Corny keg, the evolved bottling bucket

[Bobby_M]

I don't bottle too often, but recent batches of specialty beers like Flanders Brown and RIS are too rare to have free flowing from a keg so I decided to bottle it all. Holy crap, I forgot how tedious this is.

First, I stopped using my bottling bucket for its intended purpose and it's now a utility bucket for grain hauling or cleanup water. No way I'd put good beer in there now. I thought about using a spare better bottle and autosiphon to bottling wand it but it would be difficult to stir in the priming solution.

My solution is to fill a sanitized keg under Co2 blanket, add priming solution, seal and shake (well, rock more than shake). What better way to make sure the priming solution is fully distributed? No oxygen exposure. Also, with a constant 2psi applied, no need to use gravity.

I got lucky and found a beer QD with a 3/8" barb on it but I suppose you could jam the bottling wand into the end of a picnic tap and achieve the same thing.

In any case, it's my new bottling bucket, period. All pros, no cons.

 

[blackwaterbrewer]

that is genius! i have a 9 month old blueberry mead that i need to bottle but have been dreading it. i also used my bottling bucket to mix grout, so it is no good. i will be making a corny bottling set up today! thanks for the idea, dude!

 

[jtd_1]

My bottling bucket hasnt been used for bottling in over a year (been brewing for approx 20 months).This is the way ive been doing it. I believe i got the idea from this board a long time ago. Anyways it is very easy to do. I just use a BMBF attached to the keg. In fact it was in this thread yesterday.

<https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/1-batch-keg-some-bottle-some-technique-157389/>

 

[killian]

I have been doing this for about a year, I got the idea from BMBF also. I brew 10 gallon batches, usually I bottle 5 gallons and once that is done I just use the same keg to keg the other 5 gallons.

 

[r2eng]

I keg, force carbonate, and use Biermuncher's bottling wand from the keg.

Maybe too lazy, but that's me!

 

[mordantly]

r2: how come you get an animated avatar and i don't?

 

[r2eng]

'Cause I'm an animator!

It's simply an animated GIF file. Your avatar can be easily converted, and would be a great one!

 

[DKershner]

I got lucky and found a beer QD with a 3/8" barb on it but I suppose you could jam the bottling wand into the end of a picnic tap and achieve the same thing.

No need for a bottle wand in that case, just use a racking cane or other tubing.

Also, for those who want to go closer to Bobby's design for natural carbing in bottles,
http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing/kegging/soda-kegs-fittings/ball-disc-1-4-mfl-liq.html
Plus
http://www.mcmaster.com/#5346k35/=5fj6kp

Would be the exact thing he used. You can also find the hose fitting at homedepot or probably Lowes, they just dont have an online page for it. 3/8 barb with 1/4" FFL is the important part.

 

[krispy d]

I've used a counter pressure bottle filler for years. Nothing like bottling off the keg!

 

[klyph]

I just realized the other day that a corney keg with a picnic tap would make a much better bottling bucket than a carboy and a siphon. Sure enough, someone thought of it before me.

 

[r2eng]

And checkout "we don't need no stinking beergun" by Biermuncher (I think it's a sticky)... works like a charm!

 

[Boerderij_Kabouter]

Brilliant... and idea stolen. I will be using this next week.

 

[klyph]

I'm not sure if some of the posters in this thread realize, but he's talking about using the corney to mix his priming sugar and then dispense it into bottles. Different that the Biermuncher bottle filler.

 

[Bobby_M]

Yeah, thanks for the clarification. Of course, BMBF gets used plenty but that's a post carbonation tool. I'm talking about bottling an entire batch here which I would NEVER do with a BMBF.

 

[jtd_1]

Yea, i think we are all on the same page. I was just talking about using the bmbf as an attachment to the keg. it beats the hell out of using a bottling bucket that's made of plastic.