Equipment Wanted Blichmann beergun v2 - buy or rent. Help avoid xmas disaster!

[SeanPM]

I've got 2 corny kegs of beer that I'm giving away as xmas presents and I CAN NOT for the life of me get them out of the kegs and into bottles. I've never bottled from kegs. I'd love to sit around and get my counter flow figured out but I won't have enough beer left by the time I do. I've read the beergun v2 may help me... but I can't afford £130+ and waiting 1 month for something to arrive via mail.
If anyone can help, I'd be eternally grateful.

Please...can you help save Christmas?

I'm in the Manchester area.

 

[thepatchworkdoll]

Hi there Sean. Ive got one of these brand new never been used. You can have it for £10 + postage if its any good for you.
Regards
Patch

 

[DocAnna]

I assume you have a party tap, or if not use the tap you have on your kegerator/keezer. attach a cut length of 5/8 tube which should just slide in to the tap. Chill your keg down as low as you can go in a fridge, or outside if like us it's -8 at the moment. Do not have it on the gas for pressure while chilling.
Once v cold, reattach to low pressure gas - about 3-5psi and fill your bottles using your party tap with tube attached to fill from the bottle. If you have a decent length (2m ish) of 5/16" beer line on your tap you will now be able to fill your bottles with the merest trace of foam, cap on foam and not need to counterpressure fill.

 

[SeanPM]

I assume you have a party tap, or if not use the tap you have on your kegerator/keezer. attach a cut length of 5/8 tube which should just slide in to the tap. Chill your keg down as low as you can go in a fridge, or outside if like us it's -8 at the moment. Do not have it on the gas for pressure while chilling.
Once v cold, reattach to low pressure gas - about 3-5psi and fill your bottles using your party tap with tube attached to fill from the bottle. If you have a decent length (2m ish) of 5/16" beer line on your tap you will now be able to fill your bottles with the merest trace of foam, cap on foam and not need to counterpressure fill.

I've just been reading about this as a possible solution. Thinking I could still purge bottles with the nuktap and then jump over to tube method. I'll give this a go and report back.

 

[SeanPM]

Hi there Sean. Ive got one of these brand new never been used. You can have it for £10 + postage if its any good for you.
Regards
Patch
View attachment 79243View attachment 79243

Thanks. Is that tap on the top some form of flow control for the beer as I think that's one of the issues I hadn't accounted for

 

[thepatchworkdoll]

Hi Sean the tap on the tap is two way. One for beer and the other for gas.
Regards
Patch

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

Hi there Sean. Ive got one of these brand new never been used. You can have it for £10 + postage if its any good for you.
Regards
Patch
View attachment 79243View attachment 79243

If Sean decides he doesn’t want it, I’ll take it off your hands as I’ve been thinking about getting one and at that price I’ll give it a go.

 

[thepatchworkdoll]

Hi HB thats fine if Sean doesn;t want it you can have it.
Regards
Patch

 

[SeanPM]

Hi HB thats fine if Sean doesn;t want it you can have it.
Regards
Patch

I'll give it a shot. Thank you. Has to be better than this piece of crap I'm currently trying to use. Will DM you to sort payment. Sorry @Hazelwood Brewery wood. I'll send it to you if it doesn't work out. Pay it forward :)

 

[Hazelwood Brewery]

I'll give it a shot. Thank you. Has to be better than this piece of crap I'm currently trying to use. Will DM you to sort payment. Sorry @Hazelwood Brewery wood. I'll send it to you if it doesn't work out. Pay it forward :)

No need to apologise at all. I hope it does the job for you, good luck!

 

[aamcle]

Best thing to do is make up a stand for it or you will need a minimum of three hands.

 

[SeanPM]

Best thing to do is make up a stand for it or you will need a minimum of three hands.

View attachment 79262

That stand looks like it will will take me more time than I have to recreate. Looks great! Maybe I can fashion something temporary out of wood. How does it work for you? Just watched a video on amazon and it looked pretty clean!

 

[Stan's Brew]

I've got 2 corny kegs of beer that I'm giving away as xmas presents and I CAN NOT for the life of me get them out of the kegs and into bottles. I've never bottled from kegs. I'd love to sit around and get my counter flow figured out but I won't have enough beer left by the time I do. I've read the beergun v2 may help me... but I can't afford £130+ and waiting 1 month for something to arrive via mail.
If anyone can help, I'd be eternally grateful.

Please...can you help save Christmas?

I'm in the Manchester area.

I've only ever used the beer gun (v1) and it's worth it - are there any used ones going anywhere?

 

[SeanPM]

I've only ever used the beer gun (v1) and it's worth it - are there any used ones going anywhere?

