NO GAS Counter-pressure Homebrew Bottling from Cornelius Keg
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- Опубликовано: 29 апр 2020
- This is a homebrew bottling video... with twist! Its not secret that I HATE getting my home-brewed beer into bottles. From measuring and dosing priming sugar, navigating the minefield of bottlebombs and foamy beers right through to cleaning the sediment out of the bottles at the end. This is why I've been playing with a new way to bottle: COUNTER PRESSURE BOTTLE FILLING.
In this video I will talk you guys through how I batch carbonate my beer and bottle using this much misunderstood technique. And whatsmore, I'll show you how to do it WITHOUT A CARBON DIOXIDE GAS LINE, all you need is a cheap, second-hand cornelius keg. The benefits of employing this technique are incredible but here are my thoughts on the main ones:
- Extremely Space efficient
- Does not require gravity
- Eliminates bottle bombs and foaming
- Ensures even carbonation
- Eliminates bottle sediment for a professional finish
If this technique doesn't quite do it for you, or you're not ready to counter-pressure fill yet, check-out some of the other ways I try to eliminate the pain from bottling day
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As always, if you would like to see more from us, subscribe to the channel, follow me on twitter @DrTankNStein and head over to the website www.drtanknstein.com
Thanks for watching,
Happy Brewing,
Jim
LINKS TO PRODUCTS FEATURED IN THIS EPISODE:
19L Cornelius Keg (EXPENSIVE, DO NOT BUY FROM THIS LINK): amzn.to/2VTyokv
4 x Screw-on ball-lock disconnect: amzn.to/2VRH0YE
4 x Barbed ball-lock disconnect: amzn.to/3d2VWsL
Keg charger: amzn.to/3aWPzFQ
10 x 8g CO2 Cartridges: amzn.to/2VUt68j
Picnic tap with BALL LOCK disconnect: amzn.to/35k8yZM
Picnic tap with PIN LOCK disconnect: amzn.to/2xnKtET
Stainless Steel Bottle Wand: amzn.to/2YoVd14
Plastic Bottle Wand: amzn.to/3bTDeUp
Tapered corks for pressure bottling: amzn.to/2YzzUtR
12 x Brown Glass Bottles with Caps: amzn.to/2VS8IV4
24 x Brown Plastic Bottles with Caps: amzn.to/2xo84W0
High Quality, steel bottle capper: amzn.to/3aUqhIk
250 x Black crown-type bottle caps: amzn.to/2YoXqto
Tree-style bottle drying rack: amzn.to/3b0fHzX
‘Fast-rack’ bottle drying rack: amzn.to/2YlqoKq
Bottle Steriliser: amzn.to/3d9O5tz
High precision scale (hops, salt, priming sugar): amzn.to/2KS2vT4
Hi Jim, thanks for sharing this cost effective way of bottling - just about to start kegging so this was really very useful. Great stuff! Dave
Very good thanks for sharing
Thanks I now just need to invest in the kegs etc. useful to know as I like to give quite a few bottles away
Yeah kegs can be expensive! Best I’ve seen recently is £103 for 2 kegs at malt miller. Keg kingdom sometimes have them for £30 each but their customer service is pretty poor
Nice Homebrewer ingenuity! The problem I see with this compared to other fillers is that there is no CO2 purging of the bottle. This would work only if the beers were to be enjoyed right away but the oxygen in the bottle will ruin the beer very quickly especially styles like NEIPAs.
When bottle conditioning, as you know, the oxygen gets resorbed.
Having a good counter pressure bottle filler with purging capabilities is a painful purchase but one of the best purchases I have made.
Cheers!
Hi Jeff! Nice to hear you counter-pressure fill too, which product did you go for? To be honest, whilst I haven’t done a TON of research into this, I feel like the headspace oxygen issue is a bit of a myth. If you have 15ml of airspace at the top of a bottle you have around 150 umol of oxygen in there. Even if every molecule reacted with something (manganese, alpha acids, hop thiols, fatty acids etc) then the concentration of oxidised material due to headspace oxygen is still very low. I know that certain radical reactions can take place, especially with the thiols and sulfur containing amino acids, but these largely seem to be initiated by UV light and so a brown bottle and a dark fridge is your best defense against that? I know that people post pictures of their purple NEIPAs but I’ve certainly never seen one come out of my kitchen (and believe me, I JUMPED on that bandwagon!). That being said, I am a chemist, not a biochemist and certainly not a biologist so perhaps I’m oversimplifying things! But yeah, after my ramble, I will one day also upgrade to a gun that purges (because why not if you can?) but this was just my plea to people to STOP LEAVING CORNY KEGS ABANDONED ON EBAY haha.
@@dr.tanknstein7590 since I brew a lot of NEIPAs, oxygen is a major issue. In professional breweries dissolved oxygen levels need to be less than 0.025 parts per MILLION. You really don't need very much oxygen to ruin a beer. I own 2, the old Blichmann and The Last Straw. Both work great and both were about $100 I use one for clean beers and the other for mixed fermentation. There are some cheaper ones for $70 but but I think the extra $30 is worth it.
