growler bottling ;)

[heferly]

question...can i bottle into a growler to carbonate? the answer is no...

but my question is, i have a stout that's been aging in a growler on chips and bourbon for awhile now, and i'm not sure how to get it out! i've already figured i'll use carb drops for if/when i get it in the bottles (adding yeast of course).

i've searched, and all i can find is those stupid 'bottling in a growler' threads. anyone done this before with good results?? i'd hate to lose my little experiment...

many thanks

 

[Special Hops]

Pretend it's a small carboy and siphon it out.

 

[CGish]

Pretend it's a small carboy and siphon it out.

^This^

And if using your regular siphon system bothers you, try this.

 

[heferly]

siphon 2 beers worth? might have to invest in the 1 gal siphon or something...seems like i'd lose a bunch during transfer, but i'm not sure what else i can do

 

[audger]

pressurized CO2 transfer would help here. if you can seal the top somehow and pump CO2 in, and have another legnth of tube going into your bottling bucket... thats the way to go.

 

[heferly]

thinking about that...would have to try and build some sort of device...

gas mfl to female mfl->compression fitting, to really narrow piping into bung?

might work...

 

[mack65]

I carbonated a stout in a growler before. Put in about 1/2 a tsp of sugar and used the he-man grip on a good cap. Left it for a few months to age and came back to a highly carbonated beer.

Maybe not ideal, but I had about 1/2 a gallon left over after filling a keg and didn't want to throw it out.

 

[Wyrmwood]

I've bottled small amounts of beer using a sanitized funnel. Your growler should be 64 oz, so 5 bottles should do, especially if you have some trub and chips and such. This would work especially well with the carb drops, or you could put one half ounce of corn sugar (10 growlers in a 5 gallon batch, 5 oz / 10 = 0.5 ounce) in a half cup to a cup (depending on amount of chips/trub) of water and boil it, then after it cools, pour it through your sanitized funnel into a second sanitized growler, then carefully pour the first growler into the second growler, leaving the trub and chips behind. Then stir (or shake) and pour out into your 5 (or maybe 6 at this point) bottles. Cap and leave sit as normal.

 

[Special Hops]

I've bottled small amounts of beer using a sanitized funnel. Your growler should be 64 oz, so 5 bottles should do, especially if you have some trub and chips and such. This would work especially well with the carb drops, or you could put one half ounce of corn sugar (10 growlers in a 5 gallon batch, 5 oz / 10 = 0.5 ounce) in a half cup to a cup (depending on amount of chips/trub) of water and boil it, then after it cools, pour it through your sanitized funnel into a second sanitized growler, then carefully pour the first growler into the second growler, leaving the trub and chips behind. Then stir (or shake) and pour out into your 5 (or maybe 6 at this point) bottles. Cap and leave sit as normal.

I would be worried about oxidation using a funnel. Maybe purge each bottle with CO2 prior to filling them.

 

[Wyrmwood]

I would be worried about oxidation using a funnel. Maybe purge each bottle with CO2 prior to filling them.

The yeast will eat up the O2 (in fact it needs it to carb the beer). Purging won't hurt though. There should be enough O2 in suspension.

 

[heferly]

I think I'd also have oxidation problems. pushing with co2 is on my mind...

 

[audger]

The yeast will eat up the O2 (in fact it needs it to carb the beer). Purging won't hurt though. There should be enough O2 in suspension.

this is only really true for the main fermentation. the small amount of yeast with a small amount of food will not consume all the oxygen in the bottle.

I carbonated a stout in a growler before

all that means is that you got very lucky and didnt have a half gallon grenade go off in your kitchen. growlers arent meant for carbonating, with very good reason.

 

[LuiInIdaho]

^This^

And if using your regular siphon system bothers you, try this.

+ 1 on the One-Gallon Auto Siphon. We do a lot of one-gallon batches of wine. Have tried different ways to siphon off the wine, but the small auto siphon works best with the least amount of loss.