We no need no stinking beer gun...

[Cheesefood]

I used the BMBF tonight and I nominate it for DIY of the year!!!

So easy! I probably spilled less beer than I did bottling with the wand. Worked like a champ. After seeing people bitch about their Blichman's, I was thrilled that this is so easy.

A $.65 stopper and a broken racking cane. No tubing, just E.F.'d it in the picnic tap. Filled 4 bottles in no time.

 

[Grimsawyer]

The other thing is that I tend to grab the bottles out of the bucket to go cap and leave the cane sitting in the bucket while I'm off capping the bottles.

Just easier cleanup at the end.

I was at the LHBS at lunch today picking up some odds and ends and saw a beer gun for sale.

Man that thing looked complicated.

I read this thread a long time ago and tried this. I found, though, that if I put a Bottling tip on the racking cane then you don't drip all over the place. You have to goof with where the stopper is set but after you get it there no dripping. I always use oxygen absorbing caps. all this fuss about oxygen ruining beer imho is all for nothing. If you do up 5 or so bottles at a time what bubbles up from sitting there will make a nice layer of co2. Just fill 1 up and sit and watch it. You'll see what I mean. Then cap them with oxygen absorbing caps. no worries then! =)

 

[Philip1993]

I used the BMBF tonight and I nominate it for DIY of the year!!!

I second that nomination. This needs some pics and a wiki entry.

A $.65 stopper and a broken racking cane. ... Filled 4 bottles in no time.

Ditto for me.

 

[Sea]

This is great!

I had resigned myself to the fact that I would have to buy a beergun soon, but now I can cross the stupid thing off the list

Thanks BM.

 

[BierMuncher]

Here's the benefit...

These took about 45 minuts to fill on Thurdsay night for a party out of town..

4 Hours later you can see that the end product was obviously well received:

 

[Brewing Clamper]

The beergun was one of the things the SWMBO was getting me for Xmas. I told her not to because I wanted to try this method. I tried it out today. I can see where this can work really well; however, I think I need to practice more. After filling a 12-pack, I probably lost almost 2 beers! I'm still getting substantial foaming. I dropped the PSIs to ~3-4, using 3/8" line, cold bottles. The only thing I notice is that since I'm using a complete racking cane, there might be an issue there somewhere. Anyone have video of this method that I can check out? I know it's been asked before, but I figured maybe someone had done it by now...

 

[BierMuncher]

Even though you turned the PSI down...did you bleed the pressure from your kegs first?

I made that mistake.

Also, if you can get your cane down to 15-18 inches that might help.

One more thing. Is the tip of your racking cane cut at an angle. If not, this would cause a lot of back pressure where the cane hits the bottom of the bottle and cause foaming. If it's cut at an angle, the beer will flow with less restriction and less foaming.

Lastly...make sure to apply enough pressure on that stopper to slow the flow.

 

[Philip1993]

Even though you turned the PSI down...did you bleed the pressure from your kegs first?

I made that mistake.

Also, if you can get your cane down to 15-18 inches that might help.

One more thing. Is the tip of your racking cane cut at an angle. If not, this would cause a lot of back pressure where the cane hits the bottom of the bottle and cause foaming. If it's cut at an angle, the beer will flow with less restriction and less foaming.

Lastly...make sure to apply enough pressure on that stopper to slow the flow.

I think the magic is in the cane length and the stopper seat. I use a 14" cane with a bevel cut, and a solid seat of the stopper. I can fill room temp bottles (70*) and lose maybe 1 tbsp per bottle. I lose more beer from drippage than foam.

 

[Brewing Clamper]

I'll try those soon. I did bleed the pressure from the kegs, which is why I was surprised at the amount of foam. I'll cut my racking cane down at an angle and see how that works. Thanks guys.

 

[WC87]

and I'll be trying the BMBF in a few weeks! Thanks for the tips guys.

 

[jdoiv]

Ok, I've used the BMBF several times over the last couple of months. It works fairly well, but I've had my share of foaming and spillage (mostly due to drinking heavily whilst doing it). Some of the tips though are going to make this even easier. I'm going to go chop up one of my stainless racking canes that I don't use to make BMBF v.2.0. I'll also remember to cut the pressure down, vent the keg, and release the tap when releasing pressure from the bottle (the last one really is just operator error).

