Beer Forum

Is there an easy way to flush your competition bottles with CO2 before filling them, without a counter pressure filler or beer gun? I was thinking about connecting the beer line to an empty clean keg, then "filling" my bottles with CO2 from the tap, but inevitably it would end up blowing some leftover star san into my bottles.

If you cap on the foam that arises from filling the bottle, you will have flushed most of the O2 out of the bottle. The little that remains won't cause any problems unless you plan to keep those bottles around for 6 months or so before sending them to the competition. I fill my bottles as needed on the day or day before I ship them off so there really is not enough time for any oxidation problems to develop. In short, cap on foam and don't worry about purging. Even Tasty does it this way.

Wayne

Bugeater wrote:If you cap on the foam that arises from filling the bottle, you will have flushed most of the O2 out of the bottle. The little that remains won't cause any problems unless you plan to keep those bottles around for 6 months or so before sending them to the competition. I fill my bottles as needed on the day or day before I ship them off so there really is not enough time for any oxidation problems to develop. In short, cap on foam and don't worry about purging. Even Tasty does it this way.

Wayne

I thought Tasty has TWO cobra taps with racking canes on them. One to beer and one to CO2?

I agree with Boog, if you cap on foam, you will have eliminated all the O2 from the bottle - however, during the filling, your beer will have picked up some from spashing around in an environment with air. If you can pre-purge with CO2 - with another cobra tap, you can minimize what is picked up while filling.


Mylo

That is what I was talking about. ... picking up O2 while filling. I do cap on foam, so after it is bottled, I am not particularly worried about it.

Or to make it a little easier try building one of these. http://www.ipass.net/mpdixon/Homebrew/PMCPBF.jpg

TWO cobra taps with racking canes on them. One to beer and one to CO2?

That is what I do. I line up all my clean, sanitized bottles (on a puppy training pad for easy cleanup) and then top each with a sanitized bottle cap. I hook up a cobra tap to a clean keg that I've filled with CO2 by pushing 5 gallons of Star-San out of it. I use a length or racking cane stuck in the picnic tap to reach the bottom of the bottle. Having sanitized my hands, I lift the cap off each bottle, stick the racking cane to the bottom and blast w/ CO2 for a few seconds, then replace the cap. Once I've purged them all, I fill them with beer and give each a little shake to make sure I cap on foam.

Before I added the CO2 purge, I would get comments from judges about staleness and oxidation in beers I'd had around in the bottle for more than a few months. Since I added the purge, I've had two beers bottled over 9 months old take gold (one was a light lager!) and no more oxidation comments. So I believe it's made a difference in my competition beers. If I'm just filling a few bottles for a party or something, I don't bother.

I feel like I'm doing the same thing as a CPBF, just in two steps. (but way cheape.. um.. frugally.)

Are you filling the bottles right out of the keg with just your cobra tap, letting the beer slowly run down the sides of the bottle after you purge them?

brewinhard wrote:Are you filling the bottles right out of the keg with just your cobra tap, letting the beer slowly run down the sides of the bottle after you purge them?

I use a drilled #2 stopper on the racking cane as a "poor man's" CPBF. I just pinch the stopper to deform it enough to bleed the pressure and let the beer flow.

Someone made a video that explains it better than I can.