Beer Forum

I have not been bottling for about a year now and want to start sending some into competitions and just for easier portability.
I know there are the few different beer guns, and then the cheap and easy route of sticking a hose or bottling wand into a picnic tap and filling that way, which is what I think I am going to be doing.
For you guys that do this do you notice any oxidation issues over time? Do they have to be drank fairly quickly, or how long have you let them sit in the bottle before flavor issues may arise?

You can still purge your bottles with CO2 by rigging a length of racking cane in a picnic tap on the end of a hose hooked to an sanitized empty keg filled with CO2. I clean and sanitize my bottles, line them up ready to be filled and top each one with a sanitized cap. I lift the cap, insert the racking cane to the bottom and purge each bottle with a good 1-2 second blast of CO2 and then replace the sanitized cap until filling. After filling, I give each bottle a tap with a rubber-covered handle of a wrench to make it foam and them cap on foam. I've had light lagers that have been in the bottle for nearly a year place in competition.

I only go through this process for competition beers, BTW. Most other beer I bottle for tastings and parties I don't bother.

Elbone wrote:You can still purge your bottles with CO2 by rigging a length of racking cane in a picnic tap on the end of a hose hooked to an sanitized empty keg filled with CO2. I clean and sanitize my bottles, line them up ready to be filled and top each one with a sanitized cap. I lift the cap, insert the racking cane to the bottom and purge each bottle with a good 1-2 second blast of CO2 and then replace the sanitized cap until filling. After filling, I give each bottle a tap with a rubber-covered handle of a wrench to make it foam and them cap on foam. I've had light lagers that have been in the bottle for nearly a year place in competition.

I only go through this process for competition beers, BTW. Most other beer I bottle for tastings and parties I don't bother.

Yeah, I thought about that for aging some beers. I would like to keep the moving stuff around and hooking up equipment to less as possible. Just not sure if I want to spring for a blichman beer gun or go with the cheaper but more tedious route.

On your other keg filled just with CO2, how high do you keep the pressure on it? And how long does it last for filling bottles, before oyu have to hook it back up to the gas

grainbelt wrote:On your other keg filled just with CO2, how high do you keep the pressure on it? And how long does it last for filling bottles, before oyu have to hook it back up to the gas

I have it hooked to the gas when I'm purging so it's at serving pressure- 12-15 PSI. I then take that keg off the gas and it's sanitized, purged and ready to be filled with the next beer out of the fermenter.

The Blichmann gun is sweet--I highly recommend getting one if you are going to be entering competitions. Keep in mind that you will need a few extra accessories like a y-splitter coming from your CO2 tank--if you don't already have 2 outputs that is.

Filling from a picnic tap with a piece of hose works great too, but I have never kept anything longer than a week this way so I cannot comment on long-term stability.

+1 to the Blichmann Beer Gun. Love mine and feel very confident sending well packaged beers into comps.

My buddy just fills his off the tap without purging the bottle with CO2 first and has yet to be dinged for oxidation notes or even low carbonation. He has won quite a few medals with this practice although he is filling them the day before he sends them out so they are not sitting in that bottle for more than 2-3 wks. He also caps of foam.

Elbone wrote:You can still purge your bottles with CO2 by rigging a length of racking cane in a picnic tap on the end of a hose hooked to an sanitized empty keg filled with CO2.

I simply have a picnic tap on the end of a gas hose. The other end is a polysulfone QD, making it easy to snap on to the line from the CO2 bottle. Nothing wrong with your method except when all the kegs are full

brewinhard wrote:+1 to the Blichmann Beer Gun. Love mine and feel very confident sending well packaged beers into comps.

My buddy just fills his off the tap without purging the bottle with CO2 first and has yet to be dinged for oxidation notes or even low carbonation. He has won quite a few medals with this practice although he is filling them the day before he sends them out so they are not sitting in that bottle for more than 2-3 wks. He also caps of foam.

This is great, but I think the key factor here is time spent in the bottle.
If you are going to lay them down for a long time, you at least want a Beer Gun or a CPBF, and be really careful to cap on foam.

HTH-