Boel Itap versus Blichmann Beer Gun v2.0

[Horners]

Apologies if it has been discussed ( did quick search and couldn't see that it had come up recently) - I haven't been on the forum regularly for a while.

I have both the above mentioned devices which ostensibly do the same thing. I rarely bottle and as such have had little practice with either device and to date I have not mastered either of them.

Wife has just asked me to bottle a few for one of her colleagues and now I'm in a dilemma as to which go with as its ages since I've used either. I should probably sell one of them.

Question then for folk that have used both - which one would you keep hold of and why? And which one should I dig out sterilise etc for quickly knocking out a few bottles now.

Yours in session

Horners

 

[hoppyscotty]

The two things are not quite the same. The iTap is a counter pressure filler and the beer gun just dispenses the beer. I have a counter pressure filler and it works a treat (not an iTap through I've just bought one and yet to set it up) however I would have thought with a beer gun you'd have to drop your pressure from the 12 or so psi to prevent foaming and over the course of a keg's worth of beer you'd gradually lose carbonation just as you do when serving from a party tap at a reduced pressure...the first four or five beers are great then they progressively lose carbonation.

Personally I'd stick with the counter pressure bottle filler every time but can see the beer gun would have other uses too.

 

[jceg316]

I asked a similar question back in January but there's some comparison between the itap and beer gun you might find useful: Bottling from keg, what's the best solution

I ended up getting the itap and I generally like it but it does feel a bit fiddly. It can be hard to get the flow right and lock a bottle in place, but I think all these devices have a knack. A bottle exploded on the itap the other day sending a shard of glass flying, but I think that's down to a bad bottle than anything else.

 

[Mayor of Simpleton]

I can only comment on iTap. Piece of cake to set up and works straight out the box with no foaming. It's worth watching the you tube videos on it to get yourself familiar with it

 

[hoppyscotty]

Out of interest on my serving taps I use 3/16 beer line but the beer barb on the iTap seems bigger than that. What size of beer line are you using?

 

[Mayor of Simpleton]

3/16. If memory serves right I switched the barb out for a John Guest fitting that screws direct onto the iTap shank and then put a reducer on to step from 3/8 to 3/16

 

[Horners]

3/16. If memory serves right I switched the barb out for a John Guest fitting that screws direct onto the iTap shank and then put a reducer on to step from 3/8 to 3/16

Yes Ive done this too