Problems bottling from a keg

[christopherrburns]

I use the racking cane stopper method to bottle from my keg and seem to be having trouble with excessive foam and flat beer from the half filled bottles. I turn the gas off prior to bottling and purge the keg then turn the gas back up to between 5 and 10 psi. Still get tons of dead space and way too much foam and flat beer once in the bottle. Not sure what i'm doing wrong. The beer line is not super long guessing between 2-4 feet.

 

[gunmetal]

You have to lower the pressure way down. I turn it clear to zero, with the stopper and cane in my first bottle, I slowly turn up the pressure until the beer starts to flow. You want the bottle to fill slowly, you should be able to stop the fill process with the stopper and the counterpressure. I'm guessing it is at or near 2 psi or less. When near full, I pull the cane out and give the bottle a couple squirts to replace the beer from the cane's volume, and cap on the foam. I gave some bottle away around Christmas using this method. Some people did not even open the beer until April, which I did not expect. They said that the carbonation was fine.

 

[JDGator]

I just bottled 12- 22oz bottles of a Kilkenny IRA type clone. I use a picnic tap and 15' of line and part of a racking cane stuck in the picnic tap. After i sanitize all my gear i throw it and the bottles in the freezer for a couple hours. I vent the keg and lower the pressure down to 4-5psi. Hook it all back up and fill the cold cold bottles. I dont usually get more then 1/2" of foam. I fill 3-4 bottles and then cap them. Try to keep the co2 in.

Give this a try!

 

[Bigscience]

I don't even drop the key pressure down. I'll hold the stopper tight and fill as far as it will and then allow the foam to go down. Then I'll slowly burp the stopper a little and repeat the whole process. The key is keeping pressure in the bottle. Also, make sure the wand is a little bit off the bottom.

 

[sawbossFogg]

I just bottled 12- 22oz bottles of a Kilkenny IRA type clone. I use a picnic tap and 15' of line and part of a racking cane stuck in the picnic tap. After i sanitize all my gear i throw it and the bottles in the freezer for a couple hours. I vent the keg and lower the pressure down to 4-5psi. Hook it all back up and fill the cold cold bottles. I dont usually get more then 1/2" of foam. I fill 3-4 bottles and then cap them. Try to keep the co2 in.

Give this a try!

Interesting.

 

[christopherrburns]

I do most of the above with the exception of freezing bottles and using a longer beer line.

 

[Bobby_M]

Longer lines, leave the pressure up. Purging the keg of pressure encourages the beer to lose CO2.. that's why it's foaming.

 

[brewinginnc]

2 psi. 10 psi will spray beer on your ceiling

 

[Dubya]

I never thought of cooling my beer line/picnic tap. However, I've had great success with just 3-5 psi and cold bottles. The only foam I get is when I top off and of course that's what you want to cap on.

 

[christopherrburns]

Thanks all will go a longer beer lines and more frequent purging.