Kegging questions

[brewer413]

I brewed my "Summer beer" a couple weeks ago and will be kegging for the first time in about a week...I was wondering, once the beer has been force carbonated sufficiently, does the CO2 have to be kept on? or can it be turned off, and only used when pouring some beer out?
If the CO2 is turned off, will the beer lose carbonation?

Also, what are people's best ways to bottle beer from keg?

 

[LKABrewer]

The keg is like a big bottle. Once the beer is carbonated properly, you can disconnect the gas and it will stay carbonated (as long as there are no leaks).

 

[beernutz]

Agree with LKA. If you have a manifold between the CO2 and the gas in lines even better.

As to bottling, you can use a growler filler if you pre-chill the bottle and release CO2 from the keg so it is around 2psi. Fill so that foam is out the top and cap on foam. Just make sure the beer is fully carbonated in the keg before doing it this way.

Or you can make a DIY bottle filler/beer gun (plenty of plans have been written for them on HBT) or buy one.

 

[brewer413]

Great! thank you both for the advice

 

[mongoose33]

I recently read on a thread here--can't find it at the moment--about using a 1/2" piece of silicone tubing over the faucet spout. I haven't tried it, but it struck me as perhaps the simplest of all methods. I usually either use a growler filler like beernutz suggests, or my poor-man's beer gun.

But I'm jonesing to try that silicone tube.

EDITED TO ADD: Found it: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/...r-pressure-bottle-filler.649282/#post-8285204