We no need no stinking beer gun...

[profbaker11]

This thread is amazing...just did it for the first time with no problems. Had a coffee stout to clear out of the keg to clear up space for my Honey Steam. Thanks guys so much for the brilliant idea!!

 

[Ibanous]

This is great, had the parts I needed sitting around to try this and a test bottle worked great. I'll have to get an extra cobra tap so I don't risk breaking my second tap (untill I get around to building my dual tower) by using it.

I'll also have to drink my test bottle tonight since I didn't sanitize everything.

I think I'll give this a full blown test next week with my IPA thats dry hopping. My last IPA batch I split half in keg half in bottle. I think the hop aroma dulled after bottle conditioning for 3+ weeks. This should allow me to bottle "fresh" from the keg without waiting for carbonation.

 

[BierMuncher]

This thread is amazing...just did it for the first time with no problems. Had a coffee stout to clear out of the keg to clear up space for my Honey Steam. Thanks guys so much for the brilliant idea!!

Um... you're welcome.

 

[Spitfire6]

Thanks for this thread! I am just starting to send some brews in to competitions and just kegged one of the best beers I ever made. No time to bottle condition the other 5 gallons so I tried a further simplified version. I only had a stopper in the size that fits a five gallon carboy so figured I would just press down hard against the top of the bottle, and let up slightly to release pressure. Worked great!

I found that the joint between the stopper and the racking cane leaked slightly when wet with starsan. This allowed pressure release at just the right level and the bottle filled slowly with no foaming. I went back a second time to fill two bottles for storage and the joint was now dry and did not leak. I was able to release pressure at the base of the stopper and control the fill perfectly. Very little spillage.

My only comcern is that I just stuffed the racking cane into my "working" picknic tap. Hoping no wee beasties are growing there. Anyway, it's off to San Antonio!

 

[DustjunkieScott]

I've been doing this for a few months now and wonder how I ever bottled or filled growlers any other way. Thank you very much!

 

[awarner322]

How bad is it on a beer to bottle it off the keg...then store it at room temp?

 

[AdamWiz]

How bad is it on a beer to bottle it off the keg...then store it at room temp?

It's fine. I have limited fridge space, so when I bottle beer from a keg with my beergun I end up storing most of it at room temp. I was worried about it at first, so I did some experimenting where I would take 2 beers bottled at the same time and keep one in the fridge and keep the other in a case in my basement. A couple weeks later I put the warm one in the fridge, waited for it to chill, and did a side-by-side tasting. Both were exactly the same, there were no defects in the one not stored cold. I can't remember where I read this, but I recall hearing that the whole "once beer is cold , it MUST stay cold or it's ruined" concern is not as big an issue as people think. As long as the beer isn't repeatedly going through big temperature fluctuations or sitting at elevated temperatures (above 72 or so) for long periods of time, apparently it's fine.

 

[Adeering]

So finally got my system working with 7' of beer line, a picnic tap, a #2 stopper, a liquid tap connect, and a bottling wand. I took the bottling wand and remove the tip and ground the tip into a 45 angle. Shoved the bottling wand all the way into the picnic tap and taped around the connection. Worked great and bottled 24 bottles off my keg to empty it. No foam at all and worked great.

 

[paparker21]

Did this for the first time last night with pretty good success. Seems like I always had a little bit of foam at the start when the wand is initially empty. I also had trouble finding a pressure that worked well.

 

[21Hokie]

Here's something I found on the net a while ago. Thanks to Ken Schwartz! It rocks!

I am kegging my first two brews in a couple weeks (need to make two more to load all four taps), so I've been searching for a way to bottle from the keg. This looks relatively simple but I did have a couple questions:
1 - where might I pick up an an air chuck for this purpose?
2 - how do I attach the chuck to an air line and the line...does it just attach to the regulator?

Thanks in advance. Kegerator (keezer) almost finished. 4way manifold will arrive Tuesday as will the tap handles! This will allow me to continue to share!

 

[Adeering]

Did this for the first time last night with pretty good success. Seems like I always had a little bit of foam at the start when the wand is initially empty. I also had trouble finding a pressure that worked well.

I found that i had a little better success with a slightly higher pressure than what most say on here. I started around 3-5psi but seemed like i was losing some carb, 7-8 psi works real well for me, i set it wrong once at 10 and that was way too much. I also have about 7 ft of beerline before my picnic tap and im using a bottling wand i modified.

 

[spokaniac]

Wondering how well this would work on a keg carbed at room temp. I have a chilled tap system (an old cornelius President) so my kegs are sitting at room temp rather than in a refrigerator. Consequently I have to have them sitting at 28 - 30 psi to get carbed up.

Would I do the same thing as far as dropping the pressure to 5 psi and filling the bottles then take it back up to put it back on line.

 

[paparker21]

Spok, that sounds correct. If you stay at 30 psi you'll have a beer pressure washer instead of a bottle filler! Your beer doesn't instantly decarb so you don't have to worry about the little time spent at low pressure. You may need to be concerned about room tempt though- cold beer foams less.

 

[spokaniac]

It comes out the tap at close to 32 F because of the chiller. I think the long small diameter cooling coils help keep the foaming down too. In fact I wouldn't mind a little more head on the pour.

 

[paparker21]

I didn't think you'd still go through your chiller coil with this beer gun.... If you'll still be bottling cold beer, you should be a OK.

