Bottling from the tap

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ojaason

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I have intertap faucets with the growler filler attachment. Works great for growlers, but has anyone found a good way to fill a 12oz bottle from the tap?
 
I use something like this.
https://www.morebeer.com/products/stainless-steel-growler-filler-fits-perlick-630ss-650ss.html
I make sure that it and the tubing are cold to frozen. Turn down the psi to almost nothing, bleed off excess pressure in the keg. I then run some off to a glass first to cool the tap down. I then fill the bottle (cold/frozen as well) and cap.

For me it works OK, not great, just ok. I tried to make one of those ghetto counter pressure fillers using a picnic tap, bottling wand, bung etc. but i could never get the thing to stop foaming and felt like i was wasting to much beer.
 
I've found a bottle filler .... with the spring valve removed, fits pretty well in a picnic tap. Bottles cold, pressure turned down and fill'em up.

Following to see if there is a better way!
 
I've done this for a few competitions. I make sure I chill my bottles in a starsan vessel in the fridge, I hook up my growler filler, then I put the bottle into a 1 gallon plastic pitcher and fill it up (no purging or anything of bottle but that wouldn't hurt). Usually there is a good bit of foam that still comes out of the bottle into the plastic pitcher. Once it's full up I slowly pull the tubing for the growler filler out while hitting it a few more times with beer to make sure the bottle is full enough. I then try and cap ontop of the foam to limit oxidation. It's a pain but it does work pretty well. Lastly, I drink the beer that spilled into the pitcher. :)
 
HausBrauerei_Harvey said:
I've done this for a few competitions. I make sure I chill my bottles in a starsan vessel in the fridge, I hook up my growler filler, then I put the bottle into a 1 gallon plastic pitcher and fill it up (no purging or anything of bottle but that wouldn't hurt). Usually there is a good bit of foam that still comes out of the bottle into the plastic pitcher. Once it's full up I slowly pull the tubing for the growler filler out while hitting it a few more times with beer to make sure the bottle is full enough. I then try and cap ontop of the foam to limit oxidation. It's a pain but it does work pretty well. Lastly, I drink the beer that spilled into the pitcher. :)
Click to expand...

This for me but I use flip top bottles for more ease. This means I have to trust those I give bottles to rinse and return, and won't help you if you want competition submission.
 
As others have mentioned, make sure everything is cold. Chill your faucet by pulling off a pint to drink as you bottle (this will also ease the pain of bottling). Chill your bottles in the fridge or freezer well before you start. I keep a few empty bottles in my freezer all the time.

I don't change my regulator pressure when I bottle, but I do throttle down the flow control on my faucet. For a filler I just use a piece of hose attached to my Intertap growler filler attachment. The hose is long enough to reach to the bottom of the bottle. I make sure the bottle is overflowing with foam, then cap on that foam.

Check out this post for a very simple filler.
 
Smellyglove said:
It's some norwegian guys which have made this. I don't know if it's available overseas.
Click to expand...


Found this about a week ago. I dont think its available in USA. If someone finds a way to get one here, let me know.
 
Here's a short 20 second video showing how I do it. Not intertaps, Perlick flow control, same thing. For this to work well:

  • Bottles are chilled.
  • I attach the growler filler and run about a half-glass of beer through the faucet and growler filler to chill them, too.
  • I use a vinator to spritz chilled star-san inside the bottles before filling. I let it drain while filling a bottle, you get into a rhythm that way. I keep the bottle caps in the vinator reservoir so they're sanitized, that's where I'm reaching at the end.
  • I have a couple ice-cube trays filled with star-san. The star-san is chilled anyway, but I put some of the ice cubes in so it's 32 degrees. I don't want the star-san warming the bottle. The guy I'm handing the bottle to in order to cap it came up with that one. Brilliant.
  • I'm capping on foam; that's the slight delay at the end as the foam rises. I've got my buddy helping me cap them, but when I do it solo, I just put the bottle on top of the keezer, grab a wing-style capper, and cap 'em.

 
If I'm filling a few I do this .
20190710_122143.jpg
 
Oberstbrau said:
Sorry about the web site, we really should improve it. (Main focus has been on product development, e.g. the counter pressure can filler to be launched next month). If you don't trust us, you can trust PayPal Purchase Protection.
Cheers,
The Inventor
Click to expand...

I rather like the idea; however, one thing in the video was of concern to me. At the end of filling the bottle, there's still a void on top where there is no foam. I'd guess that's a mix of air and CO2, and thus, O2 is being admitted into the headspace. Is there a way to manipulate this so that doesn't occur? I want to cap on foam.
 
mongoose33 said:
I rather like the idea; however, one thing in the video was of concern to me. At the end of filling the bottle, there's still a void on top where there is no foam. I'd guess that's a mix of air and CO2, and thus, O2 is being admitted into the headspace. Is there a way to manipulate this so that doesn't occur? I want to cap on foam.
Click to expand...
Good point. To get more foam, just increase the filling speed with the pressure relief valve. When using any counter pressure filler, purging the bottle with generous amounts of CO2 with the bottle sealed to the filler before filling and capping on foam, are the two important steps to avoid oxygen in the beer.
 