 

[Philip1993]

Out of curiosity, I just filled a 12pk and caught all the overflow, drippage, etc. in a bucket. I made no abnormal effort to reduce spillage, all of the bottles were topped off. At the end, I dumped the contents of the bucket into a kitchen measuring cup. I had just shy of 8oz of beer.


Note: No beer was harmed in the filling of the bottles. All uncontained beer was safely stored in a warm, self-expanding container for further processing.

 

[BierMuncher]

Out of curiosity, I just filled a 12pk and caught all the overflow, drippage, etc. in a bucket. I made no abnormal effort to reduce spillage, all of the bottles were topped off. At the end, I dumped the contents of the bucket into a kitchen measuring cup. I had just shy of 8oz of beer.


Note: No beer was harmed in the filling of the bottles. All uncontained beer was safely stored in a warm, self-expanding container for further processing.

Sounds about right.

I did two twelves last nite and had about a cup and a half. Putting those bottles into a bucket sure makes things easier.

NOTE: I fed the overflow to my dog...she loves Oktoberfast.

 

[Grimsawyer]

With an expensive beer gun/etc... is there overflow? I'm not investing in one. Never had use, i have the BMBF, just curious. BTW, if you take your time you don't get any spillage... takes more time though.

 

[Funkenjaeger]

I suppose it's only fitting that since I was the first one to ask for a video, I should have to finally get off my butt and make one
So here it is, just to demonstrate how easy it is. Pop it onto the bottle, open the tap, once the flow stops squeeze the stopper with your thumb, let it fill until some foam comes out, let off the tap, pop it out of the bottle, and cap it.
And yes, you can fill it faster than I did in the video - get a rhythm and it's really quick, as the other guys have said. Even being slowed down by taking videos, we still filled a 12-pack in just minutes, and lost only a couple tablespoons of beer.

Sorry the video quality isn't great, I should have had more light so you could see the beer level better - but take my word for it, there was not much more than 1/8" of foam on the beer while filling.
[YOUTUBE]ow7rUf0TgPg[/YOUTUBE]

 

[jdoiv]

Ok, I made some modifications to my racking cane and tested out my BMBF v2.0 today.

What I did. I took a stainless racking cane I had laying around and don't use anymore and cut the angle off. I cut on a bias so that it would cause less foaming. Then I stored it in my freezer. I sanitized some bottles, cut the pressure to the kegs down to 4 or 5 psi and released the pressure from the keg (well on the first keg, forgot on the second and only bottled 2 bottles off it anyway). I did not chill the bottles and had very little foaming. In all I bottled up just over half a case of 12 oz'ers and 9 or 10 16 oz'ers. I found that if I didn't seal the stopper too tight in the bottle, I could control the flow by just stretching the stopper a little bit to release the pressure as it built up. Made filling fairly fast. Here are pics of my BMBF v2.0.

And a close up of the bias on the tip.

I had been thinking of buying either a beergun or a counterpressure filler, but not anymore. As little as I plan on bottling from the keg, this will do the trick nicely. I think I'll start bottling up a 6 or 12 pack from each batch that I deam worthy and sending them out for comps and beer swaps.

 

[BierMuncher]

...Sorry the video quality isn't great, I should have had more light so you could see the beer level better - but take my word for it, there was not much more than 1/8" of foam on the beer while filling.

Nice Vid...

The only thing I do differently is to have a "spit" cup near by. I go ahead and start my flow into the spit cup to purge air out of the lines...then use my (clean) finger to cap the end and move over to start bottling.

It appeared to fill alittle fast...what was your PSI set at? Mine usually takes a good 40-45 seconds to fill at about 5 PSI...with the excess pressure bled off the keg.

Thanks for the video.

 

[Funkenjaeger]

The only thing I do differently is to have a "spit" cup near by. I go ahead and start my flow into the spit cup to purge air out of the lines...then use my (clean) finger to cap the end and move over to start bottling.

Sounds like a good idea. Though, when I was filling several in a row I had pretty good luck just going straight from one to the next while keeping the tube mostly full of just beer, though it would require someone handing me bottles quickly to keep that up.

