@dedication62 - Those bottles were sanitized ahead of time using a Star San solution. Star San is a no-rinse sanitizer for bottles, carboys, kegs, funnels, airlocks, etc.. Of course, try to empty as much as you can from your vessel... but any foamy residue like this is completely safe to transfer beer onto in a bottle, keg, carboy, etc. As we like to say: DON'T FEAR THE FOAM! There is a whole section on sanitizing in our Homebrewing 130 DVD. Thanks for the question/comment. Happy brewing.
Obviously, they do not understand the concept of counter-pressure.... I can see it may be handy to fill, but this is going to have a lot of CO2 escape, which is the entire reasoning for counter pressure. The counter in counter pressure relates to the bottle being pressurized first... then filled so there is minimal co2 loss. This doesn't even seal the bottle so it can't change the atmospheric pressure in the bottle, thus, it's not much different than if you just put this on a gravity filler or something like that. Only advantage is probably that you're filling from the bottom.
It's a different concept than a counter pressure filler. It never claims to be one. It's called a "bottle filler." Another advantage is having a free hand.
For those of you foaming, here are the tricks I use to have foam-less beer gun beer. 1. Use COLD bottles. 2. drop your keg temp down close to freezing. 3. use a really long beer line. 4. drop your psi down to 4ish. I did this and I stopped getting foamers. It is definitely a chore but the product is good. I only pull my bg out 2x a year.
Purging before is useless…just fill and purge at the end. when the liquid gets to the top and you pull the nozzle out the bottles pull in air. All that is required is to purge at the end.
air is absorbed with surface agitation if you dont purge pre fill the surface agitation as you fill will absorb oxygen in the bottle so the idea is it has a co2 layer as it fills to stop any oxygen entering thru agitation he could also leave a 5mm gap at the top before he pulls out the wand to make sure there is a constant layer of co2 then a final purge to do as you said
What is missing here, is the rest of the how-to to minimize foaming, and how to isolate any problems. Looking at various fora where this device is discussed, most users have an initial steep learning curve to make this device efficient and effective. I.e., the owner's manual at least states that chilled bottles help minimize foaming.
That beer seems undercarbed to be bottled. I'd be very surprised, unless you tossed in a little priming sugar, that any of those Grolsch bottles were actually carbed. Typical 2.5-3.0 volume beer will have a couple fingers foam as it reaches the top of the neck. That's a good thing because it's keeping oxygen out as you cap that thing. Even with a quick purge like you show at the end, there's gonna be oxygen in those bottles if you cap them without a little foam-over.
You may be making it too complicated. Here's the easy way: think of the BeerGun as a siphon, not a filler. It's not going to work at record fast speeds - speed makes foam, foam decreases carbonation and increases lost beer. See description of video for newly added suggestion since YT won't let us post it here.
I want to see this example with carbonated beer, this equipment the only deficiency that I find is the loss of co2 from the beer in the procedure, I would like to know if there is any table that indicates the level of loss
You can use a BeerGun for wine bottling if you have the CO2 equipment available. Just be sure to use a very minimal amount of CO2 psi, enough to move the wine into the bottle. You don't want too high CO2 in the process or you might risk slightly carbonating your wine.
It certainly can, although some of those cork and cage beers might call for higher CO2 level so just be careful when filling the bottle.Try to chill the bottles first if possible to help prevent foaming.
NorthernBrewerTV We’ve since bottled our Belgian style triple using the BeerGun, and it worked quite well. The only problem we had was there was a more foaming than usual but I feel we over carbonated the beer to begin with. But other than that it worked out fine. Thanks for getting back to me.
Question. Is the kegged beer all ready cabonated or is this beer gun only for pre-carbonated beer? I have seen other home made beer guns but they have a tappered rubber plug that fits tight over the beer gun shaft and is pressed againsted the bottle mouth to hold CO2 pressure on the bottle to reduce foaming. Do you think this beer gun could be modified for pre-carb'd beer?
Here is my question. There is still a sudsy looking substance in the bottle upon filling. Is that of any concern for the beer is this a new cleaner that need not be rinsed that I am not aware of.
is the space between the inner and outer tubes of the Beergun air sealed, so it could be adapted to a stopper and used as an improved counterpressure filler?
Sorry, but I have one and it seems to not address my need to move conditioned kegged beer to a bottle for next day use at a homebrew club meeting. I will continue to attempt it after draining all CO2 pressure off of the keg then recarbonating in the bottle which requires more time than I like but I guess it is a necessary evil. Ninty percent of my beers are high gravity and maturation is 6 months to several years. Maybe this is creating my problem.