Keep the videos coming!! Cheers!
Jeff Roach yeah you’re probably right! I have a tendency to over simplify things. Even if all of that oxygen dissolved then that’s 0.1ppm oxygen in a 500ml bottle, higher in a 330 so... I guess the main point of this was used a keg without a gas line’... the blichman looks good but we don’t really get their stuff over here. Homebrewing is way more... advanced (?) in the states than it is over here
I thought kegging was out of my reach for a while also but found a deal on market place and was kegging for $60. Luckily co2 is cheap for me at $32 for a 20lb tank exchange. Every time I see corney kegs in decent shape for $40 or less they come home with me.
Me too! I think they’re a little more expensive here in the uk but if I see one for less than £50 then I usually add it to my collection
Thanks for the answer. It makes perfect sense.
If you use the same method for beer in a keg gas conditioned is the process the same or do you have to reduce or increase the pressure at all. Thanks steve
Well, as I say in the video, using the priming sugar actually overcarbs the beer a bit and generates a decent bit of pressure in the keg - much more than serving pressure. I would still stick to this if using CO2 to carb/bottle so that you can afford to lose a little in the bottling process
Thanks Jim great idea any online links to the required bung size please?
Hi Alex, thanks for watching. The bung I used was taken from a lab and was actually quite difficult to apply. Instead I would suggest using something like this amzn.to/2YzzUtR which is easier to slot onto the wand. The imporant thing is to have the tapered end (going to at least 18mm) so that it correctly blocks the bottle neck. Good luck, please let me know how you get on with this!
If carbonating naturally using priming sugar in the keg, how do have any idea how much it carbonated? Wouldn’t there be a chance it could be over carbonated?
Hi Jack! Thanks for watching. There are pretty good calculators out there that allow you to set your desired carbonation level, temperature and volume of beer etc and they let you know the amount of sugar to use. Bear in mind that the level I’m suggesting in this video IS overcarbonated if you wanted to simply drink out of the keg. I have overcarbed this as some carbonation may be lost during the bottling process
Hi Jim, i guess you can apply the same trick with a pressure fermenter?
Hi Dennis, I guess you could, as long as you can get it very cold (they are often quite cumbersome and difficult to get in a fridge?). The tubing length also makes a huge difference to the foaming in the bottle
You mention bottling from a keg using sugar and priming as normal rather than co2 pressurising
How do you ensure none of the trub or yeast ends up in the bottles since the dip tube presumably sits close to the sediment
I keep looking at kegs because I have had occasional issues with over carbonation in bottles especially with changeable weather so I want to stop the beer gushing out of the odd bottle dragging up the sediment with it
You video seems to be a low cost more controllable option
Cheers steve
Hi Steve! The first bit of beer will have trub in it but not much. The key is to keep it cold and keep it still. Trub tends to stick together quite well and be quite solid, it’s not a case that you have to get rid of all of the trub before you can serve a decent pint, most of it just stays in the keg... If you keep it cold and still 😉
You mentioned a video with a keg charger, which video is that. And would you charge/gas a 19l Cornelius with one?
Hi Paul! Thanks for your comment. I have just looked for the keg charger video and it seems it isn’t there anymore! How strange... maybe I never put it up in the first place. Anyway, there is a link to a keg charger at the bottom of the description so you can see what one looks like. Basically, you can’t ‘gas’ a beer with it but what you can do is keg condition (like I mention in this video) and then use the keg charger to keep the head pressure up inside the keg. This way your beer stays fizzy and the pressure doesn’t drop to the point where the beer no longer flows. They are really really useful. A LITTLE pricey but they’re great if you ever want to take your beer anywhere or avoid buying a giant CO2 canister
@@dr.tanknstein7590 Cheers for that, I got one and i'm going to try the keg condition like you said. I found this link helpful for the amount of sugar to use.www.northernbrewer.com/pages/priming-sugar-calculator Thanks for your help.
Nice idea but why not just let it settle in the keg and then put in the bottle and add sugar there. Your method seems too laborious not mention expensive.
You are describing the usual bottling process. You will still get yeast sediment in the bottle when you carbonate that way. By carbonating in the keg the sediment will settle out in there and you don't need to worry about having any in the bottles
Hi John! Michael Narbrook is correct, this way you eliminate the sediment from bottle conditioning altogether and your bottles remain clear yet carbonated. I’m curious, which part do you think is the expensive part? If anything, for 19L you actually save a little money on sugar haha!
Dr. TankNStein Thanks for the content Jim, I have been looking for corny kegs for a while but can’t find any cheaper than ~£70 each refurbished. Where did you find your kegs or are the £70 ones the cheapest and I just need to bite the bullet?
Michael Narbrook thanks for watching! You could try ‘keg kingdom’ their customer service isn’t the best but I’ve bought 4 kegs from them at £30 each and on four separate occasions. There’s also a Facebook group called (something like) ‘brewbay UK’ corny kegs are always coming up on there. I have another video coming soon that has a few more ideas of what to do without a gas line also so if you see a cheap one, snap it up!
@@dr.tanknstein7590 Thanks for the reply.