simplefisherman
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- 8/5/12
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So here is my system for filling PET bottles, you can fully purge the bottle with co2 then fill with beer with no foaming up and loss of carb.
You need a carbonation cap, I use one of the blue plastic jobbies, haven't seen one of the ss ones but sure you can use them the same. I then have a tail piece made up with a gas qd on one end and liquid qd on the other. This tail has about 3-400mm of vinyl hose (because its more flexible and just pushes on to the qd barbs ). Then a length of the good beer line ( 5mm id, 8mm od andale stuff is what I have ) which jams into the bottom of the carb cap hole, and cut to reach just to the bottom of the bottle being filled. I have one cut to fit 750ml pet and one for 2l pet bottles.
So you screw on the lid with tube inserted into the bottle, connect to gas, this pressures up the bottle to what your reg is running, then unscrew the cap just enough to crack the seal, and allow gas to purge the bottle. When you're happy just tighten up again so it's purged on positive pressure. Now remove from gas line and hook up the tail to keg,and bottle. Now just crack the lid again slowly and beer will flow into the bottle. Control the flow by loosening / tightening cap until full. When its full, ( go slow as you near the top! ) remove gas qd and you have a full bottle with no exposure to oxygen and no loss of carb.
I usually let it settle for 30 secs or so then slowly remove carb cap and quickly replace with normal cap.
Things to watch out for;
- if you see foaming up in bottle, close lid up to just a trickle and it will push the foam down.
- I have noticed the poppet on the carb caps sometimes dosen't seal properly, not too much of a problem when its just gas but if it was when beer is in bottle it could be an issue if it's spraying everywhere. Just make sure poppet is seated properly when you remove gas line and you'll be fine.
- I'm still working on a way to do glass bottles, best idea so far is to cut the top off a pet and try to push it onto the glass bottle, but visions of beer going everywhere have stopped me experimenting on that so far.
- make sure you remove a qd before removing carb cap or it'll be a beer shower for you.
- hopefully my dodgy explanation hasn't made it seem too complicated.
- check out the photo for another 1000 words...
I've had beer in these bottles for a month or so and no problems, really can't see why there would be any deterioration over longer term.
Well hopefully somebody could find this useful, cheers...
You need a carbonation cap, I use one of the blue plastic jobbies, haven't seen one of the ss ones but sure you can use them the same. I then have a tail piece made up with a gas qd on one end and liquid qd on the other. This tail has about 3-400mm of vinyl hose (because its more flexible and just pushes on to the qd barbs ). Then a length of the good beer line ( 5mm id, 8mm od andale stuff is what I have ) which jams into the bottom of the carb cap hole, and cut to reach just to the bottom of the bottle being filled. I have one cut to fit 750ml pet and one for 2l pet bottles.
So you screw on the lid with tube inserted into the bottle, connect to gas, this pressures up the bottle to what your reg is running, then unscrew the cap just enough to crack the seal, and allow gas to purge the bottle. When you're happy just tighten up again so it's purged on positive pressure. Now remove from gas line and hook up the tail to keg,and bottle. Now just crack the lid again slowly and beer will flow into the bottle. Control the flow by loosening / tightening cap until full. When its full, ( go slow as you near the top! ) remove gas qd and you have a full bottle with no exposure to oxygen and no loss of carb.
I usually let it settle for 30 secs or so then slowly remove carb cap and quickly replace with normal cap.
Things to watch out for;
- if you see foaming up in bottle, close lid up to just a trickle and it will push the foam down.
- I have noticed the poppet on the carb caps sometimes dosen't seal properly, not too much of a problem when its just gas but if it was when beer is in bottle it could be an issue if it's spraying everywhere. Just make sure poppet is seated properly when you remove gas line and you'll be fine.
- I'm still working on a way to do glass bottles, best idea so far is to cut the top off a pet and try to push it onto the glass bottle, but visions of beer going everywhere have stopped me experimenting on that so far.
- make sure you remove a qd before removing carb cap or it'll be a beer shower for you.
- hopefully my dodgy explanation hasn't made it seem too complicated.
- check out the photo for another 1000 words...
I've had beer in these bottles for a month or so and no problems, really can't see why there would be any deterioration over longer term.
Well hopefully somebody could find this useful, cheers...