler so i basically fill the entire bottle w co2 then as it purges out of te valve. The carbed beer fills the bottle. U control how fast u fill by how fast u purge. But w it i can fill and cap a case in aboit 15 min. Perfecr head space everytime amd it can be drank right away or wait as long as u want. Perfect for comp. No sediment in ur bottles either.!! Good luck w it.

gotcha sounds good. i am picking up a stopper tonight for my bottling tube. Also should i boil the caps or just soak them in santized water

chaos2984 said:

gotcha sounds good. i am picking up a stopper tonight for my bottling tube. Also should i boil the caps or just soak them in santized water

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Ive done both with no problem. If the caps are dirty however I would boil them.

well i guess i will just boil them for just the sake of it cant hurt then santatize time anyways

just bottled a few and its alot easier than it sounds. all you need is a picnic tap and a bottling wand thats it. No cork needed or anything else. And the bottles temp does not matter. I had them at room temp and bottled from bottom up. I had about 1/4 in of foam and let it over flow and then caped it. and just washed the bottles off with hot water when i was done.

now what is good for head space. when i took the wand out seemed like a bit much once the bottle was full with the wand in it. I added just a tad more and caped.

I recently bought and tried the counter pressure bottle filler from Morebeer and had pretty good results bottling from a keg. Because my ales are never chilled I didn't chill anything before bottling it. I did a pale ale and it was very foamy and difficult to bottle this way. I also did some stout and a barley wine which were less foamy and a little easier to fill. Both the stout and barley wine had a moderate-low carbonation after opening the bottle and while that is in character to style I am wondering how I can get more carbonation in the bottle.

Does chilling everything just reduce foam or will it increase carbonation in transfer?

?

well if you look at it in a chemistry stand point if you lower the temp of an object the molecoules (sorry spelling) are moving alot slower and are packed together more. I had almost 0 foam maybe about 2-3ml of foam.

I had the bottles are room temp and the beer was cold from the fridge and i took it out and started bottling it from a picnic tap and a bottling wand.

I first tried with a cork on the wand to seal the bottle and that created pressure in the bottle and made a mess. So i took the cork off and filled the bottle and over flowed it a little to get rid of the small foam.

I know beer at room temp is more foammy than cold beer.

I tried putting my bottling wand in my picnic tap and it cracked the tap, I filled my growler with low pressure from the co2 and had a little foam but not bad, I am going to try a few bottle tonight to give some friends a sample of my beer. I would give them each a growler but 1) I like my beer and 2) they are not that good of friends lol.

I use a homemade tube and plug bottle filler also.

I use 1 liter "grolch" style flip top bottles. I drilled a hole in one of the caps to accommodate a hose and the hose attaches to the tap. Enough hose length extends through the cap to reach the bottom of the bottle. I "regulate" the pressure by simply holding the cap against the mouth of the bottle with firm hand pressure (it is never firmly seated into the mouth). This allows excess pressure to bleed past the cap as the bottle fills. This small amount of back pressure is enough to limit foaming and retain carbonation.

Super simple and works great.

I only use bottles to transport a few liters of beer to share with friends. Therefore my beer never stays in the bottle long so oxygenation is not an issue. Fancier rigs will allow you to purge the bottle with C02, but unless you plan to leave the beer in the bottle for an extended time it is not a big issue.

humm i wonder how you broke your tap that way. My bottling wand just slid right inside the tap and i was good to go. i didnt jam it in there, i just slid it in enough so i wouldnt fall out.

I tried this an seem to have foam in the line before it gets to the bottle. What do I do if I over carbonated the beer?