Transferring Kegged Beer to Bottles

[djonesax]

I dont bottle beer and have been kegging since my second batch. I would however like to set aside some beer in bottles from time to time and save for enjoyment down the road without taking up keg space. It there anything to be concerned about, if i were to bottle up 5-10 bottles from each batch after force carbing? I would likely store them in the basement fridge for consumption months/years after the kegged beer was gone.

David

 

[m00ps]

Best option would be to get a beer gun. This allows you to purge each bottle before filling. I have one and it works great. I bottle 12 or more of everything I keg to save and they stay fully carbed for months

The next best option would be to make your own from the big DIY thread

But if you just want to go ahead and do it, youll need a ~12" piece of tubing that fits snugly into your tap faucet. You need to bleed all the pressure out of the keg, turn the pressure all the way down, and thrn turn it up on just enough to make the needle move. Then fill your sanitized bottles to the top, a bit over and cap on foam. Itll help if the bottles are cold to minimize foaming

 

[JonM]

Or build a super cheap and effective counter-pressure filler.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=24678

 

[djonesax]

Best option would be to get a beer gun. This allows you to purge each bottle before filling. I have one and it works great. I bottle 12 or more of everything I keg to save and they stay fully carbed for months

The next best option would be to make your own from the big DIY thread

But if you just want to go ahead and do it, youll need a ~12" piece of tubing that fits snugly into your tap faucet. You need to bleed all the pressure out of the keg, turn the pressure all the way down, and thrn turn it up on just enough to make the needle move. Then fill your sanitized bottles to the top, a bit over and cap on foam. Itll help if the bottles are cold to minimize foaming

So leave very little head-space? Also you say they "stay fully carbed for months. Have you found them flat after a certain amount of time?

David

 

[slym2none]

Why not fill bottles that have priming sugar in them before kegging?

 

[djonesax]

Why not fill bottles that have priming sugar in them before kegging?

I guess I wanted the beer to be consistent and also pick and decide which ones I want to save a few bottles of. It just seems easier to fill a few when I need the keg space or have something I want to save.

 

[slym2none]

Cool!

 

[jrcrilly]

I keg what I plan to drink, but I usually bottle some of each new batch to share (some, like the holiday ale, is all bottled for gifting). I used to keg it all and then bottle some from the keg, but that is more work than it sounds like. This is much easier.

 

[SeeMont]

I second the Beer Gun. I noticed that some of my brews tasted better toward the ends of the keg and decided to bottle. The brew gun is easy to use. I rinse my clean bottles and submerge in cold Star San prior to filling. I use about 5 psi. Bottles that I have had well over a year are still great. Good Luck

 

[rawlus]

I fill bottles every once in awhile with a grow
Er filler tube, purge bottle with co2, insert tube from tap line, fill from bottom up, cap on foam. Have not had any problems... It's not counterpressure but not sure I notice the difference. I don't store bottles for "years" tho either. The only bottles I've stored for years have been sours in corked and caged Belgian bottles with bottle conditioning/natural carbonation

 

[m00ps]

Ive only been using my beer gun for 5 months or so, but I havent found any noticeable lack of carbonation from anything older that I bottled with it

 

[burnsie8791]

Or build a super cheap and effective counter-pressure filler.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=24678

I second the ghetto beer gun. I've used one for years when bottling from a keg and it works fine. Cost 6 dollars vs 80

 

[bbohanon]

I second the Beer Gun. I noticed that some of my brews tasted better toward the ends of the keg and decided to bottle. The brew gun is easy to use. I rinse my clean bottles and submerge in cold Star San prior to filling. I use about 5 psi. Bottles that I have had well over a year are still great. Good Luck

I use a blichman beer gun to do bottle fills and it works great. Same experience with bottles being good well into a 6+ month window of bottling them.
I also bottle up beer if I need to free up keg space for the next batch to get racked as I find force carbing with C02 provides a much more consistent end product from a taste/carbing perspective than using priming sugar in the bottle does. Just my .02 on that though and YMMV.

 

[djonesax]

Thanks for the feed back, I have a growler filler attachment for my taps but havent had good luck using it. I'll look into the beer gun or DIY options. I'm glad to hear that the beers are still well carbonated 6+ months later.

David