Pressure keg started leaking and I had to transfer the entire contents into 2l bottles

[dogflap]

Hey guys.

After primary fermentation, I transferred into a keg and added half a tea spoon of sugar per pint. I wanted a quick sample but there was not enough pressure to dispense from the tap so I added some carbon dioxide. This ended up being too much pressure, as I came back a few days later to a puddle of beer on the floor. As the title says, I had to transfer my beer into 2l bottles due to a leaky keg.

Keeping my precious beer in these bottles is not ideal, as once I crack one open for a pint it will only be a matter of hours/days until the beer is flat. I'd like to enjoy it over the coming months!

My question is this: I now have some spare glass bottles. Could I transfer the beer from the 2l bottles into these glass bottles and then add a pinch of sugar to restart the carbonation? How many times can I just add a bit more sugar to carbonate?

Thanks for your help!

 

[IslandLizard]

Sorry about your keg woes, it's not normal for kegs to leak, even at higher pressure (60 psi is still within normal range). Where did it leak from? New keg or a reclaimed (old) one?

As to your 2l bottles, once they're carbonated, put them in the fridge and once opened, drink ASAP. You can squeeze the air out then tighten the cap. They'll keep better. Plastic soda bottles can also be force carbonated with a carbonation cap. Now you would need one for each bottle you want to actively carbonate at the same time, so that could add up $$. But instead, you can do them consecutively. Or rely on priming sugar.

Keep in mind, each time you transfer beer you stand to risk oxidation. So pouring or transferring them into glass bottles will expose them again to air (containing 21% O2). You may have exposed them already to more O2 than is good for them, due to transferring 2x. It all depends on the methods you used. If you have a slightly leaky keg (not having a hole somewhere), you can easily fix them with the beer in it. Or push the beer into another keg using a "liquid to liquid transfer," so the content never touches air.

Plastic bottles are much more resilient to overpressure than glass ones, in case you add too much sugar. Glass bottles (and certainly growlers) really cannot be force carbonated.

If the beer is still a bit cloudy, there's likely enough yeast left to resume carbonation. It may take a few days to a week before she starts up again. Especially if they were cold stored.