Oberstbrau said:
Good point. To get more foam, just increase the filling speed with the pressure relief valve. When using any counter pressure filler, purging the bottle with generous amounts of CO2 with the bottle sealed to the filler before filling and capping on foam, are the two important steps to avoid oxygen in the beer.
Click to expand...

What kind of ship time from Norway to the mid United States?
 
I use a 1" piece of silicone hose. Nothing else. I don't prechill bottles or the faucet either. Nor do I adjust my keg pressures.

1. Hose slips over the end of the tap and I shove the bottle up to seal the tap. You need a tapered faucet (Intertap or other similar shaped faucet nozzle) to create a tapered sealing surface which you will be manipulating. Basically a cheap counter pressure devise.
2. Pull and hold the tap open. Bottle fills about a third with minimal foam and then stops flowing once bottle/keg pressure are equal.
3. Still holding the tap open I move the bottle a little to the side to crack the seal and bleed pressure very slowly. Beer starts flowing again into the bottle with minimal/no foam. Tap still held fully open. Continue to "work" the seal open/close as the bottle fills up.
4. When the bottle is full, about 1" from the lip, you release the tap while maintaining the seal.
5. Carefully remove the bottle from the tap, I move the bottle to the side to crack the seal slowly in case it wants to spit a bit of foam as the pressure is relieved. You might get a little foam or slight foam "spit" or nothing at all. Cap your beer....I use Grolsch bottles with the flip tops, fast and easy.

Takes me about a minute per bottle I guess. Never timed it.

I'll be bottling later today for friday night at the cigar shop...I'll take some pics.
 
I stick the bottle up to the faucet and pull the handle. When the bottle is just about full I push the handle back. Then I cap it.

I've done this for friends and competitions. Never a complaint about carbonation, head retention, oxidation, or off flavors.
 
I did that at first...but was wasting lots of beer when trying to purge the foam out of the bottles before capping. Maybe 25% waste, maybe a lot more.

Now I waste 0.01% it seems. I don't even use a drip tray/bucket/towel anymore when filling.
 
odie said:
I did that at first...but was wasting lots of beer when trying to purge the foam out of the bottles before capping. Maybe 25% waste, maybe a lot more.

Now I waste 0.01% it seems. I don't even use a drip tray/bucket/towel anymore when filling.
Click to expand...

Someone (you?) posted about this maybe a year ago. I tried it, was never able to get it to work well.

And then I never heard anything about it again....until you just posted on it.

One question: are you able to cap on foam, or do you have empty headspace in the bottle?
 
It wasn’t me...it was on some “don’t need no stinkin beer gun” post or something like that. I just fill them and flip the cap on.
 
I noticed you added the O-ring to the faucet attachment. I did the same thing. It's necessary when building up some pressure in the bottle, otherwise it leaks there.
 
I believe it came with the oring. It was a growler filler nozzle I repurposed. The regular nozzles all came with orings too. It’s easier to swap the nozzles than to pull the hose off and push it back on.
 
I have four Intertap faucets, and a growler filler attachment. None of them came with nozzle O-rings. Maybe they made a change to add the O-rings some time after I bought mine.

I find they're not needed for serving beer, but necessary for bottle filling.
 
I also have intertap faucets. They all come standard with O rings. The change must have went in within the last 3 years. I think that's when I purchased mine from morebeer.com
 
Mine are from Albia. Chinese eBay. Kinda a cross between perlicks and intertaps. I’m happy with them
 
ojaason said:
This is amazing. Where did you find this?
Click to expand...

So I received my Tapcooler bottle filler last week. Today I had some time to try it out. Murphy’s Keg law allowed me to fill one bottle and then when filling bottle number two, the keg kicked. So my review is with a very small sample size.

I own a Last Straw Bottle filler so that is what I’m comparing to. The Tapcooler bottle filler is super easy to use. Easy to sanitize, easy to clean. Hardly any mess.

The silicone cap seals well around the bottle to make the counter pressure keep foaming to a minimum. I’ll use this bottle filler from now on.

Here is the bottle I filled. With some practice getting a perfect fill should be easy.

63DAD8CD-43BF-4428-ADCC-A22FE5FBA729.jpeg
707B65EC-4B70-49F8-AC96-A15AD2B47B61.jpeg
 
NTexBrewer said:
So I received my Tapcooler bottle filler last week. Today I had some time to try it out. Murphy’s Keg law allowed me to fill one bottle and then when filling bottle number two, the keg kicked. So my review is with a very small sample size.

I own a Last Straw Bottle filler so that is what I’m comparing to. The Tapcooler bottle filler is super easy to use. Easy to sanitize, easy to clean. Hardly any mess.

The silicone cap seals well around the bottle to make the counter pressure keep foaming to a minimum. I’ll use this bottle filler from now on.

Here is the bottle I filled. With some practice getting a perfect fill should be easy.

View attachment 643003 View attachment 643002
Click to expand...


Hey may i ask about the Tapcooler, if you feel that the screw release pressure valve, the push valve, the straw or the silicone cap are well made, or they could easily break in some way ?

it is really hard to get any feedback about this Tapcooler, there are not many review on the net, and no one that explained if is possible to take it apart to sanitize.

thanx in advance.
 

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