We no need no stinking beer gun...

[JasontheBeaver]

I can't seem to get anything but half a bottle of foam with this method. I just swapped out my 6 ft lines for 10ft but I've been keeping my PSI down low, around 2-3. Would that be the issue? I have made sure bottles, line and cane are all cold too. Seems like if I were to continue filling until the beer gets to the normal level I will be wasting a lot beer just foaming over.

If you use this method to pour directly into a glass and it foams too much then maybe you're over carbonated in the keg?
You're asking the right questions. I've bottled several award winning beers this way.

 

[jaydog2314]

never thought of that. i have been getting lots of foam in the glass too which is why i swapped 6ft for 10 ft lines, thinking it was the short line causing the foam....Seems the first beer I pour is 50/50 foam beer but if I our multiple beers in a row they are good after that first one. I think I'll start dialing back the force carbing to see if that is the issue. Thx

 

[Rockn_M]

never thought of that. i have been getting lots of foam in the glass too which is why i swapped 6ft for 10 ft lines, thinking it was the short line causing the foam....Seems the first beer I pour is 50/50 foam beer but if I our multiple beers in a row they are good after that first one. I think I'll start dialing back the force carbing to see if that is the issue. Thx

If your first beer is mostly foam but the beers after are good it might be because the tap is warm. I got a fan that blows the cold fridge air up into the tab handle. It's not perfect but it works.

 

[jaydog2314]

good idea too. it's an old fridge with holes drilled thru the doors for taps, possible that the shanks aren't staying cold enough. I will check that out today.

 

[Jupapabear]

I just shoved a spring loaded bottle filler up my picnick, after dropping to 5psi from 12psi. I pushed the tap into locking position and used the filler to fill a 1/2 pint glass to chill the filler and lines (yeah, and to drink some while I bottle some). Filled up my bottle for the road till there was a no foam beer waterfall and capped when the foam took up the head space.

Thanks a lot. You just saved me from wasting cash.

 

[homebrewmike]

Will be using this method to bottle a 12 pack of ESB! Thanks

 

[jaydog2314]

Bottled some bottles of a porter that was NOT force carbed and it was much better. It's a low head beer anyway so im sure that helped. I got an IPA I plan to bottle some later in the week and I'm hopefully since I didn't force carb it either that it bottles easier, like the porter!

 

[brett1341]

I'm not about to read through 1000+ posts, but I love this idea and plan on making one this week, well two actually; one for bottles and one for growlers.

Has there been any significant improvements or other things that I should be aware of that have come up in the past 1000+ posts?

 

[yewtah-brewha]

I'm not about to read through 1000+ posts, but I love this idea and plan on making one this week, well two actually; one for bottles and one for growlers.

Has there been any significant improvements or other things that I should be aware of that have come up in the past 1000+ posts?

Cant think of any, Ive been following this, and everyone says its simple, but I am going to be attempting try #3 soon, I am going to wait untill my keggerator is complete though. I snapped my plastic faucet connecting the hose w/ a hose clamp. got a steel faucet, just waiting for time!

 

[ten80]

clean and sanitize bottles, toss them in the freezer to chill, and only pull them out right before bottling. I spray some ice cold starsan solution in to bottles to wet the inside before bottling which does a great job of reducing foaming. I force carb to 14-16 psi and drop the pressure to 3-4 psi for bottling. 10ft small diameter beer line to picnic tap with straight racking cane shoved into the end. No spring valve bottling wand as I think that might cause some foaming and aeration.

 

[brett1341]

Thanks.

 

[diS]

Bottling from keg is really driving me crazy.. yesterday I said to myself "this is the last time I'm doing it", I spent near 2 gallons of beer to bottle less than 1.5 gal.. **cking foam.

I know that there must be the way to do it w/out that mush losses. 1st few times bottling were great, max 1/2" thick foam and no foam over.

Somehow my process doesn't work anymore, my setup is:
- 2.5 volume of CO2 carbed beer
- 8 ft of hose attached to picnic tap with racking cane (45° cut end)
- PSI reduced to ~3 PSI
- temperature of beer is always 40F or less
- bottle temperature is in 30-40F range

And there was foam.. big foam.

However, I noticed an issue in my process: LOT OF TINNY BUBBLES of CO2 in transferring hose, even temperature of beer and hose were nearly the same. Problem appears when CO2 bubbles reach into bottle, they causes beer to foam.

I don't know how they occurs in hose line, are there tiny scratches in hose what could cause nucleation sites where the bubbles would build, or something else..

Do you have CO2 bubbles in line and what do you think what I am doing wrong?

 

[Yambor44]

diS,

You probably need to change the O-ring on your keg post.

 

[diS]

You think it is sucking air trough it?
Strange thing is that I had foam issue with two kegs I tried to bottle, both of them works nicely when attached to pour faucet.

 

[Yambor44]

It could. Odd thing is it wokrs out of the faucet fine. Got me. Wish I had an idea.

 

[Jupapabear]

I release the pressure of the keg after dropping the psi to avoid foaming

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[diS]

Despite to all foamy issues I am having lately, something tells me that there is a way to fix it.. don't know how but my guts are screaming "you're close"
I shall not surrender.

 

[yewtah-brewha]

Despite to all foamy issues I am having lately, something tells me that there is a way to fix it.. don't know how but my guts are screaming "you're close"
I shall not surrender.

Im having foam issues aswell, Friday I had 90% foam 10% beer, Saturday It was better, 50% foam to 50% beer, and if I bled off the first few ounces the rest was all liquid,

I had increased my co2 to 20 psi from tuesday to friday, on friday I released all pressure and poured at 3 psi, but it was all foam, pissed me off, 24 hours later at 3 psi it was greatly reduced to a drinkable pour!

