Bottling

Dlewis84

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So I built a kegerator for two kegs and have been running all my beers through that. I don't have any bottling equipment but I do have some bottles and there are times when I wish I could bottle instead of keg. I figure I could do this.

Siphon the beer from the fermenter to the keg with the bottling sugar in the keg. Hook up the co2 and immediately pour the beer into bottles from the draft tower. Cap bottles and let them mature. Is there any reason this wouldn't be the same as other bottling methods?

Thanks.

Here, then beer!
 
Dlewis84 said:
Siphon the beer from the fermenter to the keg with the bottling sugar in the keg. Hook up the co2 and immediately pour the beer into bottles from the draft tower.
I've never bottled from a keg....but wouldn't the co2 negate the need for bottling sugar and vice-versa!?
...or are you only using the co2 to "push" the beer into the bottles?
 
I'm using the co2 only to push the beer from the keg to the bottles in this scenario.

I often bottle my co2 carbed beer from the keg to take places, but I know that the beer only stays good for about a week.
 
If you are using the keg as a bottling bucket and plan to bottle the entire batch, then it would work, but if you fill with the tap, O2 can be introduced causing prematurely stale beer. Adding a length of hose to the tap so the beer flows out under the beer level will help.

A bottle filler that attaches to your siphon hose is fairly cheap ($7 to $10 bucks), and you could bypass the keg/CO2 setup. You can bottle straight from the fermenter as long as you are gentle stirring in the priming sugar, and don't kick up the yeast cake. I bottled for years that way before I bought a bottling bucket.

I bottle from the keg w/o any priming sugar, just wait for it to be fully carbed in the keg, add the previously mentioned length of hose to the tap, turn the pressure down to the level that it barely flows and bottle away.

if you want to get into bottling entire batches, then the bottling equipment is not that expensive.
 
I have a Counter Pressure Bottle Filler that hooks to my keezer and works great given its properly cleaned every time you use it otherwise not great lol

you hook one side to your co2 and the other to liquid out of the keg, turn the pressure down to 2 psi and it works great

its call counter pressure because the knob on the right puts back pressure in the bottle keeping the foam down and dispenses any oxygen out
 

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This sounds like something I would be interested in purchasing. It is not the money that is concerning. It is that I am running out of places to put all this beer stuff!
 
for holding the bottle take a large plastic ice cream tub and screw a vegetable can through it into a wood 1 by 6, trust me this works the bottle gets braced and the overflow foam leaks into the tub

if you want the quick and easy way, a racking can will fit snug inside a picnic tap, turn your pressure down to 1 and fill it up, works good, just remember to over fill
 
A counter pressure filler is a good way to go. If you are willing to wait a little for force carbing in the keg you can then bottle without the sediment produced by bottle conditioning. With a keg set up this is a good way to go. You might want to finish a beer and not have any empty kegs so just sanitize some bottles and empty your keg into them. there are lots of fillers out there on the market. Looks like OMB has a 2 way valve on his? nice
I bottle at regular keg pressure. The key is finding the sweet spot with the co2 bleeder valve so the beer flows at just the right pace. It is messy though so I do mine in a large basin. Might lose half a beer when bottling a couple of cases.
 
Ive use this for about 5 years so its not pretty but you get the idea. and your right you do loose a little, depending on the temperature difference in the bottles vs the beer, you'll get foam.

by the way I have my keg fully carbed for at least 2 weeks before Ill bottle, the reason, if not and you force carb the bottles seam to lose carbonation over time. the carbonation is not bonded enough to last

Oh I cut mine down to use with shorty bottles, and changed to a top caper, works for both sizes now
 

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