Sadsly there doesnt seem to be much of an aftermarket. Either because they are very good or nobody bought them in the first place :)

 

[Stan's Brew]

Sadsly there doesnt seem to be much of an aftermarket. Either because they are very good or nobody bought them in the first place :)

They are bloody expensive, but after 8 years of use it's all I know, next best is the tube off serving tap method, but then you need to answer the oxidation question or not!

 

[WM7793]

I realise that you need an urgent and cost effective solution to your counter pressure bottling requirements, so my suggestion at present will not apply. But if you’re looking for something in the future that will satisfy your needs for a good solution to bottling via counter pressure take a look at this.

I ordered one during Covid and took some time to arrive from New Zealand but there’s a UK distributor. They’re not cheap but in my opinion they outperform beer guns by a country mile. Easy to use and no foaming.
But at the end of the day it’s each to their own.

 

[Wobbly13]

Check out the beer gun from Kegland looks like the Blichmann v1 and around £50

 

[DocAnna]

All good advice about counter pressure fillers, but please to remember that temperature needs to be controlled. Right now depending on where you live and outside temperature, you can fill with the same lack of CO2 loss by sticking your keg outside for a day or so before filling. Lowering the temperature reduces the pressure required to maintain carbonation, and because you can take the beer below 0°C without freezing, it is possible to stabilise the fluid with minimum foaming. A short blast of CO2 into your bottle to purge and fill from the bottom, then cap on foam.

A couple of warnings - don't leave beer for longer than a few days at -3 or lower without gently agitating the beer, temperature stratification will occur in the liquid and water ice will start to form at the walls and surface at the headspace. The beer will be fine once it thaws, providing there wasn't significant yeast debris in the beer. I've previously tried to time brewing of lagers for about Feb-March to ferment in the back shed. However, I'm thinking this year of fermenting indoors but sitting the beer outside for a couple of months, letting it freeze a bit and then letting it thaw once we get to March.

 

[SeanPM]

Thanks. Th

All good advice about counter pressure fillers, but please to remember that temperature needs to be controlled. Right now depending on where you live and outside temperature, you can fill with the same lack of CO2 loss by sticking your keg outside for a day or so before filling. Lowering the temperature reduces the pressure required to maintain carbonation, and because you can take the beer below 0°C without freezing, it is possible to stabilise the fluid with minimum foaming. A short blast of CO2 into your bottle to purge and fill from the bottom, then cap on foam.

A couple of warnings - don't leave beer for longer than a few days at -3 or lower without gently agitating the beer, temperature stratification will occur in the liquid and water ice will start to form at the walls and surface at the headspace. The beer will be fine once it thaws, providing there wasn't significant yeast debris in the beer. I've previously tried to time brewing of lagers for about Feb-March to ferment in the back shed. However, I'm thinking this year of fermenting indoors but sitting the beer outside for a couple of months, letting it freeze a bit and then letting it thaw once we get to March.

Thanks. The lager has actually been close to freezing for about 5 weeks (it did actually freeze but appears to have thawed without noticeable damage) and was at a controlled 0c during my failed bottling attempts. I think the issue may be coming from a lack of control of the beer lines. I'm going to try the contraption @thepatchworkdoll is sending me along with 3/16 line and a gas manifold to balance the pressure a bit more... and see how that goes. I don't think I'll have time for anything after that so will have to go with purging and cane racking via party tap if all else fails (which is a shame because I'm also bottling a NEIPA that loses flavour almost instantly on contact with the outside world

 

[Stan's Brew]

All good advice about counter pressure fillers, but please to remember that temperature needs to be controlled. Right now depending on where you live and outside temperature, you can fill with the same lack of CO2 loss by sticking your keg outside for a day or so before filling. Lowering the temperature reduces the pressure required to maintain carbonation, and because you can take the beer below 0°C without freezing, it is possible to stabilise the fluid with minimum foaming. A short blast of CO2 into your bottle to purge and fill from the bottom, then cap on foam.

A couple of warnings - don't leave beer for longer than a few days at -3 or lower without gently agitating the beer, temperature stratification will occur in the liquid and water ice will start to form at the walls and surface at the headspace. The beer will be fine once it thaws, providing there wasn't significant yeast debris in the beer. I've previously tried to time brewing of lagers for about Feb-March to ferment in the back shed. However, I'm thinking this year of fermenting indoors but sitting the beer outside for a couple of months, letting it freeze a bit and then letting it thaw once we get to March.

OT - Good point about stratification - it also applies to fermenter chilling and can occur at 4C (maybe covered on other threads), where natural circulation of beer currents stops and the top layer can freeze, normally chilling from warm ambient temps.

At this time of year with sub 4C ambient temps and an outside fermenter a heater keeps it at chilling temps and creates a circulatory current so the risk of stratification is less.