Beer oxidized when bottled from keg

[slurms]

I have one of those nukatap counter pressure bottle fillers that attaches to a faucet on my keggeraror. Bottles are then sanitized and filled with the gizmo from the keg.

I filled a few on Friday night. And on Saturday, it tastes stale already. I assume it's an oxidized flavor. I put a few squirts of CO2 into the bottle, fill it slow, and immediately put an oxygen absorbing cap (for what it's worth). They were filled to what a standard 12oz bottle looks like it should be at.

Anyone have any suggestions as to why it immediately tasted stale? What I can do differently to fix this?

I think the whole "you can purge the bottle before you fill" is a gimmick since you really can't do that, especially when you need to remove the bottle and cap it...

 

[mac_1103]

What kind of beer? Some styles (cough, NEIPA, cough) can show negative effects of oxidation very quickly.

FWIW, capping on foam has been shown to be much more important than pre-purging the bottles. Overfilling the bottles a bit to minimize the headspace also helps.

 

[slurms]

I knew I forgot some info. An American IPA. Not NEIPA hop level, but a decent amount. There was definitely some foam. But I'm wondering if there was too much headspace.

Maybe I'll just try to fill it as much as possible and then cap. Not much need for headspace, right?

 

[mac_1103]

Right, you don't need much headspace at all. And cap on foam means the foam should be overflowing a bit when you put the cap on the bottle.

edit - worth watching this whole video, but capping on foam is at around 1:13:30.

 

[skunkape]

Your best bet would be to drink it all and don't leave any for the next day.

 

[slurms]

Trust me, that's usually the plan. But had to bring some for the family to try. Should just be more selfish next time.. haha

 

[Dland]

When bottling carbonated beer from keg it works to fill and let some foam spill over a bit, then cap. This gets as close to eliminating oxidation as you are going to get. Rinse off outside of bottle before gifting.

Best if beer not over carbonated when doing this, and have bottles on a tray or in sink or something so you don't make as much of a mess...[;

I agree that trying to pre purge bottles is a fools errand, as they say.

When sharing w family, I bottle into growlers or half growlers and tell the recipients they have to drink soon. When doing this I replace usual beer gun w picnic tap with some 3/8 silicon tubing attached to spout, long enough to hit bottom of growler, and fill slowly. When mostly full and foam coming out, cap the bottle and rinse it.

 

[hottpeper13]

I put my caps in 180* water. My issue was when i used the beer gun they were oxidized.With the tap cooler I sanitize the line and tap prior to filling bottles and that has been working for me. But I mostly use it for taking beers out ,then I just sanitize the flip tops and purge and fill. So far the only bottle that went off was the one I forgot to purge.

 

[rallenhall]

I also use a tapcooler, and I can consistently get "dark" fills with virtually no foam. My issue is how to generate a consistent amount of foam to cap. I've tried bouncing the bottles on the counter (little foam generated) to giving a quick shot of CO2 in the bottle at final beer level (often produces gushers). Would appreciate any tips on how to get a consistent, "nice" foam to cap on.

 

[tdf]

I also use a tapcooler, and I can consistently get "dark" fills with virtually no foam. My issue is how to generate a consistent amount of foam to cap. I've tried bouncing the bottles on the counter (little foam generated) to giving a quick shot of CO2 in the bottle at final beer level (often produces gushers). Would appreciate any tips on how to get a consistent, "nice" foam to cap on.

I put both the keg and the co2 into the tapcooler at 7psi. Then I fill till beer is going to come out the side of the stopper, turn it off, lift, and then fill a bit more beer (1-2 seconds). This gives me a nice small overflow to put the cap on.

 

[hotbeer]

I wonder if the stale taste was just them not having enough carbonation any more. I'd recommend you don't leave but a tiny amount of headspace. Any tiny gap you leave to the bottle cap is plenty. Any more is going to be lost carbonation as the beer's carbonation will have to equalize out the pressure in the headspace.

When you pop the tops on bottles with little headspace, you won't get any sound of pressure escaping like you do with beer bottles that have a inch or so (2.5 cm) of headspace. But your beer should still be almost as well carbonated as it was in the keg if you didn't have excessive foaming and capped them quickly.

I'm slightly convinced one of the reasons commercial bottler's of carbonated anything leave so much headspace is that it gives a satisfying phffft sound when opened and lets you know they aren't flat.

 

[rallenhall]

I sometimes fill to the top for my own use, but the "proper fill level" is still cited on the BJCP scoresheet. Getting consistent capping foam on competition beers is where I seem to run into the most problems.

 

[seilenos]

I also use a tapcooler, and I can consistently get "dark" fills with virtually no foam. My issue is how to generate a consistent amount of foam to cap. I've tried bouncing the bottles on the counter (little foam generated) to giving a quick shot of CO2 in the bottle at final beer level (often produces gushers). Would appreciate any tips on how to get a consistent, "nice" foam to cap on.

I've had success with this "quick shot of CO2" method:

• Fill a bottle to the desired level
• turn off the tap (always forget this at least once)
• lower the bottle so just the tip of the straw is in
• give a little shot of CO2 which empties the contents of the straw into the bottle, returning it to the desired level, and agitates enough to fill the bottle the rest of the way with foam.

 

[Brooothru]

I sometimes fill to the top for my own use, but the "proper fill level" is still cited on the BJCP scoresheet. Getting consistent capping foam on competition beers is where I seem to run into the most problems.

Yeah, it always bums me out if I get dinged by some anal-retentive judge who says "too much" or "too little" on my bottle fills for competition. For each entry I usually bottle at least three, often four, and choose the two that have ~2.5 cm headspace. Maybe I'm the one who's anal-retentive.

 

[Skeeter686]

Would appreciate any tips on how to get a consistent, "nice" foam to cap on.

A little bit of the old salt shaker will do it. (Kidding!)

I reduce the temperature of my beer in the keg which adds a bit more dissolved CO2 at the same pressure and helps with maintaining proper carbonation in the bottle.

I can usually generate foam by tapping the bottle on the counter or rapping the side with a spoon. I also bought a little airgun (like you'd use for blowing debris off the workbench) and added a coffee stirrer to the tip, then a flare fitting to the back. A little blast of CO2 into the beer usually does me good. This would probably work even better with an O2 stone on the end, but I haven't bothered with that yet.

I got "good carbonation" as feedback on my beer at a recent local contest, so it seems to work.

 

[seilenos]

I sometimes fill to the top for my own use, but the "proper fill level" is still cited on the BJCP scoresheet. Getting consistent capping foam on competition beers is where I seem to run into the most problems.

I've entered a handful of competitions and the score sheets always have had a spot for bottle notes with no associated points and indicated that bottle inspection does not impact scoring. "Judge the beer not the bottle" and all that.

Is that not the norm?

 

[RyPA]

I personally fill the bottle as full as possible, let the foam settle for a 1-2 minutes, and then do a second fill. This usually lands me with the beer level around 1" from the bottle opening and foam from there to the opening and I quickly cap. I think this is the easiest way to reduce oxygen in the bottle.