The BeerGun does not itself carbonate beer. The beer needs to be carbonated at your preferred volume of CO2 before bottling. It does purge bottles before and after filling to help maintain carbonation, but again does not itself force carbonate beer. (That would be awesome though.)
Yes, you'd want beer to be 2-4 C in order to keep as much carbonation as possible in solution during the process. It also helps to sanitize the bottles with very cold water (or store in fridge after sanitizing) to get them as cold as possible as well so they don't foam and expel CO2.
If you have a pressurized fermenter, or one that could take pressure (i.e. a keg with a spunding valve, but definitely not a glass carboy), you could transfer straight from there, but you'd probably have to dump a healthy amount of yeast and trub first, a small chore to be sure. You need a vessel with ball valves in any case
Easiest device to use and maintain. I get absolutely perfect results with my Blichmann Beer Gun. I have no clue how anyone can screw it up or have issues if they're intelligent enough to assemble a few pieces let alone read a miniscule set of instructions. If you can brew but somehow not know how to use this product, I'd hate to think what the quality of your beer is like.
Yeast are hardy enough that it takes more than, say, 11 psi to kill them (many German breweries even primary under pressure, though it takes skill and good data or patience); the point being, unless you filter your beer, there's no less active beer in your post-Beer Gun beer unless you, say, cold crash before packaging. So yeah, the beer will continue to age, though conditioning in the sense of carbonation would only be true if you'd added sugar or used a spunding valve or something, in which case, yeah sure, but I'd personally take the beer to its final carbonation level before transferring, for the sake of consistency
Star San sanitizer. Most homebrewers prefer it. It's potent and safe. 1oz will turn 5 gallons into sanitizing solution. It's the same sanitizer used in air locks. Let it make full contact with surfaces for a minute or two if you want to play it safe. I usually will let bottles sit upright for a couple minutes after having removed them from the sanitizer bath which lets remaining solution on the inner sides of the bottle to slide down and pool up at the bottom, I'll then re-tip them to dump out the remaining sanitizer, but don't be worried about the solution getting in your beer, it's food grade and completely safe. Seeing its foam in your bottles, carboy or bucket is fine, don't be worried about removing it.
Hello! Greetings from Honduras. Guys i need your help, i havve a problem with my beer, sometimes after filling using my beergun, some bottles have exploded, what can i do to prevent that from happening? Does filtration have anything to do with it?
Sounds like too much sugar left in the beer. Either fermentation didn't complete or you're using too much priming sugar, creating too much co2 and blowing up the bottles. Or your beer is over-carbonated to begin with.
You CAN use the beer gun for filling bottles from a bottling bucket. You would have to prime your beer for bottle conditioning just as you would otherwise. Put your bottling bucket above your work surface to use gravity to move the beer just like you would with any other bottle filler.
There is a trick to using it. Here is what I do. I evacuate all the gas from the keg. Than I hook up the manifold to the keg and use only like 1 psi of pressure so that the fill rate is very slow. I also chill my keg down to 35 degrees and use ice cold bottles. I literally have no foaming. I just bottled a 24 pack the other day with no trouble. This beer gun works a hell of a lot better than a bottling wand.
If it's StarSan (which it looks like it is), you're not supposed to rinse it. You've already gone to the effort of sanitizing everything, if you rinse it after you've just undone all your sanitizing work. Don't fear the foam.
I've also heard the same and that it's supposed to break down in the beer so the yeast will eat it.. But I'm always dubious about these things that the chemical companies promise the consumer. If I used chemicals in homebrewing I'd rinse them away before bottling (you can boil the water to sterilize it), I've done this a couple of times with isopropyl alcohol when I couldn't sterlize a big bottle in the oven.
Isopropyl alcohol and star san are two very different things though. Star san is a food grade sanitizer where isopropyl alcohol has very strong odour and flavour contributions. I would certainly want to get rid of any remaining isopropyl... Star san has been proven over and over to not impart anything to the beer, not just by the manufacturer, but by the thousands of homebrewers who use it every day. I've had around a quart of it back-siphon into a Helles I was cold crashing and literally zero effect to the beer. I don't even bother making any significant effort to get as much of the foam out as I can before using the piece of equipment I've sanitized. It just doesn't do anything to the beer. Out of curiosity, how do you sanitize your equipment if you don't use something like star san? Particularly hoses and things like that?
