Hello from Fresno, CA

TheMinionsThree · Jul 31, 2014

I am new to home brew and have been bouncing around this site for a little while trying to better understand some of the tricks. I took the plunge and bought a full brewing setup and began to brew. So far I have had very good luck and good results. I decided to keg and not bottle for various reasons. Earlier this week I racked and carbed my first beer. I will post details in correct section but wanted to say hey to everyone and thanks for all the good tips and DIY (I love DIY projects)

ICWiener · Jul 31, 2014

Welcome aboard!

normonster · Jul 31, 2014

Cheers dude...I'm just across the hill in Sonoma.

I registered after having seen your post just to tell you that you can also bottle with just the addition of a capper and some caps. I bought the beergun because I wanted to be able to bottle from my kegs (I also have a kegging setup) and I've found that it is easier and yields the same results to just use a party keg tap with very low pressure, fill bottles (tilted almost sideways, bringing more vertical as it fills so as not to create foam - use a very long piece of tubing before tap) and cap. I haven't stored any of my beer for long but it has all been great doing it this way and I've bottled about 15 gallons worth of beer so far.

I see these cappers for sale on craigslist all the time so you can probably pick one up cheap. It's a pain to remove labels from some beers but I swear Lagunitas uses a glue that is specifically designed to encourage homebrewers to reuse their bottles....emptying them is fun too.

TheMinionsThree · Jul 31, 2014

normonster said:
Cheers dude...I'm just across the hill in Sonoma.

I registered after having seen your post just to tell you that you can also bottle with just the addition of a capper and some caps. I bought the beergun because I wanted to be able to bottle from my kegs (I also have a kegging setup) and I've found that it is easier and yields the same results to just use a party keg tap with very low pressure, fill bottles (tilted almost sideways, bringing more vertical as it fills so as not to create foam - use a very long piece of tubing before tap) and cap. I haven't stored any of my beer for long but it has all been great doing it this way and I've bottled about 15 gallons worth of beer so far.

I see these cappers for sale on craigslist all the time so you can probably pick one up cheap. It's a pain to remove labels from some beers but I swear Lagunitas uses a glue that is specifically designed to encourage homebrewers to reuse their bottles....emptying them is fun too.

Thx normonster - I plan on doing exactly that. My kit came with a capper and caps. I planned to do this only for sharing and quick drinking (not long storage). Figured if i was going to share I would use my growlers.

On the label trouble, I use PBW mixed in 5 gal and soak bottles. Labels fall right off after few hour soak. I love PBW!

TheMinionsThree · Jul 31, 2014

normonster said:
Cheers dude...I'm just across the hill in Sonoma.

I registered after having seen your post just to tell you that you can also bottle with just the addition of a capper and some caps. I bought the beergun because I wanted to be able to bottle from my kegs (I also have a kegging setup) and I've found that it is easier and yields the same results to just use a party keg tap with very low pressure, fill bottles (tilted almost sideways, bringing more vertical as it fills so as not to create foam - use a very long piece of tubing before tap) and cap. I haven't stored any of my beer for long but it has all been great doing it this way and I've bottled about 15 gallons worth of beer so far.

I see these cappers for sale on craigslist all the time so you can probably pick one up cheap. It's a pain to remove labels from some beers but I swear Lagunitas uses a glue that is specifically designed to encourage homebrewers to reuse their bottles....emptying them is fun too.

Thx normonster - I plan on doing exactly that. My kit came with a capper and caps. I planned to do this only for sharing and quick drinking (not long storage). Figured if i was going to share I would use my growlers.

On the label trouble, I use PBW mixed in 5 gal and soak bottles. Labels fall right off after few hour soak. I love PBW!