Using cornies to bottle beer?

[WelshPaul]

Hi folks, quick question here.

I am planning a brew day for Sunday in which I need to produce 30 bottles for a friend's birthday. I was planning on making a fair bit more than that so that I could keep the rest. Now, is it possible to just keg the finished beer, let it mature and carbonate in a cornie keg or two and THEN bottle it from the tap a few weeks later? I'm hoping that this can avoid a lot of sediment forming in the bottom of the bottles.

 

[phettebs]

You almost need something along the lines of a Blichman beer gun or some sort of counter pressure filler. I've done it straight from the tap and it foams all over the place. It helps if you chill the bottles as cold or colder than the beer first. But what has always happened to me is that it foams still. You cap it right away. The foam dies down in the bottle but then you have extra headspace. The beer degasses into that headspace and you end up with flat beer somewhere down the road.

Your mileage may vary but I just haven't had good luck filling straight from the tap.

 

[Hawks]

I managed to do this for a competition, and as long as the beer is going to be drunk quite quickly it seems to work ( it may last OK as well, but I have not tested it ).

I cooled the kegerator down for a day prior to bottling, added a tap extension ( found that 15mm plastic pipe fits my tap very snugly ) so that it would touch the bottom of the bottle. Then used flow control to fill very slowly from the tap ( I also condition and serve at low pressure anyway which probably helped ). Filling slowly in this way produced minimal froth and I could cap quickly and let it settle back down in the capped bottle. The beer served that evening was in perfect condition and sediment free... :thumb:

If you have a cornie of beer anyway, give it a go and see how you get on

 

[WelshPaul]

I try to keep the pressure low on my Cornies too and I already have a long "European-style" chrome tap that easily fits in the bottles so I'll give it a go.

 

[Runwell-Steve]

The pipe from the tap needs to be touching the bottom of the bottle to try and avoid oxidising the beer or causing much disturbance which will make the bubbles escape from the solution.

If you can manage it have 2 taps set up connected to 2 cornies.

Have the first cornie empty of liquid but full of CO2

Have the second one very cold with your beer in it.

Take your cold empty bottle and fill it wth CO2 from the first tap, then move it to the next tap and fill it slowly with beer, then cap as soon as you can.

 

[WelshPaul]

I have a (currently) empty Cornie keg but I fear that I may have problems in getting the tap to reach the bottom of the bottles. Looks like a I may have to just bottle condition as normal; which is a shame as these are going to be for a gift so I really need to try to avoid too much sediment.

 

[Runwell-Steve]

Attach a bit of syphon tube to the tap nozzle.