Bottling from Pliny the Younger growler

[mikeyme]

I was one of the lucky ones to walk away from Russian River with a Growler of Pliny the Younger before they ran out (1.5 hours waiting to buy a beer!!!). While the idea of opening it up and savoring every drop in the 2-3 days before it "goes bad" sounds delightful, practically speaking, finishing 1/2 gallon of 11% beer might take me a little longer than that. Not too mention I wouldn't mind spreading out the joy for a little longer.

Since I have all of the equipment needed to bottle my own beer (bottles, caps, capper, StarSan, siphon), what is the best method I should use to bottle from the growler into my own 12oz bottles? Keep in mind I don't have CO2 since I am not kegging yet, so flushing bottles with CO2 won't be possible. However I'd welcome any other suggestions.

Thanks,
Michael.

[maxwell]

You lucky bastard! I had been planning a trip there on Saturday and was a bit disappointed that they ran out so quickly. If your growler was filled the way that they re-fill growlers in the pub, I would worry quite a bit about bacterial or wild yeast contamination, which would carry over to your bottles too. When they fill growlers in the pub, they just use a piece of tubing attached to the tap nozzle. It doesn't look like they go to any great lengths to clean the tubing (or their hands for that matter), and growlers are just rinsed (not sanitized) before filling. If you're hell-bent on trying to save it, I would get it as cold as possible without freezing (to maximize CO2 solubility). If you have some tubing that will fit snugly inside the growler mouth, I would sanitize it and wedge it in there, then attach that to something like a racking cane or other narrower tubing and flip the growler upside down to force the beer into the sanitized bottles. Good luck!

Max

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