I bottle at about 4 psi using a similar setup, but always chill the bottles well and pull a pint before bottling. The pint cools the lines and faucet and greatly reduces the amount of CO2 that comes out of solution in the process. If you know in advance that you will be bottling some, you can also over carb the beer a bit as insurance.
We no need no stinking beer gun...
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I bottle at about 4 psi using a similar setup, but always chill the bottles well and pull a pint before bottling. The pint cools the lines and faucet and greatly reduces the amount of CO2 that comes out of solution in the process. If you know in advance that you will be bottling some, you can also over carb the beer a bit as insurance.
The beer has been fine, it’s been at 12 psi for three weeks after it was force carbed. It pours great off of the keg. My setup as of now is picnic taps on the kegs which I keep in the keezer at all times, so I would think the picnic tap lines are the same temp as the beer.
I would not say the beer was flat per say, but not as carbonated as on tap. I cranked up the regulator to 7 psi and bottled, then 12 psi and bottled. I didn’t lose any beer on the 7, but the 12 was foamy. Hopefully I can figure it out before my big fishing trip this weekend.
I would not say the beer was flat per say, but not as carbonated as on tap. I cranked up the regulator to 7 psi and bottled, then 12 psi and bottled. I didn’t lose any beer on the 7, but the 12 was foamy. Hopefully I can figure it out before my big fishing trip this weekend.
jmcquesten
Well-Known Member
I bottle at serving pressure (12 to 16 psi), but I built a counterpressure bottle filler in order to accomplish this.
The original method works ok, but I don't know that it will ever give you as good a quality bottled beer, with as good a shelf life as a co2 purged, counterpressure filled bottle. I'm sure there are plenty of people that have decent luck with it, but it won't get you the best bottled beer possible. Dropping dispensing pressure and releasing keg pressure are both contributing to the low carbonation in the bottled beer.
Here's my solution.
Wow, very nice. If I were to go back to bottling I would definitely invest some more time in making a beer gun. I am not too concerned about the whole process as I will be drinking the case that I bottle within a week.
jmcquesten
Well-Known Member
I don't bottle very much, but for the occasional competition or to empty a keg to make room for a new one, it's nice to have. I have an actual BeerGun too, but it just sits in the box.
jmcquesten
Well-Known Member
If you're using picnic taps already, there's a pretty easy fix but most people don't like hearing it... LONG beer line. And the longer the better. I don't know what length lines you're using for your system, but I'd use a longer one for bottling. This was how I got the best results with the beergun when I used it. If you can get a 20 ft piece of 3/16 beer line, use the whole length. DO NOT release the pressure in keg and DO NOT lower the pressure on regulator. The 20 ft will slow down the flow enough to eliminate most of the foam when filling. The pressure should remain at serving pressure to keep the co2 IN the beer rather than allowing it to rush out of solution (like when releasing keg prv). The long line will slow the flow causing it to take longer to fill the bottles (a few seconds), so be patient with that.
![Craft A Brew - Safale BE-256 Yeast - Fermentis - Belgian Ale Dry Yeast - For Belgian & Strong Ales - Ingredients for Home Brewing - Beer Making Supplies - [3 Pack]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51bcKEwQmWL._SL500_.jpg)
Won't having too long of a line put beer out of solution due to the level of restriction? I have a 5ft line with a hollow bung that fits over the bottle rim. I've had a 42 point cider that took first in a comp over a year after I bottled (with this method) and stored at cellar/room temp for that time.
jmcquesten
Well-Known Member
Not in my experience. Longer lines just slows down the flow. I guess if you went crazy with the length (and didn't increase pressure), you could have so much restriction that it wouldn't flow at all. But that wouldn't happen with 12 psi and 20 ft of line. After starting with 20 ft, the line could be shortened if desired but if there happened to be a 16 psi wheat beer down the road, you'd want that line back. If 20 ft is too ridiculous, go with 15.
This is based on the well known keg line balancing calculator, http://www.mikesoltys.com/2012/09/17/determining-proper-hose-length-for-your-kegerator/, and then adding a little to compensate for bottling vs filling a pint glass and planning for future higher carbonated beers.
jmcquesten
Well-Known Member
Are those from bottles?
I made one of these after discovering this thread. I used my bottling wand without the spring. Instead of fiddling with my regulator I just throttled the gas with my manifold shutoff, and that seemed to work fairly well. I had to bump up the pressure on the last (6th) bottle to get it to fill which I thought was strange, but it still did the trick without a whole lot of money or grief.
Thanks to BM and all the other contributors!
Thanks to BM and all the other contributors!
