Sneaky Way To Fill Bottles Quicker?

[Dave70]

Bottling beer is enjoying a renaissance with me at that moment, but the rigmarole associated with it shits me.
So in an effort to speed things up a little, I'm going to try this - if anyone can see a problem, please pipe up.

Rack finished beer to keg.
Hook up gas at serving pressure - maby a little lower.
Prime bottles (still kegging about half, so no bulk prime)
Fill bottles from tap direct.
Cap and store.

That's it.

Probably been done before, but I've never heard of it.
How's that sound?

 

[hirns]

Bottling beer is enjoying a renaissance with me at that moment, but the rigmarole associated with it shits me.
So in an effort to speed things up a little, I'm going to try this - if anyone can see a problem, please pipe up.

Rack finished beer to keg.
Hook up gas at serving pressure - maby a little lower.
Prime bottles (still kegging about half, so no bulk prime)
Fill bottles from tap direct.
Cap and store.

That's it.

Probably been done before, but I've never heard of it.
How's that sound?

Now you've got a keg to wash and sterilize as well as all you had before! I've used a length of silcon hose before between the lil bottler and the tap on the fermentor. I could fill all the bottles without having to pick them up.. still had to for capping, but this was quicker.



Hirns

 

[MeLoveBeer]

I've used a length of silcon hose before between the lil bottler and the tap on the fermentor. I could fill all the bottles without having to pick them up.. still had to for capping, but this was quicker.

Thats a cracking idea hirns... thank god I don't bottle often these days, but that's a simple thing to make the whole thing easier.

 

[np1962]

Now you've got a keg to wash and sterilize as well as all you had before! I've used a length of silcon hose before between the lil bottler and the tap on the fermentor. I could fill all the bottles without having to pick them up.. still had to for capping, but this was quicker.



Hirns

As the OP mentions he is still kegging half the batch then I see no extra work with this.
My issue would be oxidation, if filling with a little bottler you fill from the bottom eliminating most of the air contact but filling from a tap you may oxidise the beer, sure some of the oxygen will be taken up by the yeast as it carbonates the bottle but not sure it will eliminate all of it.
If filling a bottle with carbed beer from a tap I always make sure this is drunk within a couple of days.
Cheers
Nige

 

[argon]

I occasionally fill from the keg for comps, bbqs or whatever and i find it a little easier to jam a little bit of platsic tube up the spout to fill the bottles. That way you're filling from the bottom of the bottle and you'll get less splashing around.

You want your gas at just about the lowest pressure as possible. I find that replicating the speed it comes out of the ferementer is about right

@ hirns... Brilliant!!... I'll be dong the silicone hose to the bottle filler next time I bottle. That would definitely make things quicker. Now if only I had enough swing tops, wouldn't have to pick them up at all!

 

[jonocarroll]

if anyone can see a problem, please pipe up.

Rack finished beer to keg.
Hook up gas at serving pressure - maby a little lower.
Prime bottles (still kegging about half, so no bulk prime)
Fill bottles from tap direct.
Cap and store.

[Edit: re-read your post and I'll clarify. If there is time between the beer going into the keg and pouring, while connected to the gas, this may be a problem. Using the gas to push out some of the uncarbed beer wouldn't be a problem, but I see no advantage to putting it in the keg first]

No one else sees the inevitable bottle bomb problem here?

You can get a bottle bomb by priming a fermented beer that still has too much dissolved CO₂ from ferment (say, bottling a lager without warming it up after ferment finishes) - priming and then filling with gassed-up beer is a recipe for disaster.

I've tried this a bunch of ways, and I usually get more foam than beer, but you can get away with it if you fill chilled bottles very slowly from the tap. The tube idea is great as long as it doesn't introduce more turbulence. You will lose some carbonation, but if it's for drinking that day it's not too bad.

My favourite addition to my keg setup is my CPBF. Last night I tapped off a bottle for a competition tonight. Perfectly carbed, crystal clear, ready-to-drink.

Good luck with it.

 

[thelastspud]

I thought he was going to bottle flat beer from the keg then force carb whats left in the keg sounds alright to me

 

[Dave70]

Now you've got a keg to wash and sterilize as well as all you had before! I've used a length of silcon hose before between the lil bottler and the tap on the fermentor. I could fill all the bottles without having to pick them up.. still had to for capping, but this was quicker.



Hirns

Like I said, I'm kegging half the batch, so I would have had to do this anyway.
I really like your idea with the hose / lil bottler set up.
You must be even more lazy / impatient / innovative than me..

