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Quick Question

I was going to bottle a few bombers tonight. After doing so, can the bottles sit at room temp until a get the to there destination? I'm driving from Colorado to California.

Cheers


Shouldn't be an issue.


Sent from my iPhone using Home Brew
 
Sorry if this has been answered before. I have tried this method twice now in the last week and it always seems like I end up with half carbonated beer.

First time was an IPA, keg was maybe 40*F with 8 psi (warmed a bit as I let the trub settle).

Second time was a Helles, keg at 35*F with 12 psi (trying to rectify the problem I had with the IPA). Chilled the bottles overnight in the chest freezer at 40*F. Well I opened a few bottles last night, nice head on a strong pour, but very little carbonation coming up.

Now a potential mistake, bottles would foam enough to fill most of the neck, so I wouldn't get them all the way full. This isn't true for all of them though.

I didn't follow the purge step, is this my problem?
 
I think you are undercarbing to begin with. I usually go with 20psi at around 40-45F depending on the style of beer. Google "carbonation volume chart" for a handy reference for this sort of thing.
Sorry if this has been answered before. I have tried this method twice now in the last week and it always seems like I end up with half carbonated beer.

First time was an IPA, keg was maybe 40*F with 8 psi (warmed a bit as I let the trub settle).

Second time was a Helles, keg at 35*F with 12 psi (trying to rectify the problem I had with the IPA). Chilled the bottles overnight in the chest freezer at 40*F. Well I opened a few bottles last night, nice head on a strong pour, but very little carbonation coming up.

Now a potential mistake, bottles would foam enough to fill most of the neck, so I wouldn't get them all the way full. This isn't true for all of them though.

I didn't follow the purge step, is this my problem?
 
I think you are undercarbing to begin with. I usually go with 20psi at around 40-45F depending on the style of beer. Google "carbonation volume chart" for a handy reference for this sort of thing.

That seems extremely high, according to the charts that's about 3 volumes. I guess that's the question though, am I supposed to overcarbed, purge, and then bottle?
 
Errr, maybe those were the early bottles that foamed. The one I just opened its great.

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I feel like this is dumb question that should have been covered before but I was unable to uncover anything.

So, I tried this out today and it was just foam....foam everywhere. I'd like to try again, and I even think I know what I was doing wrong (pressing against the bung too much while filling and not letting the pressure build).

Here's my question though: how are you guys cutting the tip of your bottling wand/siphon tube? I tried using a small hack saw but would just wind up breaking the tip off about halfway through sawing. What was left behind was just a jagged piece of plastic.

Thanks for any help you can throw my way. Again, I feel like it's a dumb question but I've gone through 2 bottling wands already trying to find a solution.
 
I feel like this is dumb question that should have been covered before but I was unable to uncover anything.

So, I tried this out today and it was just foam....foam everywhere. I'd like to try again, and I even think I know what I was doing wrong (pressing against the bung too much while filling and not letting the pressure build).

Here's my question though: how are you guys cutting the tip of your bottling wand/siphon tube? I tried using a small hack saw but would just wind up breaking the tip off about halfway through sawing. What was left behind was just a jagged piece of plastic.

Thanks for any help you can throw my way. Again, I feel like it's a dumb question but I've gone through 2 bottling wands already trying to find a solution.

just a few tips: As far as cutting your wand ask yourself this, Why not just ad 2" of hose and cut that on an angle thats what I did. 2nd, insert a basketball needle into your bung, foam will be foam turn your psi down to 5 psi and wait 24 hours.

good luck!
 
just a few tips: As far as cutting your wand ask yourself this, Why not just ad 2" of hose and cut that on an angle thats what I did. 2nd, insert a basketball needle into your bung, foam will be foam turn your psi down to 5 psi and wait 24 hours.

good luck!

Man, that hose idea is genius. I think I'll give that a go since I do have some extra laying around. I did set the regulator to about 3 psi but still seemed like more beer was foaming out of the bottle then going in. I tried two bottles with both only about to fill halfway.
 
Qq. How would I have both an air chuck AND have pressure to my keg? Sorry, have been legging for a while but not seeing the obvious.
 
