Bottling from a keg -- w/o counterpressure filler

[bwarbiany]

Alright folks, I've got a couple of beers in kegs that need to be bottled before competition. I don't have a counterpressure filler, so I'm wondering how to do this...

One is already cold and carbonated, the other is warm and hasn't carbonated yet.

For the cold/carbonated one, I'm going to use the CO2 to purge oxygen in the bottles, put the bottles under the tap, and open the faucet until the level of liquid is about where it would normally be in a bottle (even if that means I'm foaming all over the place). Then cap. All this will be done at normal serving pressure. Sound like a good idea?

For the warm/flat one, I'm planning on using the CO2 to purge oxygen from the bottles, put a little priming sugar in each, then bottle under a few psi of pressure out of a cobra tap. I'm guessing I won't get much in the way of foam here, but I'm not sure. Again, fill to about to where the liquid would end up in a normal bottle, cap and leave in a warm-ish location for carbonation (which might be difficult since I'll be taking them to Alesmith before the AFC competition, so I might have to tell them to leave them *outside* the fridge... Sound like a good idea?

Anything I'm missing in this process?

[dhempy]

For bottling with force carbonated beer ...

I've bottled from the Ventmatic taps on my kegerator. When I do that, I put a tube from the bottom of the tap all the way into the bottle. Then I bleed the pressure way off the keg and shut off the CO2 and fill as slowly as possible keeping foam to a minimum. So far that has worked very well. Sometimes I even up the pressure on that keg for a day or two before to make up for any CO2 lost during bottling ...

Chilled bottles are good as they help to minimize foaming ... that is the real key, do whatever you can to minimize the foaming.

Good luck.

Dan

[brahn]

For the force carbonated beer you could use the Cheap N Easy Bottle Filler ... http://www.strangebrew.ca/Drew/cheap.html. I've heard from lots of people on other forums that it works great.

[maltbarley]

But wait, you can't that! I remember someone nearly getting blasted out of this place for cobra tap bottling. What is this world coming to?


(ok, so I secretly like that cobra tap wand)

[Rezzin]

That was with johnplctech if I remember. I think the argument was over long term storage and oxidation.

(battle drums in the background)
C'mon now - you ALL know the beer gun is just too cool

[jward]

Like Dan says, cold bottles. A frozen flipper top bottle generates less foam then a refrigerated one which generates less then a room temp one.

I probably wouldn't purge O2 from a bottle when bottle conditioning. Yeast scavenge O2 pretty well.

[BrewMasterBrad]

I'm with Dan on this one. For the carbonated beer, purge with CO2 and use some tubing to fill the bottle from the bottom under very low pressure. Cap on the foam, this will reduce any oxygen pickup. Mike McDole, one of this year's Longshot winners, bottles this way all the time and wins awards all over the place.

For the flat beer, your plan sounds good. No need to purge the botles and foaming should not be an issue. I used some of the Coopers carbonation drops for the first time last month and they seem to work well. They are much easier than trying to measure out minute amounts of corn sugar. I have an almost full bag of them if you want to try some out.

If you are going to be entering a lot of comps or bottling your beer for long term storage, the Beergun is a worthwhile investment.

Brad

[brew captain]

I do it. The key is to get the carbonation just right then purge the pressure from the keg and fill at the absolute lowest pressure you can manage. It takes a full minute or two to fill the bottle, but I have had no ill effects that I can detect even after a month or two in the bottle (under refrigeration)...

Cheers!

[craigsdickson]

I used some of the Coopers carbonation drops for the first time last month and they seem to work well.

Not to mention they come from Adelaide, Australia - my home town, so they must be good.

[backyard brewer]

SSSSHHHHHhhhhhhhhhh..........

One of the Beer Gun's secrets is the use of about 10+ feet of 3/16" beer line. This allows you to run the keg at well below serving pressure but at a higher pressure than you would have to otherwise. The idea being when you dramatically drop the pressure to fill from a cobra tap, the beer will start off-gassing. The longer length of tubing allows you to fill at an otherwise higher pressure and helps reduce foaming while increasing the speed slightly.

[BrewMasterBrad]

SSSSHHHHHhhhhhhhhhh..........

One of the Beer Gun's secrets is the use of about 10+ feet of 3/16" beer line. This allows you to run the keg at well below serving pressure but at a higher pressure than you would have to otherwise. The idea being when you dramatically drop the pressure to fill from a cobra tap, the beer will start off-gassing. The longer length of tubing allows you to fill at an otherwise higher pressure and helps reduce foaming while increasing the speed slightly.

Thanks for the explanation Mr. Wizard.

[bwarbiany]

Thanks, everyone. I'll be sure to refer to this tonight when we're filling.

It looks like my brother-in-law already force carbonated the milk stout, so we don't need to worry about sugar (which is good, because once we drop it off at Alesmith, we have no control over whether it goes into their fridge or not). And we've got enough tubing that I think we can figure out something with the cobra.

[backyard brewer]

(which is good, because once we drop it off at Alesmith, we have no control over whether it goes into their fridge or not).

That happened to me the first year I ever competed at the OC Fair. I used carbonation drops to bottle 2 of my entries and they were refrigerated! Doh! My score sheets all read "Finish fermentation next time" "Way too sweet and flat" "You might want to invest in a hydrometer so you know when fermentation is done" LOL

[bwarbiany]

The milk stout still isn't fully carbonated, but he's going to fill two bottles once it does (another day or two) for the competition.