Bottle kegged beer

[Lex82]

Hey Everyone,

I know this has been talked about many times, but I wanted to know what the experts thought on a method of bottling already kegged and carbonated beer. I know everyone is going to say "beer gun" or the makeshift one on these boards, but what if I purge all the co2 out let the beer go flat in the keg then prime and bottle? Would that work? Time is not a factor for me. I'll tell the story for everyone's amusement. I brewed a 5 gal batch of NB's saison without ever trying a commercial equivlent. Let's just say it is not my cup of tea. I only have two cornies and a dual tap kegorator, and I want to make room for beer that I like and give out the saison to people that will drink it.

Let me know what you guys think.

Thanks

 

[SD-SLIM]

Hey Everyone,

I know this has been talked about many times, but I wanted to know what the experts thought on a method of bottling already kegged and carbonated beer. I know everyone is going to say "beer gun" or the makeshift one on these boards, but what if I purge all the co2 out let the beer go flat in the keg then prime and bottle? Would that work? Time is not a factor for me. I'll tell the story for everyone's amusement. I brewed a 5 gal batch of NB's saison without ever trying a commercial equivlent. Let's just say it is not my cup of tea. I only have two cornies and a dual tap kegorator, and I want to make room for beer that I like and give out the saison to people that will drink it.

Let me know what you guys think.

Thanks

I really wouldnt recommend going thru the process of uncarbonating your beer and re-carbonating in a bottle bucket...way to many chances of screwing up a perfectly good beer....however if you just dont care for this beer than maybe it's worth the risk. While I understand a beer gun is not a possibility for you, there is a cheaper version in the dyi section called "we dont need no stinkin beer gun"...you probably have all the stuff to make it now or if not it couldnt cost more than $10 and it would insure that you bottle your beer accurately.
Now matter what you do, I hope it works out!

 

[jbrookeiv]

Bottle it and send it to me!

 

[pcollins]

This may not be what you want to hear but I would go with the beer gun method or makeshift beer gun on the board.

You've got finished beer that is carbonated and ready to go. I personally wouldn't add the numerous steps to get the beer flat, prime, siphon, etc. It's ready to be bottled now so just go for it.

I also realize you said time was not a factor for you but the keg is full of stuff you don't want to drink. Empty it and get it full sooner with stuff you do want to drink.

Just my philosophy.

 

[atomiclunchbox]

What I have done is just drop the keg pressure really low, fill the sanitized bottles and then quickly cap on a foamy head. These will not last indefinitely but I drank a bottle 3 weeks out and it still had a decent amount of carbonation. Within 2 weeks would be best. I am just to lazy to counter fill when I only bottle 4-6 beers per keg.

 

[Bombo80]

I put together the poor man's bottle filler. For under $3 you can do it too. A number 2 drilled stopper and a piece of straight racking cane. I would think since you are kegging that you have the picnic dispenser tap. The racking cane should fit snuggly inside it. Just slide the drilled stopper to the proper depth for your bottles, turn down your CO2 pressure to around 5psi, and start filling your bottles. I woul dalso have your caps prepped and ready to go too.

Happy bottling.

 

[KevinM]

Agreed. Beergun. Cost me a 3 bucks (racking cane, upside down stopper.)

However. If there are situation where you do wind up draining the beer and it does become uncarbonated, then yes. You can recarb. I'm actually doing this for a single gallon that I needed to test something with. I actually drained the last gallon from my keg and stuck it into a gallon jug with an airlock and sufficient gelatin to try stripping some tannins (sorghum test). and will be bottling some of it (once I have bottles) or tossing it into some plastic bottles and force carbing then.

I just don't recommend it, and say it's better to do the makeshift beergun.

 

[Spartan1979]

I just bought a Beergun. Worked great. Much better than the counter-pressure bottler I used to use.

Anybody want to buy a counter pressure bottler?

 

[kpr121]

The racking cane/#2 stopper works so well in a picnic tap that I dunno why anyone would waste time or money on something more elaborate. It has actually made bottling much more enjoyable when compared to priming and conditioning because you can fill fairly quickly at around 15 psi (my beer line is 10 ft), the beer is drinkable immediately (good for taking to parties), and there is little to no sediment on the bottom of the bottle to worry about (good for those of us who occasionally enjoy drinking from the bottle).

 

[Lex82]

If I make my own beer gun how long will the brew last before it starts going flat?

 

[kpr121]

If I make my own beer gun how long will the brew last before it starts going flat?

Indefinitely. It should hold exactly the same amount of carbonation as when poured, as long as you cap the bottle fairly quickly (within 5-10 minutes) and correctly. If you want to get fancy, you can slightly overcarb the beer prior to bottling, to take into account that some of the CO2 will come out of suspension during the process, but I have never found this to be necessary.