The lesson here is to keep it at 3-5 psi 24-36 hours before having it at a high psi like 20 psi! hope this helps. I have found the hose length isnt the most imortant, however I will be replacing my 4' hose with a 6' hose in the next week.

I have been using pic nic, but I'm moving to a tri tap tower as soon as UPS gets that &^@! here! HA HA!

 

[yewtah-brewha]

diS,

You probably need to change the O-ring on your keg post.

you might be right, I never thought of that, I replaced the outlet, but the inlet seemed fine, so I didnt change it, I will deffinatly be changing mine!!

 

[MrMista]

I used my homemade beer gun for the first time tonight and I was pleased. It worked nicely. However, I purchased a picnic faucet/liquid ball lock post specifically for this. It does not stay in my kegerator. Now I am wondering how to actually clean out the beer that is in the line. I have the hoses clamped on using an oetiker clamp so removing the clamp is not really the best option. I'm worried about infected bottles if I use this thing in the future after leaving it out at room temperature with beer in it.

EDIT: I do not have a spare keg that I could use to push water and sanitizer through the line right now unfortunately.

 

[jaydog2314]

unfortunately I can't think of a good way to clean it if you have oetikers on it. for this reason I used a MFL liquid disconnect and barb so I could remove the disconnect and flush the line. that might be the easiest/cheaper solution, should be less than $10 to get a clamp, barb and mfl liquid disconnect. Probably not the option you want to hear but all I can think of.

 

[Yambor44]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/diy-beer-line-cleaner-226497/

I made one of these as well from a pump sprayer I bought at Lowes. I made a thread on it not know about the one I just linked you to. My picture links in my thread are broken I just noticed. In the mean time I will snap another pic and get it to you. The one I made doesn't require any adapters. I just screwed a liquid ball post directly onto the sprayer. Used some Teflon tape as well on the pumps plastic threads.

I already had the post so my only expense was the spray which was like $9.00.

I'd keep that line in the fridge or kegerator until you pick a way to clean it out.

 

[bigken462]

Guys I apologize for not having the time before the end of my shift to sort through 108 pages, but after reading just a few post before having to shut down my computer, can someone summarize very briefly about bottling from a keg to the bottles?

I have only bottled 6 batches, but I'm curious now maybe I should be looking deeper into the kegs. I don't have the drinking ability to justify kegs or keezers, but if it can speed up my bottle condition time , I would like to learn more.

Am I to understand that you can use a keg to force carb your beer, then transfer over to bottles using a beergun? If this is the case, I need to go back to the drawing board with how to utilize my tax returns.

Thanks,

 

[dkennedy]

Am I to understand that you can use a keg to force carb your beer, then transfer over to bottles using a beergun? If this is the case, I need to go back to the drawing board with how to utilize my tax returns.

In a nutshell, that's it. You're using a keg as a homebrewer-scale bright/serving tank, with the option to package or serve off of it.

Berrgun vs counter-pressure filler (can see the differences, at least in terms of concept): http://www.themadfermentationist.com/2013/01/beer-gun-and-counter-pressure-filler.html

I'm building a 3 tap bar primarily to have beer on tap, but plan on building/acquiring a filler like this for those batches where 5 gallons takes a while tonconsume, or I want to transport a more modest amount.

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[bigken462]

Ok thanks, I didn't mean to hijack a thread. But just as sure as I've made up my mind on what I wanted to get.............I come across this thread. Back to the calculator. Grrrrrr Dang-it

 

[GilSwillBasementBrews]

I used my homemade beer gun for the first time tonight and I was pleased. It worked nicely. However, I purchased a picnic faucet/liquid ball lock post specifically for this. It does not stay in my kegerator. Now I am wondering how to actually clean out the beer that is in the line. I have the hoses clamped on using an oetiker clamp so removing the clamp is not really the best option. I'm worried about infected bottles if I use this thing in the future after leaving it out at room temperature with beer in it.

EDIT: I do not have a spare keg that I could use to push water and sanitizer through the line right now unfortunately.

You can unscrew the back of the disconnect(take care not to lose the little o-rings and post) then unscrew the back of the picnic tap. That should allow you to flush the line with cleaner/water then simply allow to dry then put everything back together.

 

[geoffm33]

Just saw this video on Youtube but didn't see it in the thread.

 

[geoffm33]

Here is another one...

The interesting part of this video is at the 6:40 mark. Basically saying that if you are getting foam, don't release the pressure, once the pressure builds in the bottle it will force the foam back down.

 

[dstranger99]

I just shoved a spring loaded bottle filler up my picnick, after dropping to 5psi from 12psi. I pushed the tap into locking position and used the filler to fill a 1/2 pint glass to chill the filler and lines (yeah, and to drink some while I bottle some). Filled up my bottle for the road till there was a no foam beer waterfall and capped when the foam took up the head space.

Thanks a lot. You just saved me from wasting cash.

I'm gonna do exactly the same thing since I have a small keg now, I am just so sick of yeast sediment in my bottles, even though I've gotten it down to a thin layer, it still bugs me.

Also, quick question: For competitions, do they frown upon yeast sediment? Do they want a clear bottle free of that ??........(Not that I plan on entering one, just curious).......

 

[eluterio]

I'm gonna do exactly the same thing since I have a small keg now, I am just so sick of yeast sediment in my bottles, even though I've gotten it down to a thin layer, it still bugs me.



Also, quick question: For competitions, do they frown upon yeast sediment? Do they want a clear bottle free of that ??........(Not that I plan on entering one, just curious).......

Good question I'm not sure I've sent both beer gun filled and naturally bottled never read anything saying the yeast sediment was an issue.


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