It appeared to fill alittle fast...what was your PSI set at? Mine usually takes a good 40-45 seconds to fill at about 5 PSI...with the excess pressure bled off the keg.

I had it set somewhere in the neighborhood of 5PSI, though I'm not 100% sure of the exact setting as my regulator is hidden behind the kegs in the back of the fridge, so it was sort of eyeballed. I did purge the keg first. The faster filling is probably due to the fact that I'm using 1/4" ID tubing instead of 3/16" ID beverage line. So far I don't see much need to switch, as I can successfully fill without much foam, and it's plenty fast.

 

[BierMuncher]

Sounds like a good idea. Though, when I was filling several in a row I had pretty good luck just going straight from one to the next while keeping the tube mostly full of just beer, though it would require someone handing me bottles quickly to keep that up.

I only do that for the first bottle. I usually set about 10-12 bottles inside a bucket, nice and close to each other so I can move about pretty quickly. The tube won't drip (and pick up bubbles) until you pull it completely out of the bottle and if they're very close, you can quickly move from one to the other.

Nicely done...

 

[Funkenjaeger]

I only do that for the first bottle. I usually set about 10-12 bottles inside a bucket, nice and close to each other so I can move about pretty quickly. The tube won't drip (and pick up bubbles) until you pull it completely out of the bottle and if they're very close, you can quickly move from one to the other.

Oh, okay - in that case, I usually do the same, especially since I run some starsan through the line first so I need to purge the remainder of that anyway. I didn't do that in the video as we were too busy screwing around trying to get a decent 'take'
I will likely do another video the next time I fill some bottles, to include that step, as well as probably showing the sequential filling of multiple bottles (to show how painless it really is), and of course do it with better lighting conditions so you can more easily see what's happening in the bottle. And if I get real adventurous maybe I'll narrate so it's a little more instructional.

 

[WC87]

Awesome stuff! I just got my drilled #2 stopper via UPS, and will be assembling and testing my BMBF this weekend!

 

[flippindiscs]

Well it's funny, I stumbled upon this blog this morning as I was gearing up to use my new counter pressure bottle filler from Braukunst. I saw the simplified version using a racking cane and a stopper and said to myself…
well if I bought the real thing it must be easy and work the best....

ehemmm...
The counter pressure filler is the most stubborn and hard to use piece of brewing equipment I own!!!

I followed the directions and all of the tips I read on the blog this morning and filled 8 bottles in 30 minutes while losing about 6 bottles worth in the process. Now I feel that I am pretty competent in my brewing ability. I have been all grain for 2 years, have been brewing for about 5, and can figure out how to use/build anything I need within my brewery.. (or so I thought)

See if anyone can figure out what I did wrong:
- I chilled all the bottles to almost freezing temps so the bottles were just as cold (if not a little more) then the beer.
- Hooked the CO2 line of the gun into a 10psi empty corny for purging the bottles.
- Hooked the beer line into an Alaskan Amber Ale Clone corny.
- Released the pressure on the keg.
- Brought the beer up to 4psi in the keg.
- Purged the bottle before filling, and gently allowed the beer to enter to bottle.
- The bottle would fill 1/4 of the way up and then turn into a mountain of foam.
- Once the bottle was filled all the way... (after numerous four letter words) I would attempt to have my wife cap it but unfortunately the beer was continuing to foam out of the bottle pushing the cap off the top making it extremely difficult to cap (thank god I have a determined wife to help me with capping). The lag time between filling the bottle and capping it was only a few seconds.
- I then immediately refrigerated the bottles that were filled out of the batch to see if this ordeal was even worth it. After one hour in the fridge I popped one to see… No CO2 smoke, and the beer seemed like it was going flat. It did have some carbonation to it but nothing like (not even close) when it is running out of my kegerator.

Here is what I feel might be the problem..
1 - Cold beer with CO2 foams when it hits warmth, thus the filler was room temp when I started and never got to be as cold the beer while I was filling bottles. With the BMBF, it is one beer line with a plastic racking cane so it cools very quickly to the temp of the beer thus minimal foaming/.
2 - The Braukunst filler sucks.


