Bottling from keg without a Kegerator

[PrSlater]

I just got my first kegging set up not too long ago. I will admit that I got a little excited about kegging and jumped the gun without realizing how important a kegerator/keezer was to this process (blame it on impatience). but my question is...
I have a chocolate milk stout that has been brewed and carbed at room temp (64 degrees) and I wanted to bottle the beer using Biermuncher's beer bottler. I understand that the beer needs to be as cold as possible for this to work properly. Seeing as I have no access to a fridge to fit a keg in I was going to use an icebath to bring the temps down. I have been kegging my stout at 20 psi room temp and it is pretty good (taste and carbonation ) and I plan on chilling the beer in the icebath and I know with colder beer I should probably turn the psi down to about 10-12 or so because at colder temps 20psi would be waaay to much cO2. I was going to let that sit for a few hours them proceed with the bottling process. does this sound viable? If anyone has any tips for me, or forsees a real problem with this setup I would love to know... Thank you

 

[Pratzie]

ur gonna wanna lower the PSI below 10-12 when u start it, i think they recommend 3PSI or less when bottling from a keg.

Also, make sure to chill the bottles as well, this is very important for foaming.

 

[PrSlater]

Thank you for the quick reply. Sorry I forgot to mention that I had planned on turning the psi down to 2-3 prior to the actual bottling.... as far as chilling the keg down and lowering psi to 10 to maintain carbonation does this sound ok?

 

[Pratzie]

Thank you for the quick reply. Sorry I forgot to mention that I had planned on turning the psi down to 2-3 prior to the actual bottling.... as far as chilling the keg down and lowering psi to 10 to maintain carbonation does this sound ok?

Lowering the PSI to that point won't make a difference unless ur gonna chill the beer and leave it at that point for an extended amount of time, say overnight to a few days. If ur gonna start chilling in the late morning, say around nine, and anticipate bottling around noon, there really wouldn't be much more change in it, however U could do that if you'd like.

For me, i'd just leave the CO2 at the minimal setting while its chilling to keep it pressurized and then just go from there.

Please post back with ur results though, I'd like to know how it all turned out.

 

[PrSlater]

Thank you so much I will... I just wasn't sure if it would make a difference because of the CO2 solubility in colder solutions. I was worried because I have read that a beer perfectly carbed at room temp may turn out flat when chilled to serving temp

 

[Pratzie]

I was worried because I have read that a beer perfectly carbed at room temp may turn out flat when chilled to serving temp

Im not sure how accurate that is. As far as I understand, the temperature affects how it is absorbed, but once it is absorbed, loss of carbonation shouldn't be that much of an issue as long as the vessel is sealed and the Co2 can't leak out.

Make sense if u think of canned or bottled brews. The beer is already carbonated when it is bottled/canned at the brewery. It is then stored at room temperature during transport and until its sold at the beer distributor. Once u chill it at home and then crack it open, its still just as carbonated as it was at the brewery. Either way you could always taste it again when it is chilled and decide if it should carb up again before u start to bottle.

Also, one last thing. There are a few videos on youtube about bottling from a keg. U might wanna watch them to get an idea of what to do. Ive read a bunch of articles on it but never picked up on the "foam up top off" that people do until i watched the one video.

 

[PrSlater]

Again thank you so much Pratzie for the quick response. didn't think about that brewery analogy but well put. I have definitely watched my fair share of vids and that is partially why I was so freaked because they all bottle from a kegerator capping of foam definitely appears the way to go. I planned on doing that plus using O2 absorbing caps so oxygenation shouldn't be a problem (I hope). I will update

 

[Pratzie]

Goodluck dude!