Bottling from pressure barrel

[MattMarley]

Hi All

Quick question........
My first lager brew is currently in a pressure barrel and seems to be doing ok (not exploded!)
However I can't keep the barrel in the fridge, so i thought about transferring some of it into bottles. I've seen bottling sticks on line and this seems to make sense to fill the bottle from the bottom. BUT will a bottling stick attach to the tap on the bottom of a bog standard Wilco pressure barrel? Or will I need to construct some sort of "adapter" from tubing?

Cheers
Matt

 

[Toonahfish]

Hi Matt, it doesn't really matter how you transfer the beer, because as soon as it leaves the barrel it is not longer under pressure and will lose all its fizz. In addition, the fact that it all fizzy as it comes out of the barrel will cause major bottling-filling issues because it's just going to turn into froth. It might have been a better move to bottle the beer straight away, rather than kegging it, but that's a lesson learned for next time.

You may be able to salvage it by transferring the beer over to the bottles and re-priming each bottle with some more sugar, so that it carbonates all over again. If you do that you may wish to de-gas the beer completely by letting the lid off the barrel and swirling the barrel lots. If you don't de-gas but you do re-prime, then you run a serious risk of beer bombs.

Yesterday I purchased a small 10L pressure barrel, with the aim of barreling half my brew and bottling the other half. The little barrel should be able to fit in a fridge, if you clear some space. That's something to consider, then you have the best of both worlds.

 

[MattMarley]

Hi Toonafish

Looks like Ill have to decant into a pitcher and swig it quickly from the fridge then! :lol:
Thanks for the advice.

Cheers