javert
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- Dec 4, 2016
- Messages
- 69
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Hi doods. I had had enough trouble filling bottles with the Beer Gun and the breakage of the tip seal piece was the last straw for me, so I switched to a counter pressure bottle filler. Now, after getting the jist of the device, bottles come out nicely carbonated and foam doesn't turn the whole bottle into a goner but...
...the filling is DAMN slow.
Some details about the circumstances.
Fridge keeps kegs at about 2 °C (35 °F), carbonating pressure is set to 15 psi.
I use a "Y" fitting to connect both the kegs and the CO2 line used for purging the bottle so the pressure at the CO2 purging inlet is the same than the beer inlet (15 psi).
The beer hose that carries beer from the keg to the counter pressure filler is short, about 3'. I'm supposing that, since the pressurized filling controls the resistance of flow, beer line lenght is no longer an issue as it was with the Beer Gun.
Bottles are ambient temperature. I use chilled Starsan to cool them a bit but since the process takes a lot of time eventually the star sans warms up to ambient.
My procedure right now is to keep the relief valve very slightly open after pressurizing the bottle with the CO2 line to allow a continously low flow of beer that ensures the low foam then, as the liquid hits the neck I open it a little more so liquid outraces the foam. This gets me an acceptable loss of foam but, as told above, results in about a minute or two of time per bottle, which translate to about an hour and a half for an entire keg, and I'm not looking forward to keeping that rythm.
Does chilling the bottles make a big difference here? I don't notice bubbles on the beer line, they start forming on the bottle flow gets high (which means "a reasonable flow otherwise"). Would it be useful to use another regulator to set the CO2 pressure withing the bottle slightly lower than the beer line pressure?
...the filling is DAMN slow.
Some details about the circumstances.
Fridge keeps kegs at about 2 °C (35 °F), carbonating pressure is set to 15 psi.
I use a "Y" fitting to connect both the kegs and the CO2 line used for purging the bottle so the pressure at the CO2 purging inlet is the same than the beer inlet (15 psi).
The beer hose that carries beer from the keg to the counter pressure filler is short, about 3'. I'm supposing that, since the pressurized filling controls the resistance of flow, beer line lenght is no longer an issue as it was with the Beer Gun.
Bottles are ambient temperature. I use chilled Starsan to cool them a bit but since the process takes a lot of time eventually the star sans warms up to ambient.
My procedure right now is to keep the relief valve very slightly open after pressurizing the bottle with the CO2 line to allow a continously low flow of beer that ensures the low foam then, as the liquid hits the neck I open it a little more so liquid outraces the foam. This gets me an acceptable loss of foam but, as told above, results in about a minute or two of time per bottle, which translate to about an hour and a half for an entire keg, and I'm not looking forward to keeping that rythm.
Does chilling the bottles make a big difference here? I don't notice bubbles on the beer line, they start forming on the bottle flow gets high (which means "a reasonable flow otherwise"). Would it be useful to use another regulator to set the CO2 pressure withing the bottle slightly lower than the beer line pressure?