I’m off to my first brew club meeting and I’ve got some decent beer in the kegs in my fridge I’d like to take and share without hauling the whole kit and kaboodle down to the meeting. Can I just bottle and cap as normal and still have carbonation 3 or 4 hours afterward or what? I guess maybe I should just do a test run and let the capped bottle set overnight in the fridge to see what happens to the carbonation level.
Watch this it’s what I do make sure you chill down the bottle it helps.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwIbFQcHYyoHaven’t watched chuck’s video, but I’m guessing he’s demostrating something similar to the following:
Just get the beer and the bottles as cold as you can (I always keep some bottles in the freezer for this), and dispense into the bottles at low pressure. Jamming a tube into a cobra tap will allow you to fill the bottles from the bottom. Getting everything very cold before proceeding will help to to keep from losing carbonation. Should work fine for your purpose at hand.
I’ve bottled barleywines from the keg exactly this way (adding the step of purging the bottles w/ co2) and the bottles still tasted great even 5 years later.
For short term (2 weeks or less), I rinse bottles with cold water and fill them right off the tap. CArblevels are just fine. Hereis a video of me showing how simple it is.
Mullerbrau Bottle Filling Demo
I do pretty much the same as Chuck but ive never used a stopper. I slowly fill the bottle to it hits the very top and then pull the tube out. If i have foam i will let that spill over the side. I never had any problems doing it this way. I do purge with c02 when i age a beer. When i know a beer will be consumed right away I dont bother to re-sanitize my keg line, I have already done this and it has always stayed cold. I will be doing this tomarrow to take to a club meeting later in the evening. Cheers and beers!
Yep, I also use the “tube in tap” method. I enter bottles filled this way into competitions and ship beer to friends with no issues. Bottles straight out of the freezer is the key.
+1 to the bottling wand in the cobra tap method for bottling.
For your method, I would just take a clean and cold growler and put a piece of your 1/2 inch ID tubing on the tap and fill the growler like that.
thanks for the replies. I’ll let ya’ll know how it goes!
[quote=“chuck”]Watch this it’s what I do make sure you chill down the bottle it helps.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CwIbFQcHYyo[/quote]This is what i do too. Cheap and most the CO2 stays in solution.
Recently I’ve been wanting to transport more than a 6er. I’ve been filling gallon wine jugs and 2 liter soda bottles. You’re good for only a few hours. I had leftover 2liters and the next day they were flat as pancakes.
I fill 1gal screw top growlers quite a bit and have had them stay well carbed for a couple of weeks if unopened and kept in the fridge.
I fill 1gal screw top growlers quite a bit and have had them stay well carbed for a couple of weeks if unopened and kept in the fridge.[/quote]
YES!! Unopened they lasted fine. I brought bombers into work one morning that we drank at quittin’ time that were still perfectly carbed is if from the keg. If you’re going to package in bulk, you must consume in bulk 
