Bottling From Kegs For Competition

[neovox]

I've done well in competitions with my bottle conditioned beers, but since I started kegging I've lost my desire to bottle anything except those brews that require extended aging. I've sent a some beers to competition that were bottled form the keg, but the results have been very hit or miss. Anyone have a process that consistently gives good results? I was thinking of going the beer gun + oxygen barrier caps route, but I'm not sure it's worth it.

 

[brycelarson]

I use a three prong system.

1. Cold is your friend - freeze the bottles, push the beer down as low as you can.
2. Slightly over carb it in the keg.
3. Bottle extra so you can check them.

That gets me nicely carbonated beer in the bottle out of a keg.

I use the chunk of racking can with stopper on a picnic tap and just "fart" the CO2 out. It's much easier to set up than the beer gun and for the number I do it's an excellent option. I had the parts laying around - so low cost as well.

 

[neovox]

I've been doing something similar. I haven't tried freezing the bottles, but hit them with a blast of CO2 using a copper wand I have that's similar to a piece of racking cane. I fill using the same wand with the pressure almost all the way down to limit foaming. I fill leaving foam in the typical head space to limit the Oxygen in the bottle. I have not tried over carbing the beer to compensate for the CO2 loss.

 

[brycelarson]

With the frozen bottles and keeping back pressure I normally get a 1/16" to 1/8" layer of foam. If you're getting the full head space of foam you're burning off quite a bit of carbonation.

 

[jammin]

bowie bottling adapter/wand kit. works great!

 

[neovox]

bowie bottling adapter/wand kit. works great!

I'm using a picnic tap with a 10" copper tube extension. I don't see how this gives me any advantage to the current setup. Am I missing something?

 

[jammin]

^probably not, so maybe you just need to polish your technique?

I get great carbonation and the bottles hold pretty well. I've only stored for a few months fwiw. I was able to drag home several ribbons last year at a BJCP comp with it though.

 

[JPFuller]

Long thread about just this technique, I've started doing it myself recently so far so good. I have some bottles put away for testing later to see how they hold up...

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