kegg+carbonation > bottle in one day?

[klinus]

Hi! Me and my homebrew partner have recently joined a small homebrew club, with a little more equipment than we had in the kitchen.
We're bottling our beer, and because small apartments etc going to continue to do so (much easier and takes up less space to store bottles in the basement and keep a couple in the fridge than building a keggerator).
But it would be nice to have bottles without sediment, therefore we've started to discuss a kegg just for carbonating.

My question is, is it even possible to transfer the beer over to a kegg, carbonate it, (shake it?) and then bottle it in one go, say a couple of hours?
I've looked at both blichman beer guns and pegas taps (and the chinese copies), which one do you prefer?


thanks!

 

[Dcpcooks]

You would see a lot of inconsistencies in carbonation levels with a 30 psi force carb and fast transfer to the bottle but it could be done with practice. You could look at setting up a carb stone to decrease the time it takes or you could look at the quick carb from blichmann.

Any of the guns work as long as you can top off with a little co2 at the end. I've used a blichmann for a few years and it works well.

You will need to have clean well conditioned beer in the keg and it will need to be cold for a good quick carb to happen and no sediment to transfer over but it's possible if you can crash your beer and get it cold before you move it.

 

[-CHRIS-]

With the right equipment it is certainly possible. I have a Blichmann QuickCarb and can fully carbonate a beer in about 2 hours. That being said, even after a healthy cold crash and transfer to a clean keg, there is a lot of nasty crap in the beer. I find that the beer needs to sit another 3-5 days before it tastes its best. You could transfer the green beer, but I think you will still get minimal sediment in your bottles.

Chris

 

[normonster]

Are you talking about transferring to a keg and trying to force carb warm? Going to be a huge challenge if you can't cool it down. Either way, force carbing in my experience made for some seriously foamy pours, something you don't want going on with your beer gun.

Once you have a fridge to cool it down with you might as well adopt the tried and true method of set and forget, then bottle it out of the keg after a week or two.

Another option you may not have considered is to transfer it over to 2L plastic bottles, put a mini Co2 tank in your main fridge and carb in there in the plastic bottles using some of these badboys! You could then drink it straight from the 2L's or you could actually hook up a beer gun to them and bottle to glass. Just a thought. Instead of a whole Co2 tank you could also do it with these.

 

[MagicMatt]

I don't see how what you're implying will get rid of the sediment in the bottles. If when you transfer beer to bottles you have say 'x' amount of sediment, then you'll have the same amount of sediment if you first transfer to a keg, then to bottles. You're not letting the keg sit and drop bright for any period of time, so the beer that comes out will be no less sediment-rich than the beer that went in.

On the other hand, if you keg and let it carbonate over say a week or two instead of an instant force carb, then the beer should be considerably clearer and when you bottle you will have less sediment than if you bottled right away (provided you pour off the first pint or so to clear the bottom of the keg).

 

[klinus]

I don't see how what you're implying will get rid of the sediment in the bottles. If when you transfer beer to bottles you have say 'x' amount of sediment, then you'll have the same amount of sediment if you first transfer to a keg, then to bottles. You're not letting the keg sit and drop bright for any period of time, so the beer that comes out will be no less sediment-rich than the beer that went in.

On the other hand, if you keg and let it carbonate over say a week or two instead of an instant force carb, then the beer should be considerably clearer and when you bottle you will have less sediment than if you bottled right away (provided you pour off the first pint or so to clear the bottom of the keg).

Hi all, thanks for the replies! We actually have a fridge at the homebrew club, so our procedure today is to cold crash it, and then a couple of days later return for bottling (with priming sugar). From what I understand the sediment in bottle fermented beer is mostly the yeast that carbonated it, right?

What I would like, if possible is to cold crash the fermenter for a few days, come back, transfer to a keg, carbonate, transfer to bottles, and bring those bottles home.

Sounds like a pegas or even better a Quickcarb is the right way to go?

 

[Dcpcooks]

Yes most of the sediment is from bottle conditioning the beer with sugar.

Cold crashing will drop a lot of the yeast and get you ready to force carb. Time and gravity are your friends so if you push it you may still get a touch of sediment.

Maybe it's better to spend money on a co2 tank and regulator instead of a quick carb. You could cold crash for a few days . Transfer to the keg and carb it at 12 psi for two weeks. This will drop even more yeast out then bottle with the beer gun. That process will yield the clearest beer with the least sediment.

 

[MagicMatt]

Hi all, thanks for the replies! We actually have a fridge at the homebrew club, so our procedure today is to cold crash it, and then a couple of days later return for bottling (with priming sugar). From what I understand the sediment in bottle fermented beer is mostly the yeast that carbonated it, right?

What I would like, if possible is to cold crash the fermenter for a few days, come back, transfer to a keg, carbonate, transfer to bottles, and bring those bottles home.

Sounds like a pegas or even better a Quickcarb is the right way to go?

Ah OK I got you now. The fact that you're cold crashing prior to bottling would make sense.