I built a very nice bottling rig and it works perfect every time. I took a bottling wand and use a saw to cut the valve part off. That left me with a firm plastic tube. I got a stopper(cant remember the number) but the hole is perfect to fit snugly on the tube, and it fits snugly into a bottle top. When I pressurize, I bring the temp to 32 degrees F and pressurize at 30 pounds for 2 days. Then I burp and reduce to the pressure called out by the carbonation chart for 32 degrees and I leave it for 5 days more. I always bottle the whole keg. On bottling day, I sanitize my bottles and put the tube through the stopper after letting sit in sanitizer for a few minutes, I fill my dispensing hoses with sanitizer for a few minutes and then clear them. The plastic tube fits perfectly in a picnic tap and I assemble that. I know it sounds like a lot of steps but it all really takes 10 minutes, tops. When I am ready to bottle, I increase the keg pressure to 5 PSI above where the serving pressure was. I empty a bottle of sanitizer and make a good seal with the stopper. Then I start to dispense. The back pressure causes rejection of any foaming. It just cant foam because the pressure in the bottle becomes more than that of the beer. As the bottle fills I use my thumb to create a small escape path for pressure in the bottle. Once itās full I remove the wand and cap. I get a perfectly carbonated bottle every time I open one. Very happy with the method.
Thatās how I used to do it now I donāt bother withe the stopper. Just blow the pressure in the keg and set to 5 psi no foaming just cap on the foam. Learned from @mullerbrau
Yep, Iāve used the method of simply dropping the āserving pressureā when bottling to a few PSI. I havenāt done it that much, or stored the bottles for particularly long, but Iāve been happy with the results for what Iāve done.
I bottle some off most kegs and put a six or so I can revisit them as the age. They have held the carbonation for quite some time actually have never opened any that were under carbed. What I have noticed is some over carbed but I think that may have been when I filled them without dropping the pressure. Anyway sometimes Iāll bottle a whole keg so I can just grab a six and go.