 

[[email protected]]

Major problem here is that a racking cane is deisgned to deliver beer to the bottom of the bottle to avoid oxidation, if you're filling from the top of the bottle with a tap your creating a lot of splash. I've always bottled with a silicone hose to racking cane from fermenter in a high location and this goes very quickly and avoids picking up the bottles. Also you can bulk prime very easily with a half batch, just divide the priming sugar by two, piece of cake.

 

[Dave70]

[Edit: re-read your post and I'll clarify. If there is time between the beer going into the keg and pouring, while connected to the gas, this may be a problem. Using the gas to push out some of the uncarbed beer wouldn't be a problem, but I see no advantage to putting it in the keg first]

No one else sees the inevitable bottle bomb problem here?

You can get a bottle bomb by priming a fermented beer that still has too much dissolved CO₂ from ferment (say, bottling a lager without warming it up after ferment finishes) - priming and then filling with gassed-up beer is a recipe for disaster.

I've tried this a bunch of ways, and I usually get more foam than beer, but you can get away with it if you fill chilled bottles very slowly from the tap. The tube idea is great as long as it doesn't introduce more turbulence. You will lose some carbonation, but if it's for drinking that day it's not too bad.

My favourite addition to my keg setup is my CPBF. Last night I tapped off a bottle for a competition tonight. Perfectly carbed, crystal clear, ready-to-drink.

Good luck with it.

I don't think the beer will have any time to absorb C02. It's going straight from the fermenter to the keg, to the bottles in one session.
But I see your point, and the next one will be larger. Its coming on three weeks in the fermenter and I've raised the temp to 12 deg for the last couple of days, the FG hasn't moved in three so I should be sweet.

 

[dago001]

I've been doing this for a while. However I use a picnic tap with a small length of 10mm beer line that pushes up into the tap outlet. I cut the bottom of the beer line off at an angle. I also have an old keg that needs a refurb, which is what I use. I push the uncarbed, bulk primed, beer out with approx 3-4 psi co2. I find this method saves me a fair amount of time when bottling a brew - up to 1/2 an hour. It's also much more user friendly - having tried various methods of bottling from the fermenter.
Cheers
LagerBomb

 

[felten]

Now you've got a keg to wash and sterilize as well as all you had before! I've used a length of silcon hose before between the lil bottler and the tap on the fermentor. I could fill all the bottles without having to pick them up.. still had to for capping, but this was quicker.



Hirns

+1 This makes bottling so much easier. I like to line my PETs upright in the box they came in with the lids sitting loosely on top, and then I can move the little bottler between each without any stuffing around picking up and putting down bottles.

 

[earle]

+1 This makes bottling so much easier. I like to line my PETs upright in the box they came in with the lids sitting loosely on top, and then I can move the little bottler between each without any stuffing around picking up and putting down bottles.

This sounds good. I use dark green stubbies which I store in cardboard tomato cases, when I'm bottling I sometimes overflow and a bit spills. Maybe I could put the bottles I'm filling in a plastic box, fill using this method then lift the box up to the bench for capping. Anything that saves time at bottling is a great idea.

 

[stux]

+1 This makes bottling so much easier. I like to line my PETs upright in the box they came in with the lids sitting loosely on top, and then I can move the little bottler between each without any stuffing around picking up and putting down bottles.

This is how it was done in the olden days with the original coopers bucket style fermenter kits (30L Eurotainer)

They came with a length of hose, a tubing clamp and a little bottler

The hose and clamp joined the little bottler to the tap, and it made it relatively easy to fill up bottles in a line...

the tap could be rotated up, which made it easy to sanitize just before bottling...

and the bucket was easier to clean...

and then they brought out that drum thing which was hard to clean, not as transparent, didn't have as good a seal, came with plastic bottles, no tubing and no clamp...

progress...


...

I still think those Cooper's buckets were better than the 25L buckets we get now... But the new coopers fermenters do look neat.

stux gets back on his rocking chair

 

[beerbrewer76543]

For my next batch I'm tempted to use a syringe to dose each bottle with sugar solution and fill straight from the fermenter. Racking is such a PITA, adding heaps of time to bottling day

 

[AlwayzLoozeCount]

I have seen the method of hose used between the tap and the lil bottler before and if you do your bottling in the kitchen fold the door on your dish washer down and put all your bottles on there, helps with cleaning up if you get any overflow.

 

[beerdrinkingbob]

For my next batch I'm tempted to use a syringe to dose each bottle with sugar solution and fill straight from the fermenter. Racking is such a PITA, adding heaps of time to bottling day

That's a great idea, should work and you can still play with your priming rates, all you would need is a 15ml syringe.