Oberstbrau
Member
Anyone tried this bottle filler?
That's cool looking! Do you have a link?
Oberstbrau
Member
So, Here's a few questions for you all ....
prior to this, I used two kegs for wine I brewed in Montana before I moved down here to Tennessee. The wines were still, so I didn't need the carbonation. One other keg had a stout, which I was never able to fully carbonate, (my gauges screwed up and I had to wait for a slow boat from China to get a new one!) and I ended up drinking the whole 5 gallons at 'almost flat' carbonation. Now the regulator has gone TU, so I've got to buy a new one.
A while back, I bought a Cooper's Pale Ale brewing kit from a thrift store (Brand new, but originally sold in 2010 for $140 - only $10! ..... Extract was in a can and the yeast was still good.). It was an extract kit with some extra sugar, but the ABV is probably only going to be in the 3.5 to 4.5 range, and it included the fermenter and enuff 22 oz. PET bottles for the whole brew. Weird fermenter, but it seemed to work OK - no airlock!
I know it was old, but I couldn't resist it for the price! I haven't tasted it since it went into the keg, so it may end up in the chicken feed if it's too fowl! (Couldn't resist the play on words!)
At my age I can only find temp jobs for work, so the day I brewed, I found I had to go to a job right away and didn't have time to carbonate it, just auto-siphoned it into a sanitized keg (flushed w/CO2), and it's been aging for about a month or so.
I'm planning to use the "Biermuncher no stinking beer gun" method of filling the bottles (IF I can get the regulator to co-operate and lower the pressure enuff to avoid the foam), but I'd like some input about how I can go about carbing with sugar/honey, etc.
1) As mentioned, the PET bottles are 22 oz. Any ideas on how much sugar/honey/corn sugar I should put into each bottle before filling them with the beer? NOTE: I'll be flushing each bottle with CO2 and capping it before I start the bottling process.
2) IF I can get the regulator to co-operate and lower the pressure enuff to fill the bottles without too much foam, how long (days?/hours?) should I leave them at room temps (about 72F today) before refrigerating so they don't get overcarbed?
3) Any idea about how long it should take to carb to about 2.3 or somewhere in that vicinity of volumes?
If I get some helpful responses, I'll just do a sixer for starters to see how it works, just in case I'll need some more advice. I read somewhere that when these plastic bottles are too hard to squeeze, they are pretty much fully carbed - is that so?
BTW, if I can't get the regulator to co-operate, I'll just have to release the pressure, open the keg and auto-siphon and bottle with a wand like I would with a bucket. If I have to go that route, I'll just prime the whole thing at once, but I'll taste it first ;>)!
TIA
MT2sum
prior to this, I used two kegs for wine I brewed in Montana before I moved down here to Tennessee. The wines were still, so I didn't need the carbonation. One other keg had a stout, which I was never able to fully carbonate, (my gauges screwed up and I had to wait for a slow boat from China to get a new one!) and I ended up drinking the whole 5 gallons at 'almost flat' carbonation. Now the regulator has gone TU, so I've got to buy a new one.
A while back, I bought a Cooper's Pale Ale brewing kit from a thrift store (Brand new, but originally sold in 2010 for $140 - only $10! ..... Extract was in a can and the yeast was still good.). It was an extract kit with some extra sugar, but the ABV is probably only going to be in the 3.5 to 4.5 range, and it included the fermenter and enuff 22 oz. PET bottles for the whole brew. Weird fermenter, but it seemed to work OK - no airlock!
I know it was old, but I couldn't resist it for the price! I haven't tasted it since it went into the keg, so it may end up in the chicken feed if it's too fowl! (Couldn't resist the play on words!)
At my age I can only find temp jobs for work, so the day I brewed, I found I had to go to a job right away and didn't have time to carbonate it, just auto-siphoned it into a sanitized keg (flushed w/CO2), and it's been aging for about a month or so.
I'm planning to use the "Biermuncher no stinking beer gun" method of filling the bottles (IF I can get the regulator to co-operate and lower the pressure enuff to avoid the foam), but I'd like some input about how I can go about carbing with sugar/honey, etc.
1) As mentioned, the PET bottles are 22 oz. Any ideas on how much sugar/honey/corn sugar I should put into each bottle before filling them with the beer? NOTE: I'll be flushing each bottle with CO2 and capping it before I start the bottling process.
2) IF I can get the regulator to co-operate and lower the pressure enuff to fill the bottles without too much foam, how long (days?/hours?) should I leave them at room temps (about 72F today) before refrigerating so they don't get overcarbed?
3) Any idea about how long it should take to carb to about 2.3 or somewhere in that vicinity of volumes?
