Bottles/Growlers from Kegs

I’ve read some older threads here about various methods of bottling for competitions off of kegs. If I’m simply sharing beer and want to bottle or use a growler, can’t I just use my beer tap to fill these?

How long would the person receiving these beers have to reasonably drink them?

I fill a growler directly from my faucet without much issue. I usually purge the keg then set the pressure to under 5 psi. I haven’t had much luck bottling from the keg though tons of people do it successfully.

For growlers I use a one foot length of the silicone high temp tubing at ~ 3 psi and fill from the bottom.  Cut a small notch on one end so it fits over the faucet.  Works well.

+1. That’s what I do for growlers. Beer gun for bottling.

Once the growler is opened I would suggest within 24hrs to minimize carbonation loss and oxidation issues but one could probably get away with 48 hrs after cracking the seal.

For growlers, I generally fill right out of the tap, since they’re going to be consumed quickly.  Unless I’m doing it at the same time that I’m bottling, then I sometimes fill a couple of growlers out of the beer gun after purging with CO2.  As long as they’re closed tightly, I’ve had some keep for over a month that way.

For growlers, I use one of those hoses that you can buy that fit right in the faucet with a couple of o-rings to seal it. No problem with growlers as they’re going to be consumed right away, usually the same night as I fill them.

With bottles I lower the pressure on the keg, hook up a picnic tap with a length of plastic racking cane stuck in it and fill from the bottom of the bottles. I have sent beers to competitions and they have been fine for a couple of weeks.

I know that a beer gun would probably be the best way to go, but I’m too frugal. But, then again, what I’ve been doing has been working okay for what I need. One example is the 2015 beer swap (on general forum discussion) I filled the beers I sent with my Mickey Mouse method, and with the traveling and re-chilling and all, the carbonation was fine.

Try it and see if it works for you.

I did that for years Frank (before getting a beer gun) and my bottles held carb for a month or two easily. It was a lot like with a beer gun, though - I had better results getting the bottles really cold, beer really cold, and filling really slowly.

Yeah, I also chill the bottles. Someday when I need to buy myself a present, I’ll probably splurge on a beer gun.

What’s the point of lowering the pressure for a bottle compared to not doing so with a growler fill? I’m looking to simply fill a few bottles to share and be consumed rather quickly.

I do ~3 psi for both.

Is that so you won’t get as vigorous of a pour compared to 12 or so PSI? Taprooms don’t adjust for this.

Too foamy at 12 for me.  Growler fills pretty fast at 3 anyway.

Yes.  Sanitize the bottles, caps and the tap; turn off gas to the keg; vent most but not all of the pressure from the keg; purge bottle with CO2; fill and cap on foam.

If you do it properly, they should be fine for quite a while.

How important is purging w CO2 if this is being consumed quickly?

Not very

Most of time when I bottle something it is for a competition, so I purge the bottles.  If I was bringing beer to a party or something, I probably wouldn’t bother.

+1

We recommend this avenue to our customers. There are 2 main styles of those fittings available, if you have Perlick faucets you’ll need a special one that usually costs more (As Perlick often does…) If you just have the standard faucet, you can find one at a homebrew store or online. Search: Growler Filler

SIDE NOTE : Be careful pouring beer directly from a keg using an adapter or short beer line run, the head pressure in the keg is often times enough to get it to dispense, you don’t want your beer flying out of there and having massive CO2 breakout.

Bumping this to double check something. Going to bottle some beers for a competition and don’t have a beer gun yet.

Should I fill as high as possible and cap on foam?

Yes.  I try to target a typical commercial fill level and usually that’s about what you get when you cap on foam.  If you’re not too worried about losing some beer, let the foam overflow a bit to get the fill level you’re looking fo.

I’ve had good luck bottling for comps by using a racking cane jammed into a picnic tap.

I purge the bottles first, then fill and cap on foam.  I’ve got a splitter in my CO2 line and I have one end hooked to the keg and one end hooked to an airgun.  I put a racking cane on the air gun and purge the bottles from the bottom before filling.  Sort of a poor man’s beer gun.