You might be right, everyone online is saying that the yeast will eat the star san after it breaks down without any issues. Still, I think I'll need to do more research on the chemical composition of this chemical if I would use it. It's the same as food you know, the less "extra ingredients" there are the more comfortable I am about consuming it. As for the sanitization, I use my oven for washed bottles (150 degrees celsius, wait until oven reaches that temp and keep for 15 min) and boiling water to clean the fermenting vessel. I use isopropyl alcohol or strong vodka for things that can't take high temperatures (like the hose) and then thurally rinse it off before using. Has worked well so far without any contamination or notable off-flavours.
there's nothing to break down. Star san is just an acid. When you add the beer it becomes diluted. You can equate it to adding a tiny bit of citric or malic acid.
I swear I could watch these all day. There are so many cool toys for brewing and its interesting to see how they work.
Now show one with a carbonated beer....
@dedication62 - Those bottles were sanitized ahead of time using a Star San solution. Star San is a no-rinse sanitizer for bottles, carboys, kegs, funnels, airlocks, etc.. Of course, try to empty as much as you can from your vessel... but any foamy residue like this is completely safe to transfer beer onto in a bottle, keg, carboy, etc. As we like to say: DON'T FEAR THE FOAM! There is a whole section on sanitizing in our Homebrewing 130 DVD. Thanks for the question/comment. Happy brewing.
@BeerBrewinWizard The beer gun is usable as either a counterpressure-filler for kegged, force-carbonated beer or as a gravity-fed bottling wand.
Obviously, they do not understand the concept of counter-pressure.... I can see it may be handy to fill, but this is going to have a lot of CO2 escape, which is the entire reasoning for counter pressure. The counter in counter pressure relates to the bottle being pressurized first... then filled so there is minimal co2 loss. This doesn't even seal the bottle so it can't change the atmospheric pressure in the bottle, thus, it's not much different than if you just put this on a gravity filler or something like that. Only advantage is probably that you're filling from the bottom.
It's a different concept than a counter pressure filler. It never claims to be one. It's called a "bottle filler." Another advantage is having a free hand.
counter pressuring for a few bottle for fun is overkill and waste of time and money.
For those of you foaming, here are the tricks I use to have foam-less beer gun beer.
1. Use COLD bottles.
2. drop your keg temp down close to freezing.
3. use a really long beer line.
4. drop your psi down to 4ish.
I did this and I stopped getting foamers. It is definitely a chore but the product is good. I only pull my bg out 2x a year.
Good tips bro. I use the same technic except I use 1 psi instead of 4 as I like the slooooow fill.
Purging before is useless…just fill and purge at the end. when the liquid gets to the top and you pull the nozzle out the bottles pull in air. All that is required is to purge at the end.
air is absorbed with surface agitation if you dont purge pre fill the surface agitation as you fill will absorb oxygen in the bottle
so the idea is it has a co2 layer as it fills to stop any oxygen entering thru agitation
he could also leave a 5mm gap at the top before he pulls out the wand to make sure there is a constant layer of co2 then a final purge to do as you said
Filling bottles with flat beer? Makes this product look super simple
What is missing here, is the rest of the how-to to minimize foaming, and how to isolate any problems. Looking at various fora where this device is discussed, most users have an initial steep learning curve to make this device efficient and effective. I.e., the owner's manual at least states that chilled bottles help minimize foaming.
That beer seems undercarbed to be bottled. I'd be very surprised, unless you tossed in a little priming sugar, that any of those Grolsch bottles were actually carbed.
Typical 2.5-3.0 volume beer will have a couple fingers foam as it reaches the top of the neck. That's a good thing because it's keeping oxygen out as you cap that thing. Even with a quick purge like you show at the end, there's gonna be oxygen in those bottles if you cap them without a little foam-over.
Is that flat beer for the demo? I would expect at least SOME foam..
if the beer is cold enough, you'll have 0 foam.
You may be making it too complicated. Here's the easy way: think of the BeerGun as a siphon, not a filler. It's not going to work at record fast speeds - speed makes foam, foam decreases carbonation and increases lost beer. See description of video for newly added suggestion since YT won't let us post it here.
@WVBEERFL That depends mostly on the beer! If sanitation is good and the beer is sound, it should last about as long as a bottle-conditioned beer.