If I get some helpful responses, I'll just do a sixer for starters to see how it works, just in case I'll need some more advice. I read somewhere that when these plastic bottles are too hard to squeeze, they are pretty much fully carbed - is that so?
BTW, if I can't get the regulator to co-operate, I'll just have to release the pressure, open the keg and auto-siphon and bottle with a wand like I would with a bucket. If I have to go that route, I'll just prime the whole thing at once, but I'll taste it first ;>)!
TIA
MT2sum
Last edited:
Is the keg sitting at room temp?
If it's cold right now, hows the carbonation off the keg?
Assuming the beer is fully carbed and cold, the plastic bung that you push down on the opening of the bottle will reduce foaming (counter pressure) so you shouldn't need to adjust the pressure of the regulator. I also like to use the same amount of tubing that I do on the tap so the beer will pour into the bottle with the same/similar amount of foam as it would off the tap.
If it's cold right now, hows the carbonation off the keg?
Assuming the beer is fully carbed and cold, the plastic bung that you push down on the opening of the bottle will reduce foaming (counter pressure) so you shouldn't need to adjust the pressure of the regulator. I also like to use the same amount of tubing that I do on the tap so the beer will pour into the bottle with the same/similar amount of foam as it would off the tap.
No, as I said, it's not cold nor carbed. That's why I asked for the info that I posted. I have no way to chill it, and it was 91F outside today, so the AC is working overtime just trying to keep up.
I wonder if one of those counter-pressure caps would work like BierMuncher's rig does? See this Video
I realize it would still take a working regulator, but 10 bucks v. whatever the other equipment and hoses might cost sounds good to me right now - IF those things work, I've not seen any comments about them before that video.
TIA, MT2sum
Since the beer is flat at warm, treat your keg as a bottling bucket. Boil and dissolve about 4-5oz of sugar, there are tons of priming sugar calculators out there. Pour that sugar water, gently stir beer and use a racking cane or you can seal the keg back up and use very low pressure co2 and a picnic tap with a bottling wand like the bmbf. You won’t need to worry about counter pressure since the beer is flat
I thought about that, so I tried to let off some pressure to prime in the keg ..... no bueno! I've been trying to bleed off the pressure for days, and all I get is foam! I've taken off about 2 gallons of the beer so far, (fill gallon bottle with foam, put in fridge till foam subsides, fill to top with foam again, etc., etc., etc., until the beer is about an inch from the top). I'm still getting foam - I don't think the pressure will subside enough to open it up, so I'll most likely end up drinking it flat until I empty the keg or close to it. Tastes pretty good, although it seems like it might be getting ready to turn - at which point it becomes chicken feed!
Thanks for your input and advice - next time, I'll remember NOT to put still beer in the keg ...... Only wine!
MT2sum
Thanks for your input and advice - next time, I'll remember NOT to put still beer in the keg ...... Only wine!
MT2sum
madscientist451
Well-Known Member
Chill the keg down. Freeze 1 liter plastic water bottles, put the keg in a tub of cold water, keep changing out the frozen water bottles, cover the whole thing with an old sleeping bag. If you can get the temp down, the foam problems might go away.
Also, Look on craigslist for a used Co2 tank and a regulator.
Also, Look on craigslist for a used Co2 tank and a regulator.
THX, I'll see if I can do that - we've very little room in here, the only freezaer is in the top of the fridge, the freezer is usally full of frozen veggies (we live month to month), but I will see if I can freeze enuff bottles to fill a plastic garbage can with water and try chilling the beer down - we may save some of the beer to carbonate yet! Any advice on how much priming sugar to put into a 22oz. bottle if I can fill them with cold (uncarbonated) beer?
madscientist451
Well-Known Member
Use a priming sugar calculator:
https://www.brewersfriend.com/beer-priming-calculator/
If you measure your sugar with a digital scale, your beer will be primed closer to the desired level. Some people use tea spoons or 1/2 teaspoon and report good results.
1 tea spoon of sugar = about 4 grams.
So I used a small piece of hose to attach my bottle filler to the picnic tap. Left the PSI at 10. Filled a growler for tonight’s tailgate party. Looking forward to seeing the carb levels, but after reading a gajillion posts on this topic, I have faith that BierMuncher will not have steered me wrong.
Northwest Don
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I'm another homebrewer that bottles using a beer gun, but I'm bottling still beer that I've mixed with priming dextrose. I brew 15 gallon batches and move all the beer from the fermenter to kegs. I'll set up a couple kegs for traditional force carbonation, while reserving one keg for bottling. It might be a five gallon keg or ten gallon keg. I weigh the beer going into the bottling keg so I know how much priming sugar to add, then purge the air from the keg and give it a small CO2 charge to keep the air out and lid sealed. This way I get the beer out of the fermenter and clean everything up, then set up for bottling inside my house on a different day.
