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priming a corny for bottling
I have read several posts on here about ways to bottle beer. I recently primed an entire 5 gallon batch in my corny keg and then put a couple of pounds of pressure on the keg and filled 12 bottles from that. I filled them up to the normal level with no foam, so there was a little oxygen at the top of the bottle. Then capped like regularly. I force carbonated the keg after bottling the 12 pack and the priming sugar had no effect on the beer. The only concern is the small amount of oxygen in the bottle before capping. I left around an inch of air at the top of each bottle.
Any opinion on this practice. (without flaming me)
I had trouble myself trying to prime with kegging, ended up just forced cabonating the keg 1st then bottling a few days later instead.
BrewGod, that inch of head space is about the same as it would be if you were bottling using a traditional bottle filler. I wouldn't worry about it.
BrewLuva wrote:
I had trouble myself trying to prime with kegging, ended up just forced cabonating the keg 1st then bottling a few days later instead.
I do force carbonate the keg after I fill 12 bottles. I prime the whole batch with 3/4 cup of priming sugar so that the bottles that I fill have the right amount of priming sugar. And then bottle condition for 3-4 weeks as usual. I have tried filling bottles from a keg that is already carbonated and I get a lot of foam. The way I am doing it I don't get foam and it is like filling from a bottling bucket, except you can control the beer flow easier with the keg despenser hose and faucet. I normally just keg the whole batch. This is the first time I pulled 12 bottles off of the last two batches that I brewed. And they have been conditioning for about 3 weeks so I haven't tried one yet to see how they turned out. And since I did those 2 batches I am now racking over into a secondary for 5-7 days before bottling/kegging. I'm just experimenting on the different ways to brew.
Sounds like a perfectly valid way to bottle to me. Your keg might end up a little overcarbonated, but probably not since I assume you are keeping it in a fridge after you force carbonate it.
By the way, if you are gettingg too much foam bottling already carbonated beer, there's probably too much pressure pushing out the beer into the bottle. I tend to turn the CO2 off, then let off most of the pressure in the keg and I can usually fill a bottle without having to turn on the CO2. Of course if I'm filling a growler I'll usually need to turn the CO2 up to 1-2 lbs. of pressure.
DT
dmofot wrote:
Sounds like a perfectly valid way to bottle to me. Your keg might end up a little overcarbonated, but probably not since I assume you are keeping it in a fridge after you force carbonate it.
By the way, if you are gettingg too much foam bottling already carbonated beer, there's probably too much pressure pushing out the beer into the bottle. I tend to turn the CO2 off, then let off most of the pressure in the keg and I can usually fill a bottle without having to turn on the CO2. Of course if I'm filling a growler I'll usually need to turn the CO2 up to 1-2 lbs. of pressure.
DT
Thanks. It's good to know I did something right on my own. I should be bottling/kegging my Irish Red Ale tomorow. And then a raspberry blonde next week.
Yeah, I tried filling a growler the other week with my usual 7-10psi and had too much head. I will try killing the CO2 and bleed off a little pressure next time.
BrewGod wrote:
Thanks. It's good to know I did something right on my own. I should be bottling/kegging my Irish Red Ale tomorow. And then a raspberry blonde next week.
Yeah, I tried filling a growler the other week with my usual 7-10psi and had too much head. I will try killing the CO2 and bleed off a little pressure next time.
Ha, oh yea, you definitely won't be able to fill anything at 7-10psi without getting foam. I usually set it so low it doesn't register on the gauge, but I can hear the CO2 hissing, so I know there is "some" pressure, as low as it can be though and still push beer. It's a slow process and I wouldn't want to fill a case of bottles that way, but for the random 2-6 bottles or growler I fill at a time, it works great.
DT
Regardless of how much beer is in my keg, I always crank up the psi to 30 and roll it around on the floor for 10-15 minutes, shut off the co2, and tap it.
I have made a FEW bottles this way and nobody complained to be about them being under carbonated, maybe they were just being nice.
As long as your keg is loaded with co2, you should be fine. But if you only keep it to 10 psi (or something really low and only carb it for a few minutes, I'm not surprised that its flat.
When I keep my co2 bottle directly connected, I use 6-10 psi.
I have one CO2 bottle for force carbonating, which I keep around 30psi for a day. My refrigerator is set up with a 20lb CO2 tank that I can hook up 3 kegs at a time and I keep it around 6-10psi after I force carbonate. I haven't had any flat beer. But I haven't opened any of my bottles yet. The first 2 12 packs that I filled have been conditioning for just about 4 weeks now and I am going to put them in the refrigerator in a few days.
Cubx, I don't know if you were thinking I am priming my kegs for the carbonation. That is not what I was doing. I just prime the whole batch in the keg so that when I fill the bottles they contain priming sugar. The next batch I do I am thinking of disolving my priming sugar with 48 ounces of water and then add 1 ounce of the liquid per bottle and not to the entire keg. That way I avoid over-carbonating the keg, and still use the correct amount of priming sugar for the 12 bottles that I am filling. And just throw away the unused priming liquid.
I am just experimenting with carbonating 12 bottles off of each batch that I brew. That way when the keg is gone, and the beer was good, I still have a 12 pack to savor and to age if needed. The keg system I am using seems to be working fine.
3 Kegs on tap?! I'm coming to your house!!
This sounds like a great way to do bottling and I am going to try next time and bottle a whole batch this way. At minimum using a keg tap sounds like a better way to bottle than using the messy bottling wand I got a the brew shop.
How are you mixing in your priming sugar? The keg is very tall.
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