We no need no stinking beer gun...

[Cheesefood]

I'm going to take this a step up. Try this technique:

No stopper. Just a cane with the end sliced at an angle.

Step 1: turn off your gas line to the keg you're planning on using.
Now, release the CO2 from your tank. Pull the pin a few times and get all that gas out.
Set your regulator for about 5 psi.
Turn the gas back on
Put the end of the cane all the way to the bottom of the bottle.
Fill.
Bottle.
Send to me.

 

[EdWort]

Great Job Bobby!!!!!! You are a star now!!!!!

 

[BierMuncher]

Great Job Bobby!!!!!! You are a star now!!!!!

Yep... Great idea you had....

 

[EdWort]

Yep... Great idea you had....

Gotta get you into moving pictures man. Isn't the BMBF patented?

 

[Bobby_M]

Now now, I'm just practicing my production/editing. Notice the tripod and mic? Now if I can just figure out how to narrate without droning on in a monotone voice.

 

[ScubaSteve]

Good Job, Man!

It doesn't get any better than that! I love the autosiphon...I'll hook all my tubing and racking canes up in series and just pump through the whole lot!

 

[RoaringBrewer]

Great vid bobby - just kegged my first beer tonight, building my 4912 tomorrow, and building my BMBF soon after. Can't wait to bottle some beers with it... the video really helped convincing me to get on with this.

 

[newguy]

well I just bottled up a case last night with this design and it worked like a charm! took me about 45 min.

Excellent post mate! really great idea and phenomenal way to save some cash!

thanks for sharing,

 

[Reidman]

Awesome idea and great video Bobby!

I just kegged a 90-min clone and my buddy wanted a half case of bottles.
I was just about to go the individual bottle priming method when I thought I'd scout the best homebrew site on the planet and what do you know....

Why are the cheapest methods always the best and easiest...?

Making my BMBF this weekend...

 

[Beerrific]

Just wanted to thank Bier and Bobby, I read the post and watched the video. I bottled some beer for thanksgiving and it came out great. Thanks guys!

Also, just so everyone knows, if you don't have a small stopper you can use a larger one (#10 for example) you just need to control the pressure by pressing the stopper down against the top of the bottle.

 

[New2HomeBrew]

This is awesome. I tried it for the first time today and it seemed to work great. Granted this is my first time botteling anything, but it went off without a hitch, and I didn't even neeed to buy anything

Thanks for the great thread and idea BeirMuncher!

 

[BierMuncher]

...Thanks for the great thread and idea BeirMuncher!

No problem. Pay it forward and spread the word. Every BMBF that is made out there leads to more beer being bottled and shared.

 

[New2HomeBrew]

Thanks again BeirMuncher! Filled up the rest of a case last night for my trip this upcoming weekend. Glad that I finally will be able to share my efforts with my friends and family.

 

[ModlrMike]

I used this setup yesterday to bottle some cider for SWMBO. Worked like a charm. I was thinking... I could drive a 14G IV cathelon or needle into the stopper, attach some IV tubing with the sliding closure, and regulate the filling speed that way instead of trying to deform the stopper each time.

 

[BierMuncher]

One of the enemies of bottled beer is oxygen. It won’t necessarily cause an infection, but even slight oxygenation can impart some off-flavors in a beer.

BJCP Description:
Oxidized - Any one or combination of winy/vinous, cardboard, papery, or sherry-like aromas and flavors.

This is especially true if the beer is a light-medium style like a Blonde, Kolsch…etc. For short term storage (party, tail gate, gift giving), this isn’t generally a problem. However, if you are going to store these beers for any length of time (3-4 weeks or more), it’s worth making every effort to push out as much O2 as possible.

One of the easiest ways to purge oxygen from your bottles using the BMBF is to cap-on-foam. That is, get the bottle to slightly “gush” and cap right on top of the foam. The foam after all is very near 100% CO2. Getting your bottles to foam consistently is a bit tricky so I thought I’d share my technique. (This technique is also used by our local micro brewery that fills their 22-Oz bombers by hand.)

Here’s my process for getting the bottle to foam, without loosing too much CO2 or beer.

1) Fill your bottles normally. Follow Bobby’s technique for removing the cane and squeezing in a bit more to get a slightly higher fill. (Don’t go too high if you’re planning on entering this into a competition…you’ll get dinging a bit.)
2) Once you have your bottles moved over to the capping table, place a cap on the bottle, hold it on firmly with your index finger and tip the bottle upside down and back (rather gently)…once.
3) Set the bottle down and wait a moment and have your capper ready. You’ll see the cap burp once or twice as the O2 is pushed out.
4) Once you see the cap actually start to rise on top of the foam…cap it. There will be minimal foam spillage depending on the CO2 levels.
5) You’ve now capped a bottle that should be devoid of all oxygen, and captured most of the CO2 that was in the foam (this will be reabsorbed into solution.)

As an added safety measure, I’d recommend using O2 absorbing bottle caps. Between the CO2 purge that occurred using the above method, and employing O2 absorbing caps, the shelf life of your beer will be indefinite.

Hope this helps. (I had to learn the hard way about oxidized beer)

 

[Indiana Red]

Just want to chime in here.
I put together one of these and bottled the last gallon or so of my 14month old Eisbock in little 6.3s Worked like a champ. My own observations. Get more than 3-4 ready at a time as the beer in the line and cane slowly foams up and an ounce or two needs to be purged b4 the next set of bottles. Even still, the first one foams a bit more than the subsequents. I had my EB pretty fizzy (about 3volumes) and quite cold so even loosing a bit during this will be fine I think.
I pulled the tip off of my bottling wand as the length was about right already. Can't wait to take one to Pokernight/HB meeting this week.
If BM PMs me his addy, I would send him a couple little Christmas presents to express my appreciation.

