Brew UK Forum | Beer Kits
Bottling from a keg
Hey
I am pretty new to home brewing and am currently brewing a Coopers Australian Lager and was planning on racking the brew into a keg and giving the second fermentation a couple of weeks.
I then wanted to transfer some of the brew to bottles but only have 24 x 330 ml swing top bottles. The reason for this is that I want to give them as a gift to my brother to celebrate the birth of his first daughter.
Would it cause any problems doing this? The only thing I could think of is the pressure dropping right down in the keg after bottling.
Would it be better to transfer it to the keg and then bottle straight away? Didn’t know whether this would also end up limiting the CO2 in the keg and leave the beer flat.
Or would it better to prime the bottles, fill them and then keg the remainder of the brew adding the correct amount of sugar for the remaining volume? Thought this may also affect the amount of C02.
Any advice would be greatly appreciated!
Thanks
Darren
Responses
Posted 1 year ago by Admin
Hi Darren, I assume you have a 5 gallon keg?
Should be okay. I would bottle straight away after secondary fermentation and put the remainder in the keg. If you add Co2 to fill the void then it should be okay. Might best best to blast some Co2 into the keg before putting the lid on then top up with more so you will get a layer of Co2 covering the beer and protecting against oxidation. This will probably be difficult if you are using Co2 bulbs.
If not then just prime, possibly with more sugar than normal and add a blast of co2 as well.
I must admit I've never done this but should work in theory.
Alternatively get some more bottles and bottle the lot.
Fermenting:
Conditioning:Pale with Styrians
Drinking:Cascade Pale Ale, Summer Lightning
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Sorry to hijack thread but i have a fairly simliar thing.I got woodfordes wheery kit in post today hopeing to get set up this weekend.
When i keg it it will be at my mums house i then when needed would like to transport some from keg to my house a few miles away i wont have room for the keg at my adress.If i just decant what i want that evening into bottles will that cause problems.Im guessing there will just be no pressure in the bottles i put it into ?
Fermenting:
Conditioning: Elderflower wine,Dandelion wine,Ribena wine,summer ale
Drinking: Turbo Cider/summer ale/way to amarillo/funked up wherry
Posted 1 year ago by Admin
Ideally bottle what you need at the time that you put it in the keg as it will be difficult to get it out of the keg once its pressurised without getting lots of foam in the bottles.
Fermenting:
Conditioning:Pale with Styrians
Drinking:Cascade Pale Ale, Summer Lightning
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Hmmm may have to convince the mrs to bring the keg home im guessing the only problem would be letting the keg settle for a week after moving ? seems the best option at present
Fermenting:
Conditioning: Elderflower wine,Dandelion wine,Ribena wine,summer ale
Drinking: Turbo Cider/summer ale/way to amarillo/funked up wherry
Posted 1 year ago by Member
not a problem. beerlover. I quite often put beer from the barrel into bottles to take round friends house.
as long as your going to drink it that night it's not a problem. I'd just get a 2 litre fizzy drinks bottle, wash it out and fill it up as slowly as you can to aviod putting a huge head on it then just screw the top on and take it where you want. you may lose a little fizz from it but not noticeable. and make sure you drink it all because it won't last for more than 2 or 3 days before it starts going off.
Just try it once and see what you think.
Conditioning - Woodfords Great eastern ale, Parsnip wine, Rhubarb wine.
Brewing - nothing at the minute
Planing - Coopers ginger beer, 5L turbo peach thanks to bmsleight, maybe beetroot wine if there enough spare on the alotment,
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Hey Greg (and others)
Thanks for your advice and comments ... been pretty busy so haven't had a chance to jump on and respond (although I did read your advice before racking)!
It was a 5 gallon keg that I was referring to, in the end I decided to bottle just 8 x 330ml and keg the rest, everything was going well until the keg sprung a leak late Friday night (at least my beer was carbonating this time - my first attempt a couple of months ago was a write-off)! Managed to get down a local home brew shop pretty quickly and picked up a King Keg. Siphoned the beer into the new keg (after using VWP to sterilise it and rinsing it thoroughly) but I think its lost the majority off its carbonation - should have added a little more priming sugar I suppose. Also tasted it a couple of days back and it didn’t seem to taste quite as good as the little samples I’d had previously. It may just have needed a bit more time to settle though as I did taste it today and it seemed to taste better, although it does smell a little bit “cidery” - is this normal? It has still got a minimum of 1.5 weeks before its “ready” but I don’t remember originally noticing the smell during my initial sampling sessions!
Ordered another King Keg and 48 PET bottles now so shouldn’t have too many problems on the next one. Going to give the Coopers Dark Ale a go and try and leave it conditioning until Xmas .... although one or two to see how it’s coming along won’t hurt
Don't know whether it would best to keg the ale or whether it would be okay in bottles
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Oh ... meant to ask about the CO2 bulbs ...
1) Do they just increase the pressure inside the keg so you can keep your beer flowing nicely?
2) Can they actually help carbonate your beer, if so what's the best method to get it nicely carbonated?
3) Should they be removed once used or left screwed on? If removed I assume they can only be used once?
Hope these questions aren't too silly
Thanks again guys!
Posted 1 year ago by Member
hi Dzm,
I can answer questions 1 and 3 for you but not sure about 2.
1. There basicaly for when you get half way down the barrel or so and the pressure in the barrel drops right off and the beer stops flowing. just stick one on and the golden nectar starts to flow again
If your only drinking 1 or 2 pints a night or you've primed the barrel well to start with you can some times get all the way to the bottom of the barrel with out needing 1.
3. Yes you can only use them once. once you peirce the end all the gas comes out. never take it straight off, as you inject the CO2 the valve gets very cold and if you try removing it straight away the valve will start leaking all of the co2 back out again, if you really want to take it off leave it for at least 10 minutes first then it should come off with no problems.
I'm not sure if I can say this due to some sort of health and safty thing but i never use the little plastic thing to screw the bulb on, as every time i try all of the gas just sprays out every where as soon as it's peirced and doesn't go into the barrel. My method which I picked up from someones advice on another forum is to get a big thick pair of gardening gloves (to stop you hands from freezing to the bulb) and line the bulb up manualy with the pin and shove it on with brute force. just make sure you've got hold of it or it could come flying up at great speed and hit you in the face.
Conditioning - Woodfords Great eastern ale, Parsnip wine, Rhubarb wine.
Brewing - nothing at the minute
Planing - Coopers ginger beer, 5L turbo peach thanks to bmsleight, maybe beetroot wine if there enough spare on the alotment,
Posted 1 year ago by Moderator
For no2-
When you add the co2 to the barrel it will pressurise it. by moving the barrel to a cold place the beer will gradually absorb some co2 thus carbonating the beer.
The beer in a standard (plastic) keg wont be fizzy like a bottled beer though.
Conditionin' - LEB Pale
Conditionin' - Thwaits Nutty Black
Plannin' - A user upper!
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