We no need no stinking beer gun...

[kapbrew13]

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.

Auto pressure regulation would be eazy peazy. ..and cool. I'll try out your prototype.

 

[Tall_Yotie]

Too bad that most release valves start at about 10psi, and we are filling at 5psi. I might search for a 5psi valve and fill at 6. It would click-fill, as it were. Ok, off to build!

edit: forgot that the pressure will be higher as the gas temperature will be higher than that of the liquid in the keg. I guess an adjustable pressure relief valve or chilling the bottles really well will be required.

 

[divi2323]

Even a trigger to release pressure would work if a regulator can't be found. Something operated by one hand. Thumb to start the pour and a trigger finger to release pressure. I'm just thinking of something a little more elegant than deforming a bung or operating valves without a return spring

Originally I thought about two cobra taps back to back. One to fill. One to release pressure

 

[Bacon488]

My 2 cents: I bottled a Best of Show winner using the BierMuncher bottle filler. 7 months later, it's still really good. (And it's only 3.3% with low hops, so it's on the fragile side of things.) The setup just plain works. I'm fairly sure that I got the idea from this thread, so thanks, BM!

 

[CS223]

Did 32 bottles for the first time tonight and this method worked great.

 

[jdjtexas]

Cant wait to try this!

 

[DogTail]

my question is why not just take a 12 to 14" tube and wedge it in your tap spigot and use that instead of using a pick-nick faucet. I had been doing this for quite some time prior to finding this thread and it works great. I do plan on trying to find a stopper and threading my tube through it to create additional pressure in the bottle while filling and see how that goes.

Has anybody else already tried this with epic failures?

 

[dmbnpj]

I am just setting this up and noticed that the racking cane slides really easily through the stopper. It seems like this is going to pose a problem?

Yup as expected, I tried one bottle and air escapes out so it never gets to the point where the beer stops flowing out of the tap due to pressure buildup. Anyone else have this problem?

 

[r2eng]

Yep, there are oversized holes in stoppers, and undersized canes! Look for ones that slide together when wet, but not easily.

I have learned a bunch of things that have improved my brewing, techniques, etc. from this forum. This is, without a doubt, the most "slap your forehead", why the hell didn't I think of this, saved me $ thing I have used.

BM's my hero!

 

[BronxFireGuy]

Has anyone used this to age a beer, say between 6-12 months? As long as your process was correct I would expect you would retain all the CO2 that was initially in the bottle and it would be able to sit at cellar temp (mid 50's) for that long and not go flat?

 

[r2eng]

More than 18 months - no issues whatsoever.

Keep in mind, your capping is what will retain the carbonation!

 

[BronxFireGuy]

Thanks for the quick reply r2eng. I brewed the NB bourbon barrel porter, and I wanted to keg and force carbonate, and then bottle about half for aging. I'll just keep in mind ensuring I cap on foam.

 

[TheEndlessObsession]

Hmm... Just tried to connect the racking cane and picnic tap and it cracked the tap. Should I replace the tap before trying this or do you think it will matter in the end? That is to say, as long as it isn't leaking, is it good to go?

 

[kapbrew13]

Hmm... Just tried to connect the racking cane and picnic tap and it cracked the tap. Should I replace the tap before trying this or do you think it will matter in the end? That is to say, as long as it isn't leaking, is it good to go?

you don't want a crack to allow air into the cane while transferring. The air will look like little bubbles.

 

[JasontheBeaver]

I agree, check for air. If it isn't leaking air in, or beer out, then you're good to go.
I've cracked two picnic taps.

 

[TheEndlessObsession]

Cool. I gave it a quick check and it seems solid, but I'll make sure before I actually put beer to bottle. Thanks!

 

[idover]

I tried this last night after trying to bottle from tap using only a short length of hose. It was a bit messy, but only because I wasn't paying attention to the CO2 pressure. If it's too high, you'll end up with a beer geyser, shooting your precious liquid through any small opening it can find. Once I lowered the pressure, everything worked great.

One super easy tip that I can add (and I haven't visited all 9 gazillion posts, so someone else may have the same or better tip) is to add a large bung (the "hollow" style, like this) upside down on the racking cane that will be positioned on top of the smaller stopper. This gave me a little more rubber to push against and also serves as a barrier to stop those rogue sprays of the vertical manner.

Other than that, I discovered that the drilled stopper I picked up is slightly larger than the cane. The stoppers are super cheap, but it's annoying to have the thing slide off.

