Over the years I had read plenty of mixed reviews about the Blichmann Beer Gun before actually pulling the trigger and getting one for myself. It seemed that the two most common complaints brewers posted about had to do with how beer bottled using the Blichmann Beer Gun could be under carbonated and the overall cost of the Beer Gun. So although I had been interested in a better bottle carbing solution for years I held off on using a Blichmann Beer Gun to bottle my beer for a very long time. That is until I toured the Triumph Brewery in Princeton NJ and saw that they had been using one to fill up their new line of 750ml bottles! I figured if the Beer Gun was good enough for a commercial brewery to use to package their beer then it had to be good enough for me.
Blichmann Beer Gun And Accessory Kit
The Beer Gun and it's accessory kit, which I highly recommend you order along with the Beer Gun, and a two way Wye fitting retail for just under $130.00USD. For the Beer Gun installation in my brew room I decided to add a wye fitting to my existing Co2 gauge in order to add a second shutoff valve to the gauge. The second line would then be used to push Co2 to the Beer Gun for purging the bottles and when the Beer Gun wasn't in use the second line could be used to carbonate or serve a second keg that was in the refrigerator. For me that was a win/win since I often carbonated two kegs at the same time by frequently switching the Co2 line between the gas in post of both kegs until they were both carbonated. The addition of the second gas line would allow me to truly set and forget once and for all when force carbonating two kegs at the same time.
Adding A Second Gas Line
My first installation surprise came when I tried to remove the existing shut off valve from my Co2 gauge. I quickly found out that I would need a bench vise to hold the gauge body in place while I unscrewed the parts from it. Luckily I found an old bench vise on a shelf in the brew room and after a bit of wrench muscling and gently applying Teflon tape to some threads I was able to reconfigure the Co2 gauge using the new wye fitting and shutoff valves.
Removing The Shutoff Valve
After removing the shut off valve from the gauge body I wrapped Teflon tape around it's threads and the threads of the second shut off valve and then put the wye fitting snugly into the vise to hold it steady. As I tightened both shut off valves into the wye fitting I made sure they were both squarely aligned with each other, this was done mainly for aesthetics to make the installation look as neat as possible.
Adding The Second Shutoff Valve
Once all of the fittings were tightened I mounted the gauge on the Co2 tank and marked out the side of the refrigerator where the hole for the second gas line would go. I found that the 5 foot length of 1/4 inch ID tubing that came with the Beer Gun accessory kit was too short for my installation and I bought another 10 foot long length to use instead. Thanks to the swivel connectors on the ends of the Beer Gun lines I can now unscrew the keg end gas connector from the new gas line and in its place screw on the Beer Gun's gas connector. Now that the beer line and the gas line are both 10 feet long I have plenty of slack in the lines to reach my makeshift filling station where I can easily fill my bottles.
Installation Complete And Ready To Fill Bottles
As luck would have it my Blichmann Beer Gun installation coincided with my nearly running out of kegged beer. But I did manage to sanitize and refrigerate a few 12 ounce bottles and test out the new installation by filling them with cold beer. It takes a little time to get used to maneuvering the Beer Gun around the brew room when filling bottles but I did find it easy enough to use, clean and sanitize it though. The beers I had filled I later opened after 3 days and they were perfectly carbonated, I should point out that the beer was force carbonated to 15 psi at the time of filling the bottles. Installing and using the Beer Gun was a fun project and I do look forward to the many happy years ahead of bottling beer without having to use priming sugar.
Blichmann Beer Gun Manual
Vince Feminella [aka: ScrewyBrewer]
www.thescrewybrewer.com
[email protected]
Blichmann Beer Gun And Accessory Kit
The Beer Gun and it's accessory kit, which I highly recommend you order along with the Beer Gun, and a two way Wye fitting retail for just under $130.00USD. For the Beer Gun installation in my brew room I decided to add a wye fitting to my existing Co2 gauge in order to add a second shutoff valve to the gauge. The second line would then be used to push Co2 to the Beer Gun for purging the bottles and when the Beer Gun wasn't in use the second line could be used to carbonate or serve a second keg that was in the refrigerator. For me that was a win/win since I often carbonated two kegs at the same time by frequently switching the Co2 line between the gas in post of both kegs until they were both carbonated. The addition of the second gas line would allow me to truly set and forget once and for all when force carbonating two kegs at the same time.
Adding A Second Gas Line
My first installation surprise came when I tried to remove the existing shut off valve from my Co2 gauge. I quickly found out that I would need a bench vise to hold the gauge body in place while I unscrewed the parts from it. Luckily I found an old bench vise on a shelf in the brew room and after a bit of wrench muscling and gently applying Teflon tape to some threads I was able to reconfigure the Co2 gauge using the new wye fitting and shutoff valves.
Removing The Shutoff Valve
After removing the shut off valve from the gauge body I wrapped Teflon tape around it's threads and the threads of the second shut off valve and then put the wye fitting snugly into the vise to hold it steady. As I tightened both shut off valves into the wye fitting I made sure they were both squarely aligned with each other, this was done mainly for aesthetics to make the installation look as neat as possible.
Adding The Second Shutoff Valve
Once all of the fittings were tightened I mounted the gauge on the Co2 tank and marked out the side of the refrigerator where the hole for the second gas line would go. I found that the 5 foot length of 1/4 inch ID tubing that came with the Beer Gun accessory kit was too short for my installation and I bought another 10 foot long length to use instead. Thanks to the swivel connectors on the ends of the Beer Gun lines I can now unscrew the keg end gas connector from the new gas line and in its place screw on the Beer Gun's gas connector. Now that the beer line and the gas line are both 10 feet long I have plenty of slack in the lines to reach my makeshift filling station where I can easily fill my bottles.
Installation Complete And Ready To Fill Bottles
As luck would have it my Blichmann Beer Gun installation coincided with my nearly running out of kegged beer. But I did manage to sanitize and refrigerate a few 12 ounce bottles and test out the new installation by filling them with cold beer. It takes a little time to get used to maneuvering the Beer Gun around the brew room when filling bottles but I did find it easy enough to use, clean and sanitize it though. The beers I had filled I later opened after 3 days and they were perfectly carbonated, I should point out that the beer was force carbonated to 15 psi at the time of filling the bottles. Installing and using the Beer Gun was a fun project and I do look forward to the many happy years ahead of bottling beer without having to use priming sugar.
Blichmann Beer Gun Manual
Vince Feminella [aka: ScrewyBrewer]
www.thescrewybrewer.com
[email protected]