The Last Straw Bottle Filler

I've seen a lot of people online try to use a #1 stopper with a hole in the middle and a wand cane to fill. Some people even drill a second hole and put a ball inflater needle in there to help let pressure off with their finger. It seems to work alright. I can't say a word against the Beer Gun or the Last Straw. They're just out of my price range right now.

 

I've been looking into this last straw as far as more info. It seems very similar to the beer gun, except you apparently don't need to lower your psi from serving pressure. That's hard to believe for me and they don't go in depth on the technology at hand.

In that video they say they are bottling at 8psi which apparently is also they're serving pressure. The beer gun works great when bottling at 2-4 psi. Which means you need to equalize the pressure in the kegs headspace by using the PRV.

If this last straw works as advertised I could see it being a bit easier than the beer gun for sure.

 

The only downside I see is having to press the filler against the bottom of the bottle to fill beer. That means I cannot control the headspace.

Midwest has $22 off orders >$100 today if someone wants to order and give it a try.

 

It does appear to be easier to disassemble for cleaning, the Beer Gun is a bit of a pain to take apart.

 

I don't know about the Last Straw, but I have a Beer Gun, and I can say that if I didn't lift the wand toward the end of the pour, there would be way too much headspace for my liking. Of course, that's dependent on the volume displaced by the gun/wand/straw, which I imagine might be different.

 

I have become pretty adept at stripping it down and assembling. John Blichmann says the woman who assembles in their shop is the champ for assembly time.

 

Ever fill bottles with the beer gun at 8psi? I'm assuming whatever technology that allows the last straw to fill bottles successfully with higher serving pressure is similar to what these flow control taps possess??

 

Can probably just depress the filler against the inside lip of the bottle if the fill is too low.

Filling at higher pressure tho.

That one has me baffled??

 

More like 5-6 PSI typically. Can't say I've every done it at 8 PSI.

 

I guess I never pushed it even that high. I typically do 2 or 3 psi since I don't chill my bottles to help with minimizing Co2 release.

I just have a hard time believing that this device can actually pour minimal foam heavy bottles at 8+ psi. But they haven't released much info on this thing other than being able to fill bottles at serving pressure (vs the beer gun needing to be at lower than serving pressure. )

 

Anyone have a chance to use this yet? Very curious to read some reviews before I purchase either this or the Blichmann. I've heard mixed reviews about the Blichmann and am hoping this improves upon it.

 

I'm curious as to what the negatives you heard were. The only thing I've ever heard was the rubber tip falling off, which I've never had happen to mine.

 

I've filled high gravity beers at 10 psi with the beer gun, but the caveat is thats what I needed to get the beer flowing at a reasonable rate. Almost all my other beer gun fills are at 2 psi to stop excessive foaming.

OP, I put one of these on my Holiday present list, so hopefully I can compare it to my beer gun (I have two, one for clean, one for sours).

 

Can anyone compare this with the Blichmann yet? I'd like to get one or the other for Christmas so any information would be helpful!

 

still no reviews on the site or here. If anyone has any insight please let me know

 

There's a thread on HBT with some, though not a lot, of comments based on first hand experience.

 

Welp it sure doesn't sound foolproof. I think I'll pass. Thanks