We no need no stinking beer gun...

[TrustyOlJohnson]

I have about a gallon of Munich Dunkel in my keg and I want to put it in bottles to free up the keg to rack my Buffalo Sweat to the keg. Ive been filling growlers usin this method and the BMBG. Im new to kegging and such. What psi have most people been keeping their kegs at to serve and to fill bottles with. It seems like 10 psi a 38 deg may be a good setting


"Sometimes Im right half of the time ...."

 

[TrustyOlJohnson]

Well, the tank had been pressurized at 10 psi, so I vented the keg and set at 5 psi and filled jus under a dozen bottles before the keg kicked. More headspace than I am used to seeing. Tried to cap on the foam. We'll see how things turned out.


"Sometimes Im right half of the time ...."

 

[dpatrickv]

So, I need to bottle up whats left of a keg tonight and move over my oak aged ipa, but I do not have a #2 stopper and wont be able to get to a LHBS this week. What downsides is there if I do this, but do not use a stopper?

 

[Jupapabear]

I never used a stopper before, and I used the spring loaded bottle filler up my picnick tap. Works for me.

 

[dpatrickv]

I never used a stopper before, and I used the spring loaded bottle filler up my picnick tap. Works for me.

Good to hear. How long have you kept those and have they kept well?

 

[Jupapabear]

Been brewing since last november, and they have lasted about 20 batches so far. I've bottled carry outs, and bottoms of kegs a few times with little foaming.

I do bleed the psi down to 3ish.

 

[mwjtennis]

Is the stopper there to prevent foam? Curious if anyone has tried the same setup without the stopper

Edit: sorry saw post from jupapabear after

 

[ThorGodOfThunder]

I like this idea . How long does the beer stay carbonated for ? After you bottle


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If your caps are on tight, forever.

The longest my keg-bottled cider has lasted for is 4 months, and it was as good as day 1. I'm certain I have some of last year's cider around, but I may have given it away. If I can find it I'll let you know how it is after 12mo in a bottle.

 

[Jupapabear]

Any reason to drink aged cider is a good one, says I.

 

[ThorGodOfThunder]

Its so good even when it is young, so I rarely have any aged unless I misplace it in my basement.

 

[E-DUBB]

haven't posted on here in a while, mainly lurking for the past few years. haha!
the OP is right...we do not need a freaking beer gun!
my first attempt at bottling was successful, no issues with foaming whatsoever.
i made the bottling wand a bit longer for growler fills.

if you're having issues with foaming...its either from not fully purging the keg first (before lowering the PSI), over-carbed beer or the serving pressure is too high.

5PSI worked perfectly!

 

[dstranger99]

1. Will the spring loaded bottle filler work just as well as his racking cane with the #2 stopper ? (I have both, just feel the filler would be more suited)

2. I'll be bottling from a warm 2.5 gal keg at only serving pressure as I have no CO2 tank, only the C02 cartridge gun. Should I get the Keg cold before bottling, or does it matter ?

3. My goal is 24 beers that stay carbed with little or no bottle residue. Will this be doable ?.........


I currently have the keg full of a stout that is carbing naturally, only 1 week in, need another 3 weeks before I do this.

 

[Jupapabear]

I use the spring loaded tip on my bmbf. But I do not use the stopper. Works for me. Are you bottling this way to avoid sediment?

 

[yewtah-brewha]

1. Will the spring loaded bottle filler work just as well as his racking cane with the #2 stopper ? (I have both, just feel the filler would be more suited)

2. I'll be bottling from a warm 2.5 gal keg at only serving pressure as I have no CO2 tank, only the C02 cartridge gun. Should I get the Keg cold before bottling, or does it matter ?

3. My goal is 24 beers that stay carbed with little or no bottle residue. Will this be doable ?.........


I currently have the keg full of a stout that is carbing naturally, only 1 week in, need another 3 weeks before I do this.

You can remove the spring loaded portion of the filler on some brands or leave it attached I dont think it matters. alot of people will cut the filler at a an angle 20-45 degrees, but this makes it so the spring loaded portion cant be re-installed.
I use the bottle filler with the stopper, havnt had sucess without the stopper, I think the reason is that the pressure is needed to bring as much o2 to the top for a few seconds, this eventually removes all o2 from bottle,

How are you naturally carbing? do you rack the finished beer ontop of 2.5 oz of corn sugar? If so It should be ready in a week to 10 days, The problem I see with this method is that there is noway to regulate psi and the beer should be finished in a few days. the displaced co2 will be replaced by o2 giving a flat cardboard taste.

I could be wrong, but thats my take on this

 

[dstranger99]

How are you naturally carbing? do you rack the finished beer ontop of 2.5 oz of corn sugar? If so It should be ready in a week to 10 days, The problem I see with this method is that there is noway to regulate psi and the beer should be finished in a few days. the displaced co2 will be replaced by o2 giving a flat cardboard taste.

I could be wrong, but thats my take on this

Yep, natural carb with 2.5 of sugar.

I do have the C02 cartridge gun that will give me the serving pressure to fill the bottles. Wouldn't that work ?

 

[justineaton]

Thanks, I just googled beer gun to look at prices and found this instead. Definitely going to try it before spending all that money on the beer gun.

 

[dstranger99]

Yep, natural carb with 2.5 of sugar.

I do have the C02 cartridge gun that will give me the serving pressure to fill the bottles. Wouldn't that work ?

