You don’t have to. Lots of people have reported success with the technique Joe described above. And other ways too. . However, I didn’t have much success with it. Granted, I only tried it a couple of times before I got myself a beer gun.
And I will attest that I have no regrets whats so ever about laying out the dough for the gun. It’s fantastic.
If you plan to bottle for shelf storage then I highly recommend the beer gun as it will mitigate oxidation and make it quick and easy to bottle. The beer gun is one of my favorite tools. Aside from the initial setup time it is very efficient and makes for ease of bottling.
If you are bottling to take some to a party or something, get a carb cap and use a soda bottle. It’s fast and easy to fill from the tap and you can add carb before you leave.
The beer will displace the O2 and the CO2 in the foam, that you generate, will purge the rest of it.
I’ve used a cobra tap/tube many times and have stored those beers for months/years without any problems. I would never spend that much money on a beer gun when a good alternative is so cheap.
Not just “cheap” but likely can be put together from stuff you have lying around.
If it doesn’t work out for you or you prefer to spend the cash, there’s nothing lost in starting out with the picnic tap and bottling wand approach.
Also, if you’re really concerned about O2, you can purge the bottles from your tank prior to filling. Put a QD on the gas line and use an air-gun attachment from a compressor kit. You can stick a hose on this to get it to the bottom of the bottle. You could also T the gas line if you want to.
Since I have all this lying around anyway, it’s essentially free for me. Plus, I don’t bottle enough to warrant the investment in a beer gun anyway.
I agree. Purging is an easy thing to do if it matters to you. Keep in mind that when either the tube or the beer gun is extracted from the filled bottle, O2 will be pulled in to displace the volume that it held.
If the O2 is purged there will be a lesser degree of oxidation over time. Moreover the beer will oxidize in the presence of O2 and this impacts beer flavor.
I use an old bottling wand (with the tip cut off) and a short piece of 3/8" tubing shoved up into the Perlick. Use starsan to sanitize everything including inside the faucet. Rolled up paper towel saturated with starsan works great for inside the faucet. Drop the pressure to 2-3 lbs., pull the relief valve on the keg to eliminate the pressure, chill the bottles to the temp of the beer (tried the freezer once but it really foamed up), fill the bottle from the bottom and cap on foam. If it doesn’t foam then I shoot CO2 into the top of the bottle to remove the O2 and then cap. Simple & cheap. Cheers, and Happy Brewing!!!
I don’t have much experience with this, but I have done it a couple times before. I overcarbed the keg a bit since I knew some carbonation would be lost in the bottling. I just chilled my keg and bottles very cold (31 degrees if I remember correctly) and set the regulator so the beer would come out at barely a trickle. I filled the bottles directly from the sanitized picnic tap and capped on foam. The bottles sat around for a couple months before being judged in a comp. for what it’s worth, one of those bottles won first place (steam beer) at my first competition. None of my score sheets for any of those beers mentioned anything about oxidation.
I love the idea of using a bottling wand, but why remove the tip?? if you hooked it up directly to the keg, you would almost have a beer gun, w/o the CO2 purge of course.