Question on bottling from keg

[roxbob]

Just wondering if some with more experience could answer a question or two about bottling from a keg. I've recently started doing this with decent results, but the beer seems to lose a little something in the process.

A current example is a recently brewed batch of american wheat beer, which was fantastic from the keg, but after bottling seems to have lost some of it's character and now has little to no head when poured form the bottle (had a great, long-lasting head when dispensed from the keg).

My main question is, should I force carb at a bit higher pressure, to compensate for CO2 lost during the bottling process? For example, if the wheat was fine force carbed at 11 psi, should I up it to 12 or 13 psi a few days before bottling?

My bottling process is as follows:
- force carb the finished beer at an appropriate pressure and temp for the desired volumes of CO2
- bleed the pressure from the keg, and open the tap
- thoroughly sanitize the inside and outside of the tap with star san, using a spray bottle and line cleaning brush
- close tap and increase the keg pressure to ~4 psi
- slowly fill each sanitized bottle directly from keg, allowing foam to come to top of neck
- cap immediately with sanitized cap

The beer ends up fine, just seems to have lost a bit of carbonation and taste in the process. Comments welcome.

Thanks!

 

[ehedge20]

I think you have most of the process right. I insert a bottle filler into the end of a picnic tap and fill until the foam comes up the top. I let the foam settle and then add more until the head space is minimized. Maybe you are leaving too much head space? Do not worry about capping right away as I have not had a problem with sanitation. I usually spray all surfaces with Star-San and close and hvac registers in the area.

 

[fromhereon]

I do everything pretty much the way you listed. However I try to keep the foaming down to almost none and make it a two person job. I'll fill the bottles almost all the way to the top and as soon as the foam start to come over the top I've have the other person cap it as quickly as possible. I haven't experience any bad results but then again I'll use a bottle filler if I want to store the beer in the bottle for any length of time.

I don't know how much foam you're actually getting but you could always check for air trapped in the beer line and chill the bottles. That might help.

 

[roxbob]

Well, the beer usually doesn't start foaming until it reaches the neck, so right now I end up with about 1 to 1.5 inches of head space. Is that too much? I was capping right away to minimize the co2 loss, I wasn't as worried about the sanitation.

I had intended to try the bottle filler method, but since I wasn't getting much foaming directly from the tap, it just seemed like an extra step.

 

[kapbrew13]

Search for we need no stinking beer gun thread. Maybe someone has experienced something similar. I hear your bottles should be cold so co2 doesn't escape while filling the bottles.

 

[roxbob]

Ah, that's a good tip. I wasn't chilling them because I wasn't getting too much foaming anyway, but it couldn't hurt to add that step.

 

[Dok]

Yeah you do need to carb it higher just before you bottle. It is not the filling of the bottle where you are losing gas. You lose carbonation after you cap it and the co2 dissolved tries to equalize with the pressure in the bottle. Less head space will help

 

[kapbrew13]

Yeah you do need to carb it higher just before you bottle. It is not the filling of the bottle where you are losing gas. You lose carbonation after you cap it and the co2 dissolved tries to equalize with the pressure in the bottle. Less head space will help

Fill it all the way up. We don't like any space in the bottle

 

[ResumeMan]

Also, look at either of these methods:

Free (or from spare parts anyway)

Purchased, but cheaper than a beer gun

Either of those methods should do a better job of keeping the beer carbonated during transfer, since it maintains counter-pressure and fills from bottom up.

 

[JuanMoore]

Yep, you'll lose some carbonation during bottling from the keg no matter what. As mentioned, the things you can do to minimize the loss are 1) filling from the bottom 2) putting the bottles in the freezer first to chill them 3) minimizing headspace and 4) reducing pressure (which you were already doing).

 

[Wreck99]

I use the Bowie Bottler. It's awesome!!!