Quoting myself now, but this did work, 2 shots of the gun produced alot of foam, but 1 shot was perfect for serving pressure. I did this several weeks ago now, and the bottles are still carbed, albeit not heavily, but there is a "pssss" when you uncap.

 

[justineaton]

Worked perfectly. Thanks again.

 

[therackman]

Is this a good method for beer you plan to age in the bottle such as an oak barrel imperial stout? Any disadvantage of this method over priming sugar and bottle conditioning?

I haven't read the whole thread and I wouldn't be surprised if this has already been answered but there is alot of posts to read through.

Any help is appreciated.

 

[ruger988]

Sorry if this has been covered already, but this is a LOONNNGGG thread.

I just started kegging but I'd like to bottle a gallon or two of some batches to age/share. Is this good enough to let a beer age (at room or cellar temps) for an extended period of time and not lose carb, or should I stick with the traditional bottling method for what I'd like to age for extended periods of time?

 

[ivydog]

I think most of the value in bottle aging is in having the yeast carbonate and enhance flavors... I could be very wrong about that. The character will change to some extent, but not to the same degree as bottle conditioning.


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[Thanks_Yeasties]

Skipped pages 40-110 so forgive me if this has been covered, but I am thinking of doing this with a large amount of bottles (125). I had an idea that I wonder if there is any issues with. Instead of putting 10-15 bottles at a time in my freezer to pre-cool them, could I instead freeze some star san, then put those cubes in a bucket of cold star san and just rinse my bottles in that as I go, combining the sanitizing and cooling process into one? Basically setting up a bottling assembly line to get all of these done in one sitting.

Are there any issues with freezing star san?

I know its not all the necessary to sanitize perfectly if they are going to be drank in a few days, or to pre-cool the bottles, but I would rather make sure everything goes well, plus I got nothing else to do, ha.

 

[BierMuncher]

Skipped pages 40-110 so forgive me if this has been covered, but I am thinking of doing this with a large amount of bottles (125). I had an idea that I wonder if there is any issues with. Instead of putting 10-15 bottles at a time in my freezer to pre-cool them, could I instead freeze some star san, then put those cubes in a bucket of cold star san and just rinse my bottles in that as I go, combining the sanitizing and cooling process into one? Basically setting up a bottling assembly line to get all of these done in one sitting.

Are there any issues with freezing star san?

I know its not all the necessary to sanitize perfectly if they are going to be drank in a few days, or to pre-cool the bottles, but I would rather make sure everything goes well, plus I got nothing else to do, ha.

I stopped freezing my bottles some time ago.

I find that a simple rinse in cold tap water is sufficient to cool the bottles and reduce foaming. I found that doing a case at a time on my own was a reasonable task. Any more than that and I would definitely want additional hands to make the process more of an assembly line.

 

[Thanks_Yeasties]

Yes, additional hands will be on deck for sure, I just thought combining the sanitizing and cooling process could be a time saver. Suppose if all of the brews are drank within a few weeks, it wouldn't really matter all that much. Seems like cooling the bottles doesn't have as much of an effect on releasing carbonation as does lowering your keg psi to the right levels and using the stopper to equalizer the pressure in the bottle. Will be trying this in about 2 weeks.

 

[mtnagel]

So i'm definitely trying to perfect my technique, but it seems to be working very well. Except the last time I tried to fill a bottle and the keg blew right while I was filling, but I didn't notice that the bottle was filling up with CO2/foam and then all of the sudden, foam exploded all over my face, shooting my zombie dust clone right in my eye! I probably should have rinsed my eye as it was irritated the rest of the night, from all those hops, I'm sure.

 

[Yesfan]

......I find that a simple rinse in cold tap water is sufficient to cool the bottles and reduce foaming.....

I do this too. I just rinse with cold water and use cold water for the Star-san in my Vinator. No bad foaming issues, even at serving pressure.

 

[Heavywalker]

I tested this out today and have an issue with foaming that I cannot pinpoint. When I am dispensing the beer there is no foam but once I shut off the picnic tap to move to the next bottle the top of the racking cane fills with foam which is discharged into the next bottle.

I think that the racking cane may not be an air tight seal in the picnic tap that is causing this, but I am wondering if anyone else has had a similar issue.

 

[TheZymurgist]

I tested this out today and have an issue with foaming that I cannot pinpoint. When I am dispensing the beer there is no foam but once I shut off the picnic tap to move to the next bottle the top of the racking cane fills with foam which is discharged into the next bottle.

I think that the racking cane may not be an air tight seal in the picnic tap that is causing this, but I am wondering if anyone else has had a similar issue.

Yeah, this will happen because when the cane is in the bottle, the contents in the cane are under pressure. When you remove the cane from the bottle, since there is no cap on the end of the cane to prevent losing pressure, the contents in the cane will foam up, just like the contents in the bottle will foam. The quicker you move, the more you can minimize loss due to this foaming.

 

[TheZymurgist]

As a side note, I skip the cane altogether. The hose that fits into the picnic tap also fits perfectly through the bung, and creates an air tight seal. So I just plug the hose into the tap, run the hose through the bung and into the bottle. I first tried this since I didn't have an extra cane on hand, and it works flawlessly.

 

[budaboff]

A few questions:
1. If I natural carb at room temp, is it ok to hook up gas and fill bottles before chilling keg? Will I even need to chill lines and bottles? Any changes to the "cap on foam"

2. What if I natural carb at room temp and fill bottles under pressure right away BEFORE it is carbonated.

Thoughts?