Bottling Guns

[phildo79]

What do you do then, just fill the PET bottles up from the bottom through the carbonation cap + beer line? Presumably the cap is loosely fitted to let the air / gas out or you just unwind a little when the flow slows down. Do you purge the bottles first? Interested as I have a couple of boxes of Coopers PET bottles that I hardly ever use and it could be a useful thing to do for taking beer on holiday. I also have a carbonation cap and beer line!

Thanks.

Pretty much, yeah. It's very simple.

Clean and sanitise your bottles.
Same with carb cap and line.
Screw on and hook up the gas.
Loosen the cap to purge.
Attach bottle with carb cap to a pre cleaned and sanitised (and purged) jumper line.
Hook gas up to the keg.
Slowly release the pressure from the bottle to fill it and tighten when full. Let a little bit of beer escape before tightening.
Remove carb cap.
Squeeze bottle in order to 'cap on foam'.

 

[MickDundee]

I have a very simple method of bottling

<nervous types, please look away now>

Fill large 2 litre jug with beer. Place funnel in bottle. Fill bottles with beer, adding metered amount of priming solution to each.. Simple.

I have *never* had an infected batch.

Or (alternative explanation), loads of my beer is in fact infected, and I am such a fool I cannot tell.

You be the judge.

This thread is about bottling guns to bottle already carbonated beer from a keg or pressure fermenter, though.

 

[Graz]

Pretty much, yeah. It's very simple.

Clean and sanitise your bottles.
Same with carb cap and line.
Screw on and hook up the gas.
Loosen the cap to purge.
Attach bottle with carb cap to a pre cleaned and sanitised (and purged) jumper line.
Hook gas up to the keg.
Slowly release the pressure from the bottle to fill it and tighten when full. Let a little bit of beer escape before tightening.
Remove carb cap.
Squeeze bottle in order to 'cap on foam'.

Thanks for that!

 

[AnimatedGIF]

What do you do then, just fill the PET bottles up from the bottom through the carbonation cap + beer line? Presumably the cap is loosely fitted to let the air / gas out or you just unwind a little when the flow slows down. Do you purge the bottles first? Interested as I have a couple of boxes of Coopers PET bottles that I hardly ever use and it could be a useful thing to do for taking beer on holiday. I also have a carbonation cap and beer line!

Thanks

I know you weren't asking me, but I use this method, which includes purging with CO2 first:


EDIT - should have clicked to next page of the thread to see you already got the answers you need

 

[MickDundee]

My Nukatap filler came today and I absolutely love it. So easy to use, you can get quite a high fill in the bottles. My one criticism is that the attachment for fitting into your spout was an absolute bugger to screw into the unit but it’s in now and I doubt I’ll need to take it out again.

 

[MickDundee]

I’ve done a little (very edited) video on my Instagram showing (badly) the start and end of the process.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CY_du_AMMDY/?utm_medium=copy_link

 

[YeastFace]

I've not got round to using mine yet, so glad to see it works. No such issue with the spout fitting for me.

 

[Bombers hoppy ending]

I’ve a beer gun, just checked and it’s the Kegland one. Personally I’ve not had any issues and have found it a useful bit of kit.

Key is not to bottle at too high a pressure, I started out chilling the bottles but got fed up with that and room temp ones have been fine. The beer line I have is both long and a small diameter which probably helps but it does mean filling a bottle may take a few seconds longer.
Beer’s always held up well in the bottles, maybe put a bit of extra carbonation in to counter any losses in bottling if you’re concerned.
Biggest issue I have is a lack of hands when bottling on my own, think I need to make some kind of holder for it that I can sanitise so I can put it down to put the cap on.
Of course the real answer to that issue is a counter-pressure filler, but without a dedicated brew bench I’ve nothing to fix it to.

I use a bottle full of starsan. Put the gun I. That while I cap the one I just filled.

 

[Graz]

My Nukatap filler came today and I absolutely love it. So easy to use, you can get quite a high fill in the bottles. My one criticism is that the attachment for fitting into your spout was an absolute bugger to screw into the unit but it’s in now and I doubt I’ll need to take it out again.

Thanks for that, pretty much made up my mind to buy one.

 

[matt76]

I’ve done a little (very edited) video on my Instagram showing (badly) the start and end of the process.

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CY_du_AMMDY/?utm_medium=copy_link

Ooh, hark at you with your fancy social medias!

It looks similar to, if not quite as elegant as, the Tapcooler one so I imagine it works similarly.

I've used my TC one a few times and pretty much got the hang of it now (famous last words, that ought to put the mockers on it!) so it doesn't take too long or make too much mess to do a few bottles every now and then