Beer Gun

[brahn]

Ok, I'm not out to start another war about the merits of the beer gun. This weekend I cracked open one of the bottles of stout that I bottled for the NHC and the carbonation was a bit lower than I expected. This is really only the second time I've used the gun and I had similar results last time. The beer is carbonated, just not as much as I'd like. From the bottles it pours with between 1/8 - 1/4" of head, when I pull from the tap I get more like 1/2 - 1". Does anybody have any recommendations for getting the proper carbonation level from the beer gun?

Here's how I fill the bottles:

1. Clean, sanitize, chill the bottles in my freezer. I get the bottles at least to around the temperature of the beer.

2. Drop the pressure on the keg to around 3psi and release the excess pressure from the keg.

3. Purge the bottle with co2, then fill. I wait until the foam is out of the bottle and beer is overflowing.

4. Purge the headspace with co2.

5. Cap the bottle.

6. Repeat.

[Rezzin]

Have you bottled using alternative methods before to use a comparison?

I cracked open a bottle of the Common I bottled over at Lyn's the other day and it seemed to be ok. I didn't get as much of a head but I did pour down the sides of the glass. It seemed about the same in regards to mouthfeel.

I'll try another one tonight and see if there's any difference.

We did the exact same thing as you but I didn't chill the bottles beforehand.

[brahn]

Before I've really only bottle conditioned and never had a problem getting proper carbonation levels. I've filled growlers off the keg from the taps and the carbonation level comes out ok there too. I typically turn off the co2 and purge most of the pressure from the keg when I fill a growler as well to reduce the amount of wasted beer from foam overflow.