Beer Forum

It's been years since I've bottled a full batch, but I have an IPA that I'd like to bottle today. The problem is that my bottling bucket spigot is broken and the LHBS is not open today. Can I rack to a corny and use very low pressure to push the beer to the bottles? Or should I just put my priming sugar in the fermenter, gently stir and siphon to the bottles? Any suggestions? Thanks.

Doug

On a BN interview a while back... (I think it was Meraz (sp?) ) Said that is how he always bottle conditioned..... added the priming sugar to a keg, racked the beer on it, flushed the keg with CO2, and then was able to rock the keg to ensure equal distribution of the priming sugar throughout the liquid.. and then used a low pressure to get it to the bottle. It will definitely work, good thinking, do it up.

I've done that several times and plan to do it again in a couple of weeks. Just make sure you do it at VERY low pressure. I've had the tubing slip off my bottling wand. Very messy. Actually the best way to avoid that problem is to place the keg higher than your bottles and use just enough CO2 to start a siphon. You then just open the pressure relief valve and use your bottling wand the same as you would with the bottling bucket. You won't be introducing any more O2 into your beer than your old method. If you are introducing any other contamination, your bottling area is too dirty to be bottling regardless of the method you are using.

Wayne

Thanks for the help. I'm going to give it a shot.

Since it sounds like you have all the kegging gizmo's though... you could jerry rig a counter pressure bottle filler... and just force carb. Or do the Tasty method, right off the tap. People seem to get good results w/ that for cheap. Then you wouldn't have to wait for the beer to carbonate

apresskibrewer wrote:Since it sounds like you have all the kegging gizmo's though... you could jerry rig a counter pressure bottle filler... and just force carb. Or do the Tasty method, right off the tap. People seem to get good results w/ that for cheap. Then you wouldn't have to wait for the beer to carbonate

I've done that when I just needed a few beers off a keg. In this case, I think it will be easier just to do it all at one time, instead of racking to the keg and then bottling later.

Bugeater wrote:... I've had the tubing slip off my ... wand. Very messy.

That's how my second child was conceived.

Now I remember why I quit bottling. It went ok, but I apparently got a little trub in the keg and clogged the out tube. I increased the pressure to try to push it through, and that's when the hose slipped off of the bottling wand. Needless to say I had beer all over the floor. I think I only lost about 2 beers, but that is 2 too many.