Bottling from Nitro Keg?

[jerkbag]

Hi All,

Has anyone tried filling a bottle or two from a nitro setup? I have a RIS on Nitro and was wondering if it would be worth trying to bring a bottle to a friend's to sample. It would be in the bottle for a few hours max before drinking. I have a (homemade) bottling gun and a growler filler. Do you think it would work, or just be a waste of (really good) beer?

Thanks!

 

[jppsav]

Me too. Or fill my growler works growler with it and put on co2

 

[eulipion2]

You've probably figured this out by now, but I'll answer for anyone else who may be curious. It's not really that great to bottle a nitro beer. Since the nitrogen doesn't dissolve into the beer, and there's only a small amount of CO2, the beer's going to be nearly flat.

If you somehow manage to fill a growler directly from your nitro tap, it's going to take forever due to massive foaming.

If you use a beer gun I imagine the high pressure would lead to foaming as well. You could drop the pressure before filling, I guess, but you'll still be a short on CO2.

A counter-pressure filler could potentially over-pressurize the bottles, leading them to explode in your face; if the bottles hold, I'd guess removing the filler would also result in potentially explosive foaming.

A brewery near me actually does growler fills from a nitro tap. I made that mistake once (didn't realize the beer was on nitro), and it took forever to fill, and the beer was completely flat when I opened it at home.

All this being said, if you just want to give the friend a taste of the beer, and he/she doesn't mind that it's mostly flat, I say go for it, just don't expect a nice Guinness-like head.