 

[spokaniac]

I rinsed and sanitized a little 10 oz plastic juice bottle and tried filling that straight from the tap, got about 2 inches of foam so I let the foam overflow a little then screwed the cap on tight. (wanted to take a small sample to a fellow brewer to taste) The foam settled down in a few hours leaving an inch and a half of head space in the bottle. When we poured it into glasses, got a nice head and was still carbed pretty good.

I might have to come up some tubing that will fit on/in those faucets and fill from the bottom up to see if that gets better results.

 

[H-ost]

I rinsed and sanitized a little 10 oz plastic juice bottle and tried filling that straight from the tap, got about 2 inches of foam so I let the foam overflow a little then screwed the cap on tight. (wanted to take a small sample to a fellow brewer to taste) The foam settled down in a few hours leaving an inch and a half of head space in the bottle. When we poured it into glasses, got a nice head and was still carbed pretty good.

I might have to come up some tubing that will fit on/in those faucets and fill from the bottom up to see if that gets better results.

Do you not have a bottling wand?

 

[spokaniac]

I do, just need to find the right size tubing to adapt it to those faucets. Their ID is bigger than a picnic tap and the angle they come out at would result in spilling beer even if it did fit right in.

 

[Prymal]

I do, just need to find the right size tubing to adapt it to those faucets. Their ID is bigger than a picnic tap and the angle they come out at would result in spilling beer even if it did fit right in.

I know it probably obvious but, make sure to sanatize the faucet before filling, if you plan on storing the beer for any length of time. Lots of nasty stuff can live on the end of those taps.

Also I would love to see a picture of the counter top chiller setup you are talking about. I have seen you mention it in a few other threads.

 

[spokaniac]

Here is the chiller. scoured the interwebs for info on it and could not find anything. Then gave up and called Cornelius and they scanned and emailed me the manual on it. Said it was obsoleted in the early '70s. Still works great though (knock on wood)

 

[Prymal]

That is absolutlely bad ass.

 

[Prymal]

I am going to start using this method and have a ton of EZ cap swingtop bottles, both 500ml and 1L. Will the #2 stopper fit those bottles as well?

 

[spokaniac]

That is absolutlely bad ass.

yeah it is pretty cool. Have one keg that is just carbonated water and bought some of the soda stream syrups. Just pour a shot of syrup in a glass then fill it up from the water tap for instant pop. Figure that way I can have a variety and not have to clean soda gunk from the keg since it is only water. (got that idea from another thread)

 

[Gigan]

Im going to give this a go. I made a pale ale that came out beautiful and want to enter a competition with it but they want 2 / 12 oz bottles to judge, I don't want to chance making another batch, Im recovering form surgery and don't want anything to go wrong due to me being pumped up with meds . Thanks for the idea!

 

[awarner322]

Quick question...anyone know if using this method multiple times in one keg is bad for the beer?...like pulling of a six pack on three different occasions...is changing the psi back and fourth effect the beer?...works great just don't want to over do it

Thanks

 

[brettwasbtd]

Quick question...anyone know if using this method multiple times in one keg is bad for the beer?...like pulling of a six pack on three different occasions...is changing the psi back and fourth effect the beer?...works great just don't want to over do it

Thanks

Nope, it takes quite a bit of time for CO2 to come out of solution. So assuming a standard 6-pack fill takes 10-15 minutes and then you set the psi back to normal, the headspace will be filled at the correct pressure. Shouldn't have any adverse affects.

 

[Gigan]

I filled a six pack and four 720ml bottles this afternoon. Was a lil messy in the beginning but buy the 3rd one I had the knack of it. I'll be sending 2 off to a competition and the others are for friends and to see how well it worked. Thanks for the thread!

 

[divi2323]

So I am quite the tinkerer in the shop and this thread (took me two days to read completely) got me thinking. Everyone here seems to use the same setup. picnic tapper => partial racking cane => rubber stopper, and fills the bottle by releasing pressure on the rubber stopper.

What if there was an automatic mechanism to relieve the pressure without having to deform the bung? I'm sure i'm going to kick myself for not patenting this earlier, but what if you hooked up an adjustable regulator to a relieve tube coming out of the stopper? This way all you had to do to fill a bottle would be to secure the bung in the bottle, and fill. the regulator would automatically let out pressure when it got to the right setting, and would keep plenty of resistance in the bottle to keep foaming to a minimum.

 

[kapbrew13]

So I am quite the tinkerer in the shop and this thread (took me two days to read completely) got me thinking. Everyone here seems to use the same setup. picnic tapper => partial racking cane => rubber stopper, and fills the bottle by releasing pressure on the rubber stopper.

What if there was an automatic mechanism to relieve the pressure without having to deform the bung? I'm sure i'm going to kick myself for not patenting this earlier, but what if you hooked up an adjustable regulator to a relieve tube coming out of the stopper? This way all you had to do to fill a bottle would be to secure the bung in the bottle, and fill. the regulator would automatically let out pressure when it got to the right setting, and would keep plenty of resistance in the bottle to keep foaming to a minimum.

Like a store bought counter pressure filler?

 

[divi2323]

Like a store bought counter pressure filler?

Most of the commercially produced fillers have manual valves to bleed off the pressure. I was thinking more of something that'll automatically relieve the pressure once it gets too high.