bottling from keg

[daggers_nz]

I am not a beginner brewer but I want to move away from priming bottles with sugar and use a keg to carbonate instead. Are there any reasons not to do this? I have read that if you plan to bottle a beer for more than 6 months such as an imperial stout or Belgian strong ale, that secondary fermentation via priming sugar is better because of the constant fermentation protecting the beer.

If bottled and sealed from a keg, should the beer still last 6 months and retain a fresh taste or is it going to fade after a few days?

thanks

 

[fluketamer]

i used to like to think that oxygen wasnt as evil as everyone says because i always made good beer regardless of how careful i was with introducing o2 into my beer.

however after changing my process and concentrating on diminishing cold side oxidation as much as possible, my beer has become exponentially better. to the point where these days i prolly wouldnt drink what i used to make in the past.

all that said, unless you have a way to bottle without introducing oxygen IMO the beer wont stay fresh as long as it would in the keg.

my 2 cents.

 

[daggers_nz]

i used to like to think that oxygen wasnt as evil as everyone says because i always made good beer regardless of how careful i was with introducing o2 into my beer.

however after changing my process and concentrating on diminishing cold side oxidation as much as possible, my beer has become exponentially better. to the point where these days i prolly wouldnt drink what i used to make in the past.

all that said, unless you have a way to bottle without introducing oxygen IMO the beer wont stay fresh as long as it would in the keg.

my 2 cents.

Would purging with the CO2 help?

 

[fluketamer]

i am no expert and there are threads regarding bottling with little to no headspace and lots of info about capping on foam.

from the little i have read i think i have often seen that purging helps. i imagine anything you due to mitigate o2 would help.

i forgot to ask why are you bottling if you have the ability to keg. if its a matter of portability., i would look into oxybar 4 liters. PET kegs. they are pretty portable and you wont have any o2 problems.

 

[G_robertus]

Purging works very well. It helped my early hoppy beers a lot. Using a counter pressure filler from a keg is better though. I've stored NEIPAs for months this way, but I still prefer them from a keg.
I'm not the biggest fan of Oxebar kegs though. Especially the small ones are very leaky and the original dip tube attachment is horrible and keeps on falling off.

 

[DuncB]

Belgian beers and big beers such as barley wines are best bottle conditioned. They change with time.
I do use a counter pressure bottle filler and it works well but this is purely for competition or taking to brew club.
When I started brewing I saved a portion in bottles from each batch. But going back to beers I made that I was " archiving " they had deteriorated.
With good cold keeping a little Ascorbic acid and the counter pressure bottle filler some beers have lasted well.
Brew club in Wellington tomorrow will tell me if the beers are not too par.

 

[daggers_nz]

Purging works very well. It helped my early hoppy beers a lot. Using a counter pressure filler from a keg is better though. I've stored NEIPAs for months this way, but I still prefer them from a keg.
I'm not the biggest fan of Oxebar kegs though. Especially the small ones are very leaky and the original dip tube attachment is horrible and keeps on falling off.

it would be a corny keg

i forgot to ask why are you bottling if you have the ability to keg. if its a matter of portability., i would look into oxybar 4 liters. PET kegs. they are pretty portable and you wont have any o2 problems.

because I have up to 7 batches on the go, the cost for 7 kegs and a kegorator to fit this is out of the question. I also think I would drink more, as having denominations of 500ml makes it easier to measure

 

[daggers_nz]

Belgian beers and big beers such as barley wines are best bottle conditioned. They change with time.
I do use a counter pressure bottle filler and it works well but this is purely for competition or taking to brew club.
When I started brewing I saved a portion in bottles from each batch. But going back to beers I made that I was " archiving " they had deteriorated.
With good cold keeping a little Ascorbic acid and the counter pressure bottle filler some beers have lasted well.
Brew club in Wellington tomorrow will tell me if the beers are not too par.

Would the rule be <6 months age ok?

 

[hottpeper13]

With big keeping beers I keg with 3-4 oz sugar(5 oz maple syrup for RIS), CBC yeast, then mix well and bottle with a picnic tap. The bottling wand fits inside the tap so you can fill from the bottom. No foam to worry about and they prime in the bottle so little oxygen. If doing super hoppy beers you're gonna wanna purge with CO2. I would set the primed keg in kegerator and use the Tap Cooler to bottle.

 

[Yooper]

I bottled off the keg (still do occasionally), especially for competitions or aging bigger beers.