Overall, it looks like I will officially be stripping down my pressure filler for parts unless someone else wants to take it off my hands.

 

[El_Borracho]

Well it's funny, I stumbled upon this blog this morning as I was gearing up to use my new counter pressure bottle filler from Braukunst. I saw the simplified version using a racking cane and a stopper and said to myself…
well if I bought the real thing it must be easy and work the best....

ehemmm...
The counter pressure filler is the most stubborn and hard to use piece of brewing equipment I own!!!

I followed the directions and all of the tips I read on the blog this morning and filled 8 bottles in 30 minutes while losing about 6 bottles worth in the process. Now I feel that I am pretty competent in my brewing ability. I have been all grain for 2 years, have been brewing for about 5, and can figure out how to use/build anything I need within my brewery.. (or so I thought)

See if anyone can figure out what I did wrong:
- I chilled all the bottles to almost freezing temps so the bottles were just as cold (if not a little more) then the beer.
- Hooked the CO2 line of the gun into a 10psi empty corny for purging the bottles.
- Hooked the beer line into an Alaskan Amber Ale Clone corny.
- Released the pressure on the keg.
- Brought the beer up to 4psi in the keg.
- Purged the bottle before filling, and gently allowed the beer to enter to bottle.
- The bottle would fill 1/4 of the way up and then turn into a mountain of foam.
- Once the bottle was filled all the way... (after numerous four letter words) I would attempt to have my wife cap it but unfortunately the beer was continuing to foam out of the bottle pushing the cap off the top making it extremely difficult to cap (thank god I have a determined wife to help me with capping). The lag time between filling the bottle and capping it was only a few seconds.
- I then immediately refrigerated the bottles that were filled out of the batch to see if this ordeal was even worth it. After one hour in the fridge I popped one to see… No CO2 smoke, and the beer seemed like it was going flat. It did have some carbonation to it but nothing like (not even close) when it is running out of my kegerator.

Here is what I feel might be the problem..
1 - Cold beer with CO2 foams when it hits warmth, thus the filler was room temp when I started and never got to be as cold the beer while I was filling bottles. With the BMBF, it is one beer line with a plastic racking cane so it cools very quickly to the temp of the beer thus minimal foaming/.
2 - The Braukunst filler sucks.


Overall, it looks like I will officially be stripping down my pressure filler for parts unless someone else wants to take it off my hands.

You need to build a BM bottle filler.. Cut the crap, go with the best. Who's the best? BM's the best.

 

[SAS98M]

Quick question-Would a wine bottle filler tube-the one with the little valve in the bottom work on this ? The valve would cure the run-off (dribble) concern between bottles no ? And the tube would remain on the bottom (to keep valve open)during filling as the stopper is pinched to relieve pressure right ?
I'm gonna make one too........

 

[newguy]

well got my BM-CPF all made up today and I'm going to try and fill a case on Sunday. Can't wait to try it out!

Cheers,

 

[BierMuncher]

Quick question-Would a wine bottle filler tube-the one with the little valve in the bottom work on this ? The valve would cure the run-off (dribble) concern between bottles no ? And the tube would remain on the bottom (to keep valve open)during filling as the stopper is pinched to relieve pressure right ?
I'm gonna make one too........

People have done that with good results.

Just remember to use the stopper as your "regulator". You really want to control that flow to a nice, steady, slow fill.

 

[Bobby_M]

This ought to make it clear. I go into dreadful details on my process but you'll have to live with it. I catered to people who might not have had the benefit of reading this thread.

 

[Lil' Sparky]

Great video, Bobby. I like the little opening and closing bits you've added!

I'm definately going to build one of these!!

 

[Grimsawyer]

That was AWESOME!!!! I can get my beer to come out and I dont lose much, about a tsp/ bottle... But I've always done it at 20psi.... Screw that, i'm turning it down next time I bottle! AWESOME Video!!!

 

[Bobby_M]

You know, I just realized that this video shows another example of why the autosiphon is just one of the best values going in homebrewing. There are plenty of people with all kinds of alternatives to starting siphons. I probably use mine as a sanitizing pump at least as often as I use it for racking. It's frickin $9 people!! Buy two.