I want to see this example with carbonated beer, this equipment the only deficiency that I find is the loss of co2 from the beer in the procedure, I would like to know if there is any table that indicates the level of loss
why doesn't this seal to the bottle like other counter pressure fillers?
$110 that’s a bit expensive over £93 it’s only £55 here in the UK.
Can i use this gun with Nitrogen
I am curious if this can be done with wine bottling?
You can use a BeerGun for wine bottling if you have the CO2 equipment available. Just be sure to use a very minimal amount of CO2 psi, enough to move the wine into the bottle. You don't want too high CO2 in the process or you might risk slightly carbonating your wine.
Can this be used for bottles using corks instead of crown caps or flip tops?
It certainly can, although some of those cork and cage beers might call for higher CO2 level so just be careful when filling the bottle.Try to chill the bottles first if possible to help prevent foaming.
NorthernBrewerTV We’ve since bottled our Belgian style triple using the BeerGun, and it worked quite well. The only problem we had was there was a more foaming than usual but I feel we over carbonated the beer to begin with.
But other than that it worked out fine. Thanks for getting back to me.
How long will the bottle stay good and carbonated?
If filled properly, bottles should maintain desired carbonation just as long as other sugar-primed bottles.
Question. Is the kegged beer all ready cabonated or is this beer gun only for pre-carbonated beer? I have seen other home made beer guns but they have a tappered rubber plug that fits tight over the beer gun shaft and is pressed againsted the bottle mouth to hold CO2 pressure on the bottle to reduce foaming. Do you think this beer gun could be modified for pre-carb'd beer?
Here is my question. There is still a sudsy looking substance in the bottle upon filling. Is that of any concern for the beer is this a new cleaner that need not be rinsed that I am not aware of.
It seems that works. I'd like to have one. How can I have one and how much is it.
is the space between the inner and outer tubes of the Beergun air sealed, so it could be adapted to a stopper and used as an improved counterpressure filler?
Sorry, but I have one and it seems to not address my need to move conditioned kegged beer to a bottle for next day use at a homebrew club meeting. I will continue to attempt it after draining all CO2 pressure off of the keg then recarbonating in the bottle which requires more time than I like but I guess it is a necessary evil. Ninty percent of my beers are high gravity and maturation is 6 months to several years. Maybe this is creating my problem.
Can this be used for nitro Cold Brew Bottling?
The beer will off gas and lose CO2 at that “serving” pressure?
Does this also carbonate the beer at the same time?
The BeerGun does not itself carbonate beer. The beer needs to be carbonated at your preferred volume of CO2 before bottling. It does purge bottles before and after filling to help maintain carbonation, but again does not itself force carbonate beer. (That would be awesome though.)
hi, what that beer cold? 2 C?
Yes, you'd want beer to be 2-4 C in order to keep as much carbonation as possible in solution during the process. It also helps to sanitize the bottles with very cold water (or store in fridge after sanitizing) to get them as cold as possible as well so they don't foam and expel CO2.
Everytime I was the gun I get foam through out the whole line. Anyone know why?
Is this only for going from a key or could I go from the fermenter?
If you have a pressurized fermenter, or one that could take pressure (i.e. a keg with a spunding valve, but definitely not a glass carboy), you could transfer straight from there, but you'd probably have to dump a healthy amount of yeast and trub first, a small chore to be sure. You need a vessel with ball valves in any case
Easiest device to use and maintain. I get absolutely perfect results with my Blichmann Beer Gun. I have no clue how anyone can screw it up or have issues if they're intelligent enough to assemble a few pieces let alone read a miniscule set of instructions. If you can brew but somehow not know how to use this product, I'd hate to think what the quality of your beer is like.
Will beer that I bottle straight from the keg continue to “age/condition” in the bottle? Or does the forced carbonation through keg ruin that?
Yeast are hardy enough that it takes more than, say, 11 psi to kill them (many German breweries even primary under pressure, though it takes skill and good data or patience); the point being, unless you filter your beer, there's no less active beer in your post-Beer Gun beer unless you, say, cold crash before packaging. So yeah, the beer will continue to age, though conditioning in the sense of carbonation would only be true if you'd added sugar or used a spunding valve or something, in which case, yeah sure, but I'd personally take the beer to its final carbonation level before transferring, for the sake of consistency
Whats is the distributor used in the video??
This is probably a stupid question, but I need to carbonate the beer in the keg first before filling a bottle? Thanks.
yes and NB tv didn't, lol
no not need , because beer should have some 3,8 - 4,2 gramm CO2/ l or u enrich with a kind bottle fermenting ... think over
Only if you aren't bottle-conditioning the beer. If so, then you would purge, fill with uncarbonated beer, prime with sugar, and cap.