I use a Blichmann Beer Gun, or the good old fashioned "we don't need to stinking beer gun" for smaller amounts. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/we-no-need-no-stinking-beer-gun.24678/

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

This video (Russian River's Ultimate Guide to Oxygen Management in the Brewhouse) includes a section on repackaging beer from kegs to bottles.

There was some discussion over in AHA forums earlier this spring about what brewers (who consistently score in 40s) are doing with regard to packaging beer for competitions. In some cases, minor changes the bottling process took their scores from consistently in the upper 30s to consistently in the low 40s.

 

[Fixerman]

I force carb and use the Blichmann Beer Gun to bottle my cider. It has two triggers: one for CO2 to purge the bottle, the other to fill. The layer of CO2 keeps the oxygen at bay. I've been happy with the results which seem to hold up for months. I used to use swing caps, but got mixed results even with rubber gaskets. Switched to beer bottles with bottle caps which solved that problem.

 

[daggers_nz]

I force carb and use the Blichmann Beer Gun to bottle my cider. It has two triggers: one for CO2 to purge the bottle, the other to fill. The layer of CO2 keeps the oxygen at bay. I've been happy with the results which seem to hold up for months. I used to use swing caps, but got mixed results even with rubber gaskets. Switched to beer bottles with bottle caps which solved that problem.

Yes we use crown seals exclusively. Thanks

 

[daggers_nz]

my next question revolves around keg size

I realise most of the Corny kegs are 19L (5gal). But we brew in 23L batches. I know that I can't fill the keg with 19L beer, carb then bottle that and then fill the keg with the remaining 4L and carb that as there will be too much headspace. Would it be better to fill a couple of bottles from the full keg, top it up a bit with beer and re-carb the new 19L volume then bottle away?

 

[odie]

I only bottle from the keg if I'm taking beers to a party or drinking within a day or 2.

 

[Broken Crow]

my next question revolves around keg size

I realise most of the Corny kegs are 19L (5gal). But we brew in 23L batches. I know that I can't fill the keg with 19L beer, carb then bottle that and then fill the keg with the remaining 4L and carb that as there will be too much headspace. Would it be better to fill a couple of bottles from the full keg, top it up a bit with beer and re-carb the new 19L volume then bottle away?

to that, you just need an extra smaller keg such as this 1.6G (6L) mini-keg; https://www.aliexpress.com/item/100...|x_object_id:1005007278690903|_p_origin_prod:
I began kegging with a Blichmann Beergun myself for the purpose of force-carbing to bottle as I didn't like the sediment that came with my last sip. As has been mentioned above though; It does not actually exclude all the O2 ..If you're not already aware: the "CO2 blanket" is a myth...the best you get from it is O2-reduction and while bottling this way is fine for a less-hoppy beer that will be quickly consumed, it is entirely unsuited to aging more than a couple weeks...even at 3 days, I could taste the O2 damage to my bitters.
If you want to preserve your beer, your best bet is to use a sealable fermenter, completely closed O2-free transfer to keg, force-carb and leave it in the keg...if you need bottles, then use a counter pressure filler with the intent of it being opened and consumed soon...otherwise; keep it in the keg and serve on tap.
..just my 2-cents.

 

[refect]

Im not sure what kind if faucets you have, but i use the tapcooler counter pressure bottle filler to bottle off the keg. You need to have forward sealing faucets for it to work though.

https://www.morebeer.com/products/t...MI4LLk59PDjwMVFa1aBR1pDQgPEAQYBiABEgJ-iPD_BwE


I have intertap faucets so I rigged mine up with the extension line and a ball lock on the end. I use the ball lock spout attachment and just hook up my bottle filler right to the faucet via ball lock.

https://www.morebeer.com/products/i...MIqujU4tXDjwMVraBaBR1fwDtiEAQYASABEgLDSfD_BwE

I then hook up my co2 to the tapooler bottle filler and purge the bottle with co2. Once it's purged, I slightly pressurize it and open the tap to let the beer flow. The system is sealed the entire time so there is less chance of oxygrn exposure. Once it's fulll and beer is flowing out of the vent, I pull it off the bottle and give the head space a quick burst of co2. This causes a small splash of beer to shoot out of the line and hit the surface creating foam, which I then cap on top of. I've bottled many beers with this method and have not noticed oxidation after months in the bottle. I've even compared my IPAs that I bottled off the keg to what was still left in the keg weeks later and did not see much difference in flavor, or any added signs of oxidation.