Kegging most of my first beer, but bottling a few

[psotos]

So if I am only going to bottle a few beers to give away to friends, with the majority of my beer going into a keg, how much starting sugar to I put into each bottle? I'm probably only going to bottle around 10 beers.

 

[trevorc13]

Don't use priming sugar. Use carb tabs. I use the ones that look like cough drops. They make the perfect carbonation. I have done this a few times and works really well. Just make sure to flood your keg with co2 before kegging to avoid any oxygen.

 

[ChefRex]

What style of beer? I have used 2 grams in a saison, the same would be too much in a stout. If you do not have a accurate scale I would recommend against it, bottle bombs and all

 

[nestler]

I would also recommend carbonation drops/tabs rather than trying to do something with priming sugar here as it makes things simpler: fill your bottles, put a carbonation drop into each bottle, then put the rest of the beer in your keg.

If you use a priming sugar solution it becomes more complicated as you probably wouldn't want to mix it into the entire batch (to avoid putting it into the part that is going into the keg). I guess you could mix sugar into the entire batch and then carbonate your keg that way (instead of with forced CO2) but this complicates dealing with the keg.

Carbonation drops simplify things in this case.

 

[TheBrewingBear]

The other option is to bottle from the keg. Plenty of people do it. Some use a broken bottling wand, and others use soft tubing.

Do a search for beer gun.

 

[sputnam]

+1 to bottle from the keg. If you wait about 2-3 weeks you'll have clear beer with no lees in the bottom. I'm currently using a growler filler, it's super easy and convenient. The only downside is you should drink them within 4 or 5 days due to carb loss. I'm still doing some tests and trying to come up with a method to extend that....i have a theory to try soon.

 

[pablosbrewing]

+1 to bottle from the keg. If you wait about 2-3 weeks you'll have clear beer with no lees in the bottom. I'm currently using a growler filler, it's super easy and convenient. The only downside is you should drink them within 4 or 5 days due to carb loss. I'm still doing some tests and trying to come up with a method to extend that....i have a theory to try soon.

I use a counterpressure bottle filler

• fills/pressurizes the bottle with CO2 (no oxidation)
• fills bottle with beer slowly venting the CO2 out (no foam)

This is probably the simplest to use, there are others and you can make your own.
http://morebeer.com/products/deluxe-counter-pressure-bottle-filler.html?gclid=CLDrzMyT4L0CFYt9OgodS0IANw

 

[Ster]

I prime the whole batch, bottle some, and keg some. However I only use the 1 gallon minikegs. I let them sit for a few weeks just like the bottles.

 

[geoffm33]

I would recommend bottling from the keg as well. You can build your own makeshift counter-pressure bottle filler from a picnic tap, sawed off racking cane and #2 stopper.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/we-no-need-no-stinking-beer-gun-24678/

I use it and it works well.

When done right, the beer is transferred under pressure with minimal loss of co2 and a purging of almost all o2. There are folks in the thread above that have stored bottles filled that way for a year+ with no detectable loss of carbonation or introduction of oxidation.