After reading about 10 pages, I made the BMBG and test bottled 12 of stout. Opened the first last night and it had very little head, and was a bit less carbonated than ideal (but definitely not flat). Also no satisfying CO2 cloud when popping the cap. So something is not right. Here's what I did:

Set corny to 12 psi, settled for a week and got good carbonation/head directly from the keg. Chilled keg to prox 36F, released pressure and reset to 5psi. Used a 5.5' line, chilled the bottles, and filled as BM explained; capped on foam. Not sure why I'm not getting better results, any suggestions?
 
After reading about 10 pages, I made the BMBG and test bottled 12 of stout. Opened the first last night and it had very little head, and was a bit less carbonated than ideal (but definitely not flat). Also no satisfying CO2 cloud when popping the cap. So something is not right. Here's what I did:

Set corny to 12 psi, settled for a week and got good carbonation/head directly from the keg. Chilled keg to prox 36F, released pressure and reset to 5psi. Used a 5.5' line, chilled the bottles, and filled as BM explained; capped on foam. Not sure why I'm not getting better results, any suggestions?

I find the longer a beer sits in a properly pressurized keg, the better the beer "holds on" to the carbonation during transfer. I bet if it sat for a month you'd get better results. :mug:
 
I find the longer a beer sits in a properly pressurized keg, the better the beer "holds on" to the carbonation during transfer. I bet if it sat for a month you'd get better results. :mug:
Thx BM, I'll give it some more time. Are there other things that might help too? Increasing to 15+psi or a longer line perhaps? Also, I was a bit concerned by how loosely my #2 stopper fit. It went into the mouth of the bottle almost "all the way" with only about 1/16" sticking out. That was enough to release pressure, but even turning the vinyl tube sideways released pressure. I like this method of bottling from keg as "needed" but want to perfect the result.
 
I feel like this is dumb question that should have been covered before but I was unable to uncover anything.

So, I tried this out today and it was just foam....foam everywhere. I'd like to try again, and I even think I know what I was doing wrong (pressing against the bung too much while filling and not letting the pressure build).

Here's my question though: how are you guys cutting the tip of your bottling wand/siphon tube? I tried using a small hack saw but would just wind up breaking the tip off about halfway through sawing. What was left behind was just a jagged piece of plastic.

Thanks for any help you can throw my way. Again, I feel like it's a dumb question but I've gone through 2 bottling wands already trying to find a solution.

i did the bottling wand thing to, had a terrible time with it. I finally learned you can bottle from the keg with nothing more than a short (4") piece of tubing. Not even sure if you need that though. You ever watch anyone fill a growler with a wand? A growler is just a big bottle...
Very simple:
shut c02 off to tank and bleed, wait a few seconds a repeat
cut pressure down as low as it goes (around 2 or 3psi)
put tubing inside tap where about an inch hangs out
put chilled (place in freezer for a few minutes) bottle up to nozzle at angle
fill, cap, repeat
I been drinking bottles I did months ago and they are fine.

I put a post up in the articles section. Try it, it's awesome.

fo reelz, I don't need no stinkin beer gun!
 
Qq. How would I have both an air chuck AND have pressure to my keg? Sorry, have been legging for a while but not seeing the obvious.

no air chuck is needed, the ball needle it to relieve pressure preferably o2 and not co2. co2 is heavier and o2 lighter. I hold my thumb on the needle as it fills I release the pressure, o2.
 
I have a question..

In reading the post I have found that many reduce the keg pressure. Would it not be better to leave the keg pressurized at the carbing level so that co2 remains in the beer and then therefore in the bottle? If our beer wand line is closely balanced then the process should be a slow one (since you typically only have about 1psi at the tap or the wand in this case) and the bottle will pressurize during filling helping to hold the co2 in while the bottle fills. When the bottle is full and you remove the wand the pressure will drop and start to release the co2 but then you quickly cap and the bottle pressurizes again holding in the carbonation.
 
I think it is because the line length that you lower the pressure. I have been contemplating making a 10 foot line with a picnic tap and trying out my theory.
 
Dropping down the pressure really didn't seem to help me.