 

[alestateyall]

My take on this: I use the hollowed bung which came with my carboy upside down over the top of the bottle, instead of the recommended #2 bung in the bottle.





It makes a nice tight seal. I just nudged it up when I needed to release pressure.

I filled 2 bottles today with virtually no foam. I followed the other directions from the first post in this thread just a different bung.

I used the racking cane from my auto siphon.

Easy bottle filling with equipment I already own!

The only problem I had was turning the bottle over with my thumb on the cap to bottle on foam. That made so much foam I lost at least 1 ounce on the first two bottles I tried. I had to do two more with out that step for the contest beers I was filling.

Thanks!

 

[Tall_Yotie]

Question to you folks, while my wife is getting the beer out of her ear and hair; what is the real purpose of the stopper and the burping? Why can't I just fill the bottle without it? It is no worse mixing with air I figure than when I start racking into a bottling bucket. If I can get away without the stopper and not spray my wife with beer again that would be great.

Thanks for any info/thoughts!

 

[alestateyall]

I think the stopper causes pressure to build up which slows the flow and reduces the foaming. Maybe you let the pressure build too much. I am no expert. Just a guess.

 

[mirogster]

@HbgBill Well, I had the same problem. BUT I've found the right one. I believe that Canadian Fermtech is making both. So you'd find the one with slighty smaller diameter.

 

[mirogster]

@Tall_Yotie All that because foam is like 100% of CO2, and that's precisely what we want - no air inside. You can fill normally, sure but quality in quality out - right? If you gonna drink those bottles quickly, and stored cold - no problem.
You prob. builded up too big pressure, you'd fill sloooowlllyyy And burp 3-4 times OR use some needle I know it's a helluwa pita process.

 

[tre9er]

I made one of these last night with a piece of racking cane and a baby bottle nipple (had some laying around from making gaskets for MLT bulkheads). I put the racking cane thru the nipple as it was upside down, pushed to bottom of bottle, then inverted nipple downwards and held pressure on cane and nipple with one hand while working the tap with the other. Filled two bottles with minimal foam.

Didn't have stopper handy and wanted to try something. Definitely less air-tight than stopper but I got the hang of it after a while. Gas on 1psi and keg bled completely prior.

 

[mirogster]

Rotfl I love that combination of terms: night + nipple

 

[DustjunkieScott]

I've been doing this when taking beer to friends houses at the last minute. It works great with a growler too. My beer bottles are Tecate bottles from Baja and are 44oz's. I've kept them 4-5 months without issues.

 

[Bisco_Ben]

In advance, SORRY IF THIS HAS BEEN ASKED but I am in no way searching this whole thread for the answer to my question. How do you guys rinse out/sanitize this design before use? Is it necessary to have an extra keg that I can fill with starsan solution to rinse out my bottle filler before use? Just finding the concept of bottling say a stout with this once then trying to bottle some ipa the following day or what have you, and being left with a contraption filled with stale stout and/or any nasty bacteria i dont want in my bottles.

 

[tre9er]

In advance, SORRY IF THIS HAS BEEN ASKED but I am in no way searching this whole thread for the answer to my question. How do you guys rinse out/sanitize this design before use? Is it necessary to have an extra keg that I can fill with starsan solution to rinse out my bottle filler before use? Just finding the concept of bottling say a stout with this once then trying to bottle some ipa the following day or what have you, and being left with a contraption filled with stale stout and/or any nasty bacteria i dont want in my bottles.

You would just soak in oxyclean or PBW like anything else and then rinse and sanitize. Don't make it too complicated. It's just a tube and a stopper. Individually how would you clean them?

 

[Bisco_Ben]

Well there is no specific instructions on how to attach the thing to the faucet/keg so I am a bit confused. I was planning on buying a liquid out adapter attached to 5 ft of line attached to the picnic valve with the wand sticking out of it. With this, I would have to disconnect the line from the adapter every time I wanted to clean it which sounds like a pain to me, unless there is a better and easier method of doing this? then please specify...

 

[tre9er]

The racking cane just gets shoved into the picnic tap for the bottling process. Afterwards you pull it out. Then u can clean it and go on with life as though your kegging sysem never changed.

 

[Bisco_Ben]

Well the thing is that i now have a kegerator and use perlick faucets. So hooking up a picnic valve means detaching my liquid lines going into the perlicks and attaching my beer gun device. I guess since my setup is different i will have to adjust accordingly