The 50 Cent Bottle Filler

So you’ve made the leap to kegging your homebrew, but would still like to bottle once in awhile. Do those Counter Pressure fillers that take 3 hands to operate look like more trouble than they’re worth? And the beer guns look a little too pricey?  Before you invest in any of the other devices, try this method first.

Equipment List:

• 1 – 12″ piece of 3/16″ ID thick-walled beverage tubing. Cost, 50 cents.
• 1 Stainless steel bowl.  Borrowed from the kitchen, anything you can sanitize in will work.
• 1 Plastic pitcher.  Any catch can will do, also borrowed from the kitchen
• 1 Wing capper, if applicable.  Came with my first home brewing kit, you may have another type.
• Star-San Sprayer

You’ll also need bottles and matching caps of course.  I happened to be using standard 12 oz brown bottles in the pictures , but this works just as well with growlers or soda bottles.

Instructions:

1. Start by sanitizing your bottles, caps, and the piece of tubing. The Star-San sprayer works well for this.  Use the bowl to hold all of the small items and excess sanitizer.
2. Sanitize the spout on the faucet. Just to be sure there are no nasties hiding in there, and it makes the next step a little easier.
3. Insert the piece of tubing into the end of the faucet. See the picture at right.
4. Lower the pressure on the keg to 1-2 PSI. This will prevent the beer from foaming up too much.
5. Run off the first few ounces of beer into your catch can. There will probably be a bit of foam in the line.
6. Dump the sanitizer out of the bottle, slide the bottle onto the tube and open the faucet.
7. When full, close the faucet and Cap!

Notes:

On my Ventmatic faucets, the standard 3/16″ ID beverage tubing fits snugly inside.  The OD is pretty similar on all of the thick walled beverage tubing. You could also try a larger ID tubing that fits over the spout instead of inside it.

The bottle should fill fairly slowly and there will be a little bit of foam.  Filling from the bottom and capping on the foam will help to prevent oxidation.  I find that the tube displaces a little too much beer, leaving slightly too much head space.  Slowly withdrawing the bottle as the beer reaches the proper fill level helps.

I have stored bottles filled this way for several months with no noticeable oxidation.  Competition score sheets have also not identified any problem with the bottling process, so it appears to be sound.

Optional Extras:

CO2 Purge – The other bottle filling devices provide the option to give the bottle a shot of CO2 before filling. This should further reduce any contact with air.  You could implement a similar feature by setting up your faucet to first dispense CO2 before filling with beer.  Here are a couple of quick ways to accomplish that.

1. If your lines use flared fittings, simply attach a gas quick disconnect to your faucet line.  Instead of venting the excess pressure in the keg in step 4, use it to push the beer out of the line and then purge each bottle.
2. Connect a gas line from your regulator directly to a faucet.  If you have a spare gas line, just take off the fittings and connect it directly to the tailpiece on the shank.  If you have space, you could even add a dedicated CO2 faucet.  I have seen this done in several brewpubs for filling growlers.  In this case, be sure to include a shutoff valve in line for extra protection against CO2 leakage.

Pre-Chilling Bottles – Several people have reported that filling bottles that are the same temperature as the beer will further help to reduce foaming. I haven’t had much trouble with it, but it’s probably worth testing in your own setup. The glass will take quite awhile to chill completely, so refrigerating the bottles a few hours ahead of time, or even overnight is preferable.

Bottling your home brew for a keg doesn’t have to be expensive or time consuming. Try it out and post your results in the comments below.

Tagged as: alternative, beer gun, bottles, bottling, counter pressure, filling, keg, tips