Example: just finished bottling eight gallons of "Cabin Fever", an amber ale. I mixed priming sugar solution into the beer in the keg, then purged the air and used CO2 to push the beer into the bottles. Wound up with 3 cases of 22oz bottles and about a case of 12 oz bottles.
Example: just finished bottling eight gallons of "Cabin Fever", an amber ale. I mixed priming sugar solution into the beer in the keg, then purged the air and used CO2 to push the beer into the bottles. Wound up with 3 cases of 22oz bottles and about a case of 12 oz bottles.
It actually depends on the beer style but for a thumb rule 10 grams of table sugar for 22 oz and 7 to 8 grams for a 12 oz bottle.
I have designed my beer gun as described, picnic tap, line, stopper, a piece of racking cane. and I need some help with troubleshooting/ understanding. This was my first attempt of bottling from my keg. So I started off small. I took 2 bottles and placed them in freezer( i first sanitized them, then placed a piece of alum. foil (sprayed with starsan) over the opening) for about 2 weeks. I dropped my co2 to about 6 psi and filled the bottles. Once i got liquid/foam coming out of the top, i placed a cap on the bottle, and the preceded to the next bottle. Once both bottles was filled, i titled the bottles to get some foam up to cap and then capped them. Once capped i placed back into my keezer. Keezer is set to 40F. I waited for 1 week then had one. Then I waited 2 weeks to have the 2nd one.
I noticed that the beer was carbonated ( i can still see some bubbles rising up from the beer, but there was almost no head to to. Is this typical from filling bottles from a keg? Or did i mess up somewhere?
I have my co2 set at 14PSI. it was done on a Red Ale. Keezer temp 40F.
I noticed that the beer was carbonated ( i can still see some bubbles rising up from the beer, but there was almost no head to to. Is this typical from filling bottles from a keg? Or did i mess up somewhere?
I have my co2 set at 14PSI. it was done on a Red Ale. Keezer temp 40F.
You do loose some carbonation as it comes out of suspension to equalize pressurize in the head space. If you plan to bottle the whole keg you could give it a little extra pressure to compensate. If you keep the bottles cold you will also find that there is not much of a hiss when you open them. If the bottle is allowed to warm then rechilled they seem to hiss more for some reason.
Not sure if I am reading this correctly but did you leave the bottle with foil for 2 weeks? 30min or so is enough and I have found room temp works fine. I have also had the best luck(less foam) if I use the normal serving pressure instead of lower.
Not sure if I am reading this correctly but did you leave the bottle with foil for 2 weeks? 30min or so is enough and I have found room temp works fine. I have also had the best luck(less foam) if I use the normal serving pressure instead of lower.
@ba-brewer I read that you wanted cold bottles, so i had stuck them in the freezer, and well, it just happened to be about 2 weeks before I got around to try out the beer gun. If I am understanding your correctly, i should try going at serving psi and then let the bottles warm up after capping before chilling?
As far as me bottling from keg, i am looking at bottling a 6 pack from the keg. In the long run, i am hoping to have 2 kegs on tap, and possibly bottling a case from the 2 kegs when I go camping. So i am doing the trial and error right now.
As far as me bottling from keg, i am looking at bottling a 6 pack from the keg. In the long run, i am hoping to have 2 kegs on tap, and possibly bottling a case from the 2 kegs when I go camping. So i am doing the trial and error right now.
Yes you got it.
You don't have to let them warm up, it is just the lack of a solid hiss can confuse people who are used to the sound from commercial beer.
To reduce lost beer I bleed off the foam that forms in the racking cane at the end of a bottle fill by removing it from picnic tap for a second or two before inserting into the next bottle I plan to fill. Start pouring with stopper in firmly and allow the first foam that forms in the bottle to settle down before releasing pressure to fill.
If you plan to only do a few bottles then upping pressure may not be a option as it might cause foamy pours from the tap.
You don't have to let them warm up, it is just the lack of a solid hiss can confuse people who are used to the sound from commercial beer.
To reduce lost beer I bleed off the foam that forms in the racking cane at the end of a bottle fill by removing it from picnic tap for a second or two before inserting into the next bottle I plan to fill. Start pouring with stopper in firmly and allow the first foam that forms in the bottle to settle down before releasing pressure to fill.
If you plan to only do a few bottles then upping pressure may not be a option as it might cause foamy pours from the tap.
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