What cleaning solution did you use for your bottles?
Star San sanitizer.
Most homebrewers prefer it. It's potent and safe. 1oz will turn 5 gallons into sanitizing solution. It's the same sanitizer used in air locks.
Let it make full contact with surfaces for a minute or two if you want to play it safe. I usually will let bottles sit upright for a couple minutes after having removed them from the sanitizer bath which lets remaining solution on the inner sides of the bottle to slide down and pool up at the bottom, I'll then re-tip them to dump out the remaining sanitizer, but don't be worried about the solution getting in your beer, it's food grade and completely safe. Seeing its foam in your bottles, carboy or bucket is fine, don't be worried about removing it.
Hello! Greetings from Honduras.
Guys i need your help, i havve a problem with my beer, sometimes after filling using my beergun, some bottles have exploded, what can i do to prevent that from happening? Does filtration have anything to do with it?
Sounds like too much sugar left in the beer. Either fermentation didn't complete or you're using too much priming sugar, creating too much co2 and blowing up the bottles. Or your beer is over-carbonated to begin with.
How can you use the beer gun without first filling into a keg?
Ok. Thanks!
You CAN use the beer gun for filling bottles from a bottling bucket. You would have to prime your beer for bottle conditioning just as you would otherwise. Put your bottling bucket above your work surface to use gravity to move the beer just like you would with any other bottle filler.
Now THAT'S a gun I wouldn't mind getting shot by!
+GreedoUT Well, i do think you don't want to get shot in the ass with that.
Why doesn't this have more likes?
This beer gun is almost impossible to use. The beer has to be nearly frozen and totally over carbonated and even then most of it just foams out.
There is a trick to using it. Here is what I do. I evacuate all the gas from the keg. Than I hook up the manifold to the keg and use only like 1 psi of pressure so that the fill rate is very slow. I also chill my keg down to 35 degrees and use ice cold bottles. I literally have no foaming. I just bottled a 24 pack the other day with no trouble. This beer gun works a hell of a lot better than a bottling wand.
Sedative free..? haha
Good video!
don't you lose some of your carbonation though? no one likes a flat beer
I just see two things here: Not secured CO2 bottle and bottling beer in white glas bottles
1:45 Makes me cringe everytime when someone leaves the chemicals/sanitizers in their beer without rinsing them off.
If it's StarSan (which it looks like it is), you're not supposed to rinse it. You've already gone to the effort of sanitizing everything, if you rinse it after you've just undone all your sanitizing work. Don't fear the foam.
I've also heard the same and that it's supposed to break down in the beer so the yeast will eat it.. But I'm always dubious about these things that the chemical companies promise the consumer.
If I used chemicals in homebrewing I'd rinse them away before bottling (you can boil the water to sterilize it), I've done this a couple of times with isopropyl alcohol when I couldn't sterlize a big bottle in the oven.
Isopropyl alcohol and star san are two very different things though. Star san is a food grade sanitizer where isopropyl alcohol has very strong odour and flavour contributions. I would certainly want to get rid of any remaining isopropyl...
Star san has been proven over and over to not impart anything to the beer, not just by the manufacturer, but by the thousands of homebrewers who use it every day. I've had around a quart of it back-siphon into a Helles I was cold crashing and literally zero effect to the beer.
I don't even bother making any significant effort to get as much of the foam out as I can before using the piece of equipment I've sanitized. It just doesn't do anything to the beer.
Out of curiosity, how do you sanitize your equipment if you don't use something like star san? Particularly hoses and things like that?
You might be right, everyone online is saying that the yeast will eat the star san after it breaks down without any issues. Still, I think I'll need to do more research on the chemical composition of this chemical if I would use it. It's the same as food you know, the less "extra ingredients" there are the more comfortable I am about consuming it.
As for the sanitization, I use my oven for washed bottles (150 degrees celsius, wait until oven reaches that temp and keep for 15 min) and boiling water to clean the fermenting vessel. I use isopropyl alcohol or strong vodka for things that can't take high temperatures (like the hose) and then thurally rinse it off before using. Has worked well so far without any contamination or notable off-flavours.
there's nothing to break down. Star san is just an acid.
When you add the beer it becomes diluted. You can equate it to adding a tiny bit of citric or malic acid.
Can i use this gun with Nitrogen