I think the biggest thing I figured out was to make sure your beer isn't overcarbed (to avoid foam). I was setting my regulator to 12 psi because the fridge was around 42-43F (leading to ~2.3 vol CO2). But the fridge isn't very good at maintaining a stable temperature, so there were times I'd look and it was in the mid to upper 30's, so it was absorbing more CO2, leading to slightly overcarbed beer. Not super overcarbed, but enough to be annoying when filling from the bottles. Now I've dropped my regulator down to about 10 psi, so it might take a little longer to carb, but it protects for when my fridge drops the temp down. Hopefully that helps me as the last time I filled from the keg, I ended up with a lot of foam.
 
I usually turn the pressure all the way to 0 then use the pressure release valve until the keg doesn't hiss, then turn the regulator to 4ish and start pouring.
Also make sure you run some beer through into a separate glass to chill the lines, prechilled bottles help too.
 
i did the bottling wand thing to, had a terrible time with it. I finally learned you can bottle from the keg with nothing more than a short (4") piece of tubing. Not even sure if you need that though. You ever watch anyone fill a growler with a wand? A growler is just a big bottle...
Very simple:
shut c02 off to tank and bleed, wait a few seconds a repeat
cut pressure down as low as it goes (around 2 or 3psi)
put tubing inside tap where about an inch hangs out
put chilled (place in freezer for a few minutes) bottle up to nozzle at angle
fill, cap, repeat
I been drinking bottles I did months ago and they are fine.

I put a post up in the articles section. Try it, it's awesome.

fo reelz, I don't need no stinkin beer gun!

i just tried this method, will report back in a few days.
 
Would I have any problems using one of these if my beverage lines were 3/16 but the beergun lines were 5/16"? I'd like to just be able to plug in my bottle filler using the plug from a growler filler.
 
I know this post is old, but I have a question. How you forced the carbonation to make the bottling, normally? I normally forced my carbonation 24 hours at 30PSI but I never bottled that beer, its for my kegerator, but know I want to bottle my kegs, should a forced 24 hours at 30 PSI and let it rest for one to two days at lower PSIs or can I do it next my 24 hours?
 
I would let it a few days to make sure it has good carbonation before you bottle it.
 
I plan to force carb then fill and cap 32oz swing tops for wedding favors. Would there be any problems with then letting the capped bottles come back up to room temperature?
 
Tried to find it in this thread but there are too many pages:

What is the point of the stopper?

Is it just to control the rate at which it fills? why not just control the PSI?
Thanks
 
Tried to find it in this thread but there are too many pages:

What is the point of the stopper?

Is it just to control the rate at which it fills? why not just control the PSI?
Thanks

This may help explain it (point #3):

I read every page up to ~90 before I tried it the first time (next 10pages came durring my adventure) and still had issues the first 3 times I bottled. I had bad foaming issues during bottling and low carb issues after. Finally the 3rd time was acceptable and the 4th and 5th worked well ***(close to well, ill explain later) with low foaming and good carb. it is somewhat of an art form. I will do my best to describe some of the small things I have noticed.

I have ~10feet of line 3/16ID into a picnic tap with an angle cut racking cane inserted with a stopper on it. I believe that the keg pressure, picnic tap, and starsan in the bottle is the largest contributors to foam and have a few techniques to limit this


#1 Temp--I have found that I dont need cold bottles just not hot. ~30deg difference is fine so far. keg is ~35deg and bottles ~70deg


#2 Keg PSI--I have found that if I am between 5-10 psi on the keg it will go ok. My very best experience so far was not fast force carbing the keg. So instead of doing the 25psi keg shake and then fighting to get it to be carbed correct. I just let the keg get to fridge temp overnight, plugged in at ~12psi for one week then dropped the regulator to just under 10psi aprox 8. I then Very gently vented of the keg to the regulator set point of ~8. Let it set for 10min. then began filling bottles.

