Beer Forum

My beer is carbonated but am having a tough time capping on foam when bottling. I release the gas then set to 5 psi's but comes out flat. Has anyone experienced this? I use the Blichmann Beer Gun.

I thought the same thing when I first started using my beer gun, but learned the beer was quite carbonated. The beergun has a very "smooth" flow (no agitation in the dispensing), so it will look flat. All you need to do is pump a small amount of CO2 into a half full bottle and you'll see that your beer is carbonated.

Also...you don't need to cap on foam with the beergun. Once you've hit your fill level, pull the gun out of the beer and fill the remaining neck space with co2.

Crupp is right.

I have capped beers that are 3.5 years old with that method, I have yet to get oxidation, or fill related drawbacks, back on a scoresheet.

MIlls

I do fill it to the top then hit it with co2 but I find it odd that when opening the beer there is no snap or pop of co2. Reminder that my beer is fully carbonated at this point.

That's odd. I always get a carbonation pop. Are you sure the caps are truly sealing the bottles?

Tomas77 wrote:I do fill it to the top then hit it with co2 but I find it odd that when opening the beer there is no snap or pop of co2. Reminder that my beer is fully carbonated at this point.

That's interesting...how does the beer pour? I don't get a loud "PST" when I open my bottles, but the beer always pours well and has (at least I think) proper carbonation.

How long do you wait before uncapping. If it is right away, it wont hiss because the bottle hasn't had a chance to equalize.

Mills

Tomas77 wrote:I do fill it to the top then hit it with co2 but I find it odd that when opening the beer there is no snap or pop of co2. Reminder that my beer is fully carbonated at this point.

I have gotten better carbonation results by letting the beers cold condition in a fridge after bottling them with the beer gun. I believe this cold conditioning gives the beer time for the carbon dioxide to equalize out. After bottling them, put them in a fridge for 7 days before popping them and then see how carbonated they are!