Bottling from a keg?

[AMillyInAir]

Hi all,
I am new to home brewing and my first brew is currently underway! The beer has been fermenting for ~3 days at this point and everything looks good (as far as from what I can tell) and I am looking ahead to read about carbonation and storage of the beer. I was fortunate enough to get a starter kit with a kegging system (also came with priming sugar if bottling was desired). From what I can gather which kind of bums me out is that you really should go with just straight kegging or bottling rather than carbonate the beer by kegging then after which transfer to bottles. Thinking ahead because kegs aren't exactly portable. This is more a curiosity than anything and I am interested to hear people's take on this.
Additionally, I do not have a way to keep keg cool as of yet (68F ambient temp) which I assume would have some effect on bottling from a keg if possible.

 

[firerat]

Bottling from a keg isn't hard at all.

Take a picnic tap and jam a bottling wand in the end. Fit a stopper that fits your bottle to the bottling wand and slide it down so as putting the wand into the bottle depresses that wand valve button thing at the bottom. Slowly fill that bottle and "burp" the pressure as need by pulling up on the stopper. Cap and enjoy.

Here's WAY better explanation of what I'm yammering about.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/we-no-need-no-stinking-beer-gun.24678/
If you want to get fancy you can purge the bottles first with CO2 or if you are really fancy you get a beergun.

https://www.morebeer.com/products/blichmann-beergun-v2.html

 

[Jag75]

It depends on the beer imo. If I brew a beer that's really strong or something that you wont sit down and have one after the other bottling those is what i do.

I keg most of the time and bottle here and there . I do bottle from my tap though by inserting tubing up the faucet and then slide the bottle up to the faucet making sure the tube reaches the bottom of the bottle . The only time I keg a beer then turn around and bottle all of it is when I'm making an IPA for someone as I dont want to bottle condition . When I do that I ise a beer gun . I want IPA to be as free from o2 as possible .

If I were you I'd bottle this time since you have no way to keep the keg cold .

 

[Jag75]

Btw , welcome to the HBT forum !

 

[Gnomebrewer]

You won't be able to bottle carbonated beer from keg until you can chill the keg. It'll be a foamy mess.

 

[firerat]

Oh yeah where are my manners, welcome to HBT!!

 

[Gnomebrewer]

Yeah, welcome to HBT!
Also, whether you use a homemade gun or a bought one like the blichmann, you will get some oxidation after a few days to a week (even if you purge with CO2). Not a bad level (not tasting like cardboard) but a lot of the nice, fresh flavour disappears. You can reduce the oxidation by using a counter pressure filler, but they're a bit of a PITA. I'd suggest only bottling a day or three before drinking them.

 

[Jag75]

Use this calculator for bottle priming

https://www.northernbrewer.com/pages/priming-sugar-calculator

 

[Davedrinksbeer]

This is all you need to bottle from the keg.

 

[jpakstis]

If you're talking short-term portability (i.e. going to a party or dropping some beer off to buddies, etc.), I use growlers. Bottling from the keg is fine as everyone mentions above, but I would only do it if I was thinking about long-term storage. And the few times I've done it, I bottle 22 ounce bomber bottles. I have happily sworn off 12 ounce bottles since I started kegging!