Keg, bottle ,then?

[Beamer]

G'day all,

I have started bottling 6-12 beer from each keg I have with a kk bottle filling gun.

I normally carb up over 3- 5 days then raise psi from 10 to 16 the night before I wish to bottle. I believe all this is working great. The problem I am having is getting my system balanced again afterwards.

I have tried several methods such as shaking and burping the keg (and myself in the process)

I tried hooking my gas up to out post. Im not a fan of this method.

And now I just let the keg sit for several days (no gas hooked up)and pour a few beers whilst bleeding every 12 hours.

My question is am I going about this the right way or is the easier methods out there?

Thanks in advance for your input,
Cheers,
Beamer

 

[Rocker1986]

I just brew batches bigger in size if I want surplus bottles and carb them naturally like always. I bottle them first to clear out the muck a bit from the tap and around it, then keg the remainder. Saves all the faffing about that you're describing there, and I get the bottles plus a full keg out of it.

I have had over carbonated kegs before though. What I normally do in this situation is bleed the keg of all pressure, then give it a short hit of gas (about a second), open up the FC on my taps fully, and pour beers. I've found this to work very well; it comes out slow enough to prevent excess foaming except a little at the beginning of the pour, but that just becomes the head by the time the glass is full. I bleed the keg again before the start of the next session if required. After a while the carbonation drops back to normal or a bit below even, and the gas can be put back on as usual.

 

[Grott]

Is it practicable to do the other way round? 12 bottles is 9 litres leaving 10 litres on a full keg. With your glass size work out how many you can have to leave roughly the amount you want to bottle. Then do your 16psi etc and alls done.
Cheers

 

[Blind Dog]

Not sure why you increase the PSI to bottle. I just leave the CO2 at serving pressure, but turn the keezer down to 2C or so the night before. Next day, I turn the CO2 off, burp the keg and proceed to bottle with the el-cheapo homemade counter-pressure bottle filler I made after reading a thread from a US site ("We don't need no stinking beer gun...") and a couple of online videos. Works well, quickly and with minimal mess.

Once I'm done, I just turn the CO2 back on and reset the keezer temp. No issues with foaming etc. (although I do have control flow taps, so might have a slightly more forgiving set up).

 

[Crakkers]

I just brew batches bigger in size if I want surplus bottles and carb them naturally like always.

That's what I do with all my brew these days. I usually make 27-28 litre batches, which is about enough for a keg & a carton.
It's not too much effort to prepare 2 dozen stubbies at kegging/bottling time and it's bloody handy to have take-aways.
I just put a mixed dozen in the fridge to take to a pinball night tomorrow night. Should be a cheap night out.

 

[damoninja]

That's what I do with all my brew these days. I usually make 27-28 litre batches, which is about enough for a keg & a carton.
It's not too much effort to prepare 2 dozen stubbies at kegging/bottling time and it's bloody handy to have take-aways.
I just put a mixed dozen in the fridge to take to a pinball night tomorrow night. Should be a cheap night out.

Another +1

I don't quite go for a carton but maybe a doz. That'll probably change now I'm doing double batches. I'll probably try get a much out of a brew day as possible.

 

[Rocker1986]

I would do it with all my brews but I find ales don't carbonate in bottles very well in winter, so these larger sizes are reserved for lagers over that period. I use 21 litre batches for ales, which are kegged only. In the warmer months though, anything goes. 25 litre batches, usually end up with about 12-14 stubbies from the surplus beer.

 

[Beamer]

Thanks for the info lads, I only got 25 litre fermentors and 22 litre no chill cubes.

Think ill give blind dogs method a go. I raised the temp of the keg today and its back to balance pours.

I like your thinking grott, but I use different glasses through out the keg especially on a saturday afternoon and a good chance I would forget to tally them up.

Thanks again,
Beamer

 

[damoninja]

I would do it with all my brews but I find ales don't carbonate in bottles very well in winter

Not if you have room for them in your fermentation chamber!

 

[Hpal]

When I bottle from the keg, I use just a hose in the beer tap reaching to the bottom of the bottle. I don't adjust temperature or raise carbonation levels prior. I do chill the bottles down though. I release pressure in the keg and set regulator to 4 or 5 psi, place tube in bottle and open tap, close tap when bottle is full and cap. Easy as. Then just put back to serving pressure when I'm done.

 

[dannymars]

I use one of these...

With a dip-tube that reaches to the bottom of a standard 750ml PET bottle....

then purge and realase CO2 a few times, then hook up a little liquid QD to liquid QD jigger that I made up and slowly release the pressure by undoing the cap slightly. Bottly fills nice and slow with no foam.

You could do it with glass, you'd just need a bottle neck sized rubber bung for the dip tube to go through. You may also want a second tube with a little valve to release the pressure.

I do all of this at serving pressure (12 psi), and the beer turns out ok with no sediment and the carb level is fine.

 

[Rocker1986]

Not if you have room for them in your fermentation chamber!

True, although it wouldn't work when I ferment a lager straight after an ale either. :lol: It doesn't really bother me that much anyway, it's nice to do a few batches without having to faff around bottling anything.