How do I bottle now?

[ThreeDogsNE]

I brewed a batch of hefewiezen several weeks ago. It's a split 10 gallon batch, with Wyeast Bavarian wheat yeast pitched in one carboy, and German wheat yeast pitched in the other. It spent 3-4 weeks in the primaries, and then I racked it to kegs. By that time it was pretty much a kristallweizen. I ended up picking up some yeast and trub towards the end of siphoning, but not a lot.

I brewed this for my daugher's wedding rehearsal dinner, now 16 days off. Today she said she would prefer that the hefeweizen be bottled. It's in kegs, partially carbonated. (I'm passing around the CO2 input between several kegs). It's been there a couple of weeks. Can I now add some wort or a corn sugar suspension and bottle and expect decent carbonation in 16 days? Should I grow a starter just for the yeast, add this into the kegged beer, then finish force carbonating and bottle? I don't have that yeast anymore, so would have to pitch something like the Nottingham or Windsor I have on hand for this, or else buy some. Or should I just try to tell the bride to be it's a kristallweizen that will be on tap, and forget about the bottling? Or, another idea?

BTW, the porter and the Scotch ale will be on tap, so the CO2 tank is travelling anyway.

 

[fineexampl]

unless you can aquire a counterpressure bottling setup and a assload of bottles, you might have to tell the girl the sad truth. the beer is kegged and ready and beer isn't a "right away" kind of creature. that or save it for yourself and get her some Blue Moon.

edit: serve it in bottles fresh from the tap??

 

[Slipgate]

Easy to do - you can force carb in 30 minutes to an hour if you put your mind to it (rock and shake). Then get a counter-pressure bottler and bottle away!

BTW: I would not attempt to naturally carb any of the partially carbed beer now. Good recipe for bottle-bombs!

 

[SweetSounds]

Be careful force carbing. You don't want to overshoot your volumes. It takes time to get back down. If you're going to shake (and you may have to due to time) just shake till you're close, but under carbed, and then let it sit for a few days at serving pressure to come up to the right volume.

As for bottling, just jam a bottling wand into a picnic tap, and fill the bottles with carb'd beer. Then load the capper and thump the bottle on the counter to cap on foam. It's not like the beer is going to be in bottles for long, so I wouldn't worry too much about the process.

Can't help on they yeast though. It might just have to be clear!

 

[Yooper]

I'd carb it up in the keg, then do the Biermuncher bottle filler technique, just gently shaking the keg before drawing off the bottles. That's easy, and it'll get you perfectly carbonated, bottled beer.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/we-no-need-no-stinking-beer-gun-24678/

Bobby_M has a video demonstrating how to do it.

 

[ChshreCat]

I would think you should be able to let it finish carbonating in the keg and then bottle from there using a counterpressure filler or the famous BMBF a day or two before the event and have no problems at all. I wouldn't try priming and bottle carbing at this point.

edit: Yooper beat me again. That's the link to the famous BMBF she has there.

 

[Malticulous]

My hefes bottle condition in four days or less. Of course they have a crap load of yeast still in suspension. Add a gram of T-58 and 16 days is more than enough.

 

[Gregscsu]

Complete the carbing in the keg. Attach a ~10"-12" piece of tubing to your tap, back down the pressure on you kegs to ~2-3psi and bottle slowly, capping each bottle as it is filled. This will allow you to have all the beer carbed, bottled, and ready no problems. If any foaming should occur, just chill the bottles prior to filling.

 

[ThreeDogsNE]

Thanks to all for the help. I bought a picnic faucet and spare racking cane to do the BMBF bottling thing.

It does raise another question for me, though. This is my first pass with kegging a hefeweizen and then bottling it. The kegs are at room temperature in my basement for now. The CO2 solubility table referenced in the BMBF thread show that at 68* I should be pressurizing to 38 psi in order to get the 3 volumes of CO2 that should be true to the style. That seems pretty high for bottling. Am I off base here? Right now they're just at 14 psi.

 

[SweetSounds]

That sounds right.
CO2 becomes a LOT less soluble as the temperature rises. It takes more pressure then to reach the desired volumes at room temperature.