Growlers......what's your approach

[jollster101]

Hi all

I am progressing with my homebrew experience and so far (only 4 FWK brews in) am loving the experience. I jumped straight into kegging as I couldn't be bothered with the whole bottling process and its working well.

I am interested in what the community do for when they are heading away from their kegerator to take ensure they take their precious nectar with them. Looking around at Kegland and other places there are fancy mini kegs, regs, gas bottles etc that can be used but I'm not sure I want to jump to paying that straight away.

So what do the masses use when they are heading out to a mates for the night or a bigger gathering and want to enjoy their own brews.

Cheers

 

[theSeekerr]

If you're already kegging, doing a keg-to-keg transfer with a mini-keg is easy and doesn't lose any carbonation.

Cheap way: You can do a psuedo-counterpressure fill using a PET bottle and a Carbonation Cap. This costs about $10 plus whatever PET bottles you have lying around. ex-Coke / soda water bottles work fine, doesn't really need to be brown unless it'll see the sun.

1) Clean and sanitise the bottle, carbonation cap, hose, disconnects etc
2) Screw the carbonation cap onto the bottle, loosely
3) Connect the cap to gas at the same pressure as your keg (in a simple setup, swap the gas disconnect from your keg onto the carbonation cap), unscrew slightly to purge the bottle, then tighten it back up to pressurise the bottle
4) Disconnect the gas line from the cap
5) Connect a liquid-to-liquid jumper from your keg to the carbonation cap. Nothing should flow because pressures are equal
6) Gently loosen the cap to allow pressure to vent slowly, and beer will start to flow. Regulate flow rate by tightening or loosening the cap - looser will go faster but foam more.
7) Optionally, remove the carbonation cap and replace with a normal PET lid. If you're filling a single bottle for a party, skip this step and leave the cap in place until serving.

Doing this with a 2 or 3L softdrink bottle is a pretty great replacement for a party growler.

 

[sixfignig]

If you're looking for a growler solution, your best bet is to grab an appropriate sized mini keg (2/4/5L) with a ball lock head. You can then do a closed transfer using two liquid balls locks and some tubing. That way the beer is in 'perfect' condition until the point of unscrewing and drinking.

I'd probably get a larger 5L one, as with a closed transfer you can fill it with whatever volume you want (eg. you might only want 2L).

Also doubles as an extra keg if you can squeeze a few more litres out each batch.

 

[jollster101]

Cool, thanks to you both for the replies. I might try the PET bottle options first as I already have a carbonation cap that I have used for cleaning beer lines.

The mini keg is a great idea but I might try out the cheaper option first given I won't likely do this a huge amount. I may get to the point that the PET route is good but I want that bit more but would be good to validate that before I spend even more money.

 

[FarsideOfCrazy]

If I'm going to consume the beer within a few hours I just fill my SS 1 litre drink bottles which just have a screw top.

I've got mini kegs but by the time I've sanitised, purged and filled to then drink it within a couple of hours it's not worth it.

The mini kegs are great for taking for more beer or for longer periods, ie. weekends away.

 

[JDW81]

Growlers are a great option for packaging kegged beer for consumption away from your taps. I use them all the time, and it works well for me. I've got 1/2 dozen growlers, and usually fill one of each of my taps whenever I'm heading to a BYO sorta place.

My process.
1: Take a clean growler and sanitise via your preferred method (I use starsan, then rinse with boiling water as I don't want any flavour from the sanitising solution).
2: Place growler in the freeze to drop the temp of the glass (so your beer doesn't foam when it hits the warm glass).
3: Turn your regulator off
4: Release the pressure in the headspace of you keg (reduces the driving pressure and foaming)
5: Attach a short piece of sanitised silicone hose to you tap (I stretch the hose around the outside of my perlicks) and make sure it reaches the bottom of the growler.
6: Turn your regulator back on to about 4PSI so there is just enough pressure to push the beer out of the keg, but to minimise turbulence so you don't get excessive foam.
7: Fill growler and cap onto foam.
8: Keep cold, and share with your mates

Simple, effective and your beer should last in there for a good while if you've sanitised and haven't knocked all the carbonation out during transfer.

Give it a whirl.

JD

 

[chesl73]

I use a beer gun (from Kegland) and fill 330 or 500ml bottles. Takes a little bit of practice but works well and other than the beer gun and a few connects you don't have to buy anything else as you probably already have bottles.

 

[bigmacthepunker]

Cool, thanks to you both for the replies. I might try the PET bottle options first as I already have a carbonation cap that I have used for cleaning beer lines.

The mini keg is a great idea but I might try out the cheaper option first given I won't likely do this a huge amount. I may get to the point that the PET route is good but I want that bit more but would be good to validate that before I spend even more money.

Pet with carb caps work great, been doing it for years. I like the fat lamb series bottles.

 

[JnR_Mc]

Pet with carb caps work great, been doing it for years. I like the fat lamb series bottles.

Do you use the Carb Cap, then replace it with a normal PET lid? If so how does the presure go? Last long before going flat?

 

[Ballaratguy]

I use naturally carbonated stainless steel growlers with a soda stream has bottle in the fridge door (or an esky full of ice) for drafting beer