 

[trent]

I just built one of these today, and I must say it works fantastic. Thanks for the tips!

 

[Kevin Dean]

The owner of my LHBS game me a discount because of this baby. I bought my #2 stopper and a #3 (I have a 60+ Grolsh swing-top collection) and he questioned why I was putting a stopper in the Grolsh bottle. After the explanation he looked wonderfully amused and I'm sure he'll be showing other this.

Blichman is NOT happy, BierMuncher!

 

[BierMuncher]

...Blichman is NOT happy, BierMuncher!

Ah...yes...but friends, neighbors and family of homebrewers are very happy.

Share the wealth...

 

[Brett0424]

I've been doing this for quite some time and know several people who have been as well. I stick the bottle filler in my picnic tap rather than the racking cane. The trick is to keep everything as cold as possible so the c02 will be retained in solution as much as possible and, like said before...cap on foam. I have worked on a brewery bottling line and capping on foam was the most important factor in the process.

 

[Mike C]

Well well well! Seeing as how I'm still buying brew stuff for this ever-growing hobby (I started last June, currently on batch #9), I was probably going to get around to buying a beer gun, and now I don't have to. Thanks so much everyone! Also, I found that vid on YouTube before I saw it posted here. Very well done, explains the concept perfectly.

Since I'm trying to build a small stockpile of homebrew, I've been bottling AND kegging each batch (12 22oz bottles, the rest in the keg) and it's a PITA but I've sort of gotten used to it. The only one I've ever force carbed and not bottled I WISHED I'd had some in bottles because it turned out so great... After a quick trip to the LHBS tomorrow for a clear racking cane and an autosiphon, I think I'll be force carbing a lot more often.

Thanks so much for this. Great forum, btw!

Cheers~

 

[SAS98M]

BierMuncher YOU ROCK :rockin: I assembled one of these(didn't use the valved filler tube though as I asked about in a prior thread) and tryed it out...

This thing is slicker than whale snot-I mean it...... froze the bottles,turned the keg psi down and filled away,no waste-no fuss, had a six filled in just over 5 mins. then capped and hauled.
Best part is I took the six to my 85yr.old grandmother in Md. whom hasn't drank a homebrew in over 50 years,she pured one out and was amazed with the appearance,the carbonation and the flavor-she couldn't get over the fact the I brewed it.Said my great grandfather used to brew his own beer and that He'd be proud...... Thanks again Bier. Shane

 

[Kevin Dean]

I stick the bottle filler in my picnic tap

This thread is even more amazing druck.

 

[BierMuncher]

BierMuncher YOU ROCK :rockin: ... my great grandfather used to brew his own beer and that He'd be proud...... Thanks again Bier. Shane

Spread the wealth...

 

[Jonnio]

Is this worth doing for very near term consumption? Say filling a sixer to take to the parents for the weekend or a friends for the night? Or is it just as easy to fill a bottle right from the tap.

I was thinking of getting a couple growlers or a 6 pack or two of swing top bottles to do this with.

It also seems to me like you could be a little less concerned with the sanitizing and just use clean dry bottles. Is that true or will even a very short period inside an unsanitized bottle ruin the beer?

 

[Funkenjaeger]

Is this worth doing for very near term consumption? Say filling a sixer to take to the parents for the weekend or a friends for the night? Or is it just as easy to fill a bottle right from the tap.

Whatever CO2 is in the bottle when you seal it is all there's ever going to be. If you fill from the tap directly, you're likely to lose quite a bit of carbonation as foam - it's pretty much going to be just as flat the same day as it will several weeks down the road. There are ways to minimize and/or compensate for the loss - that's pretty much exactly what the BMBF does.

The BMBF will help you just as much whether you're planning to drink it the same day, or store it for weeks or months. You're right, you don't need to do much by way of sanitization if you're going to be drinking the beer within a couple of days (as long as everything's CLEAN at least), which will cut down a bit on the time it takes to bottle.

 

[Bobby_M]

For same day or next day consumption when I'm going to be there, I fill up any old PET container off the faucet, purge the air, then recompress it with CO2 using a tire filling valve (schrader) installed in the cap. This holds the carbonation until you open it again.

 

[BierMuncher]

Is this worth doing for very near term consumption? Say filling a sixer to take to the parents for the weekend or a friends for the night?...

I always fill more than I think I'll need and more often than not, end up bringing a few bottles home and tossing them in the fridge. That's why I'd hesitate to do a tap-direct fill. Any spare bottles will need to be disposed of pretty quickly.

 

[Jonnio]

That's a good point Bier -- I was thinking of putting a hose that is big enough to fit over the tap and put that at the bottom of whatever container I am filling and use that...I might as well just not be cheap and spend the couple bucks to do this.

 

[Funkenjaeger]

That's a good point Bier -- I was thinking of putting a hose that is big enough to fit over the tap and put that at the bottom of whatever container I am filling and use that...I might as well just not be cheap and spend the couple bucks to do this.

Yeah, I tried that method exactly once. Some people may get better results, but I got lots of foam and some very flat beer. I'm sure that with some tweaking I could have gotten it to work a bit better, but I'd much rather just invest the small amount of extra time and just use the BMBF which is practically foolproof.