#3 Fill—counter pressure is key for me. I put the stopper in the bottle, thumb on top of stopper to prevent it from popping out, push the stem to the bottom of the bottle and flip the tap wide open. It will fill ~1/4 with liquid and some foam on top of that. Then it will stop filling due to having equal pressure in the bottle and keg. If the foam is very low I will then start burping the bottle to allow flow to resume. If the foam is high I will let it sit with the tap open and thumb on stopper to allow the counter pressure to dissipate the foam. If it is excessive I will kill that bottle (drink it) and evaluate the system. Once you have the foam under control and are burping the bottle I start slowing down the burping as I get closer and closer to the top until I am slowly releasing the small amount of foam that was on top of the beer and I shut the tap off as the beer get near the stopper. At this point the foam is near gone, and the liquid is at the bottom of the stopper and I have the tap off. Now as I remove the stem from the bottle I partially press the tap lever to fill the space in the neck of the bottle that was full due to the stem being in the bottle. I do this as I remove the stem. It will create a bit of foam that will fill the last inch to half inch of space. I then cap immediately. Then move on to the next bottle quickly and repeat.

*** from the first paragraph--- My brew partner and I bottle together. It’s a small assembly line with the two of us. This is important to note because he has low carb issues even with our most recent bottling, I don’t. the only difference that I am aware of is I place mine directly into the fridge and maintain temp ~34deg from keg to bottle and after. He does not. His sit at room temp after bottling until he wants to drink it and then places a few bottles in the fridge. I hope someone here can disprove this issue with fine carb from bottles that have sat at room temp prior to drinking.


I hope this LONG reply helps
 
It does help slow the filling, but I'm not convinced it's necessary. I just got a vacuum growler which had a wide mouth, so I didn't have a stopper to fit in there and I filled it just fine without the counter pressure. Screwed the cap on the foam and it was totally fine when I drank it a couple days later.
 
*** from the first paragraph--- My brew partner and I bottle together. It’s a small assembly line with the two of us. This is important to note because he has low carb issues even with our most recent bottling, I don’t. the only difference that I am aware of is I place mine directly into the fridge and maintain temp ~34deg from keg to bottle and after. He does not. His sit at room temp after bottling until he wants to drink it and then places a few bottles in the fridge. I hope someone here can disprove this issue with fine carb from bottles that have sat at room temp prior to drinking.

Yeah, this has me worried. It'd be impractical to keep the beer chilled. Destination wedding (and hotel rooms without fridges) makes it difficult.
 
It does help slow the filling, but I'm not convinced it's necessary. I just got a vacuum growler which had a wide mouth, so I didn't have a stopper to fit in there and I filled it just fine without the counter pressure. Screwed the cap on the foam and it was totally fine when I drank it a couple days later.


The counter pressure you get from the cap is mostly for longer storage. You can fill a growler directly from the fauve with no tube or anything and it should stay carbed enough for a few days as long as it is sealed right away. For long term storage the loss of CO2 is more noticeable.
 
The counter pressure you get from the cap is mostly for longer storage. You can fill a growler directly from the fauve with no tube or anything and it should stay carbed enough for a few days as long as it is sealed right away. For long term storage the loss of CO2 is more noticeable.
Makes sense. Thanks
 
I stumbled upon this thread and read through most of the pages. I am filling bottles for an upcoming comp and gave this a shot. The issue I had was foam. The foam was forming right out of the keg between the keg and the cobra tap. I bled the pressure on the keg to zero, reduced the gas pressure to between 3 and 5 psi, and connected everything up. The line coming right out of the keg was full of gas. The stopper/bottle connection was gas tight. Once stabilized, nothing continued to flow until I burped it. I could maintain a nice, low flow that was unfortunately mostly foam.

I have always had a problem with my cobra tap and foam. No problem with my regular keg fridge tap - problem is solely that of the cobra tubing/tap. So, my question is: what is the recommended ID and length of tubing to go from the keg to the cobra tap? Six feet of 3/16" tubing?
 
I've tried this approach several times, and still always have issues with foam. My bottles are cold, the line is 7 feet or so, headspace in keg purged, PSI very low at 2-4. Bottling wand shoved right into the picnic tap, but when I flip it open, stopper in the bottle, the entire beer line appears to be bubbles. I guess air is getting in somewhere, but I'm not exactly sure what it is I'm doing wrong.
 
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