Bad experience with beergun.Question.

Discussion in 'Homebrewing' started by Cobby76, Oct 18, 2018.

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  1. Cobby76

    Cobby76 Initiate (0) Nov 19, 2016 Japan

    I just wanted to ask if someone had similar experience. I brewed white stout,force carbed and was ready to bottle it using beer gun, not a fancy one just one from eBay. During the bottling process beer was foaming crazy.Yes I had 3 meters beer line and my keg was ice cold, I sanitize the bottles and cool them down. Anyway I could bottle whole keg but most of the bottles was half filled. The question is if there any chance to enjoy the beer will it hold at least little of CO2 let say for few months.Or is going to be a waste. Did anyone had similar experience. What to expect? Thank you for your time.
     
  2. pweis909

    pweis909 Grand Pooh-Bah (3,250) Aug 13, 2005 Wisconsin
    Pooh-Bah

    The bottled beer obviously lost some CO2 (foaming), but why would the beer lose more, now that it is bottled? The carbonation in the liquid will come to some equilibrium with the headspace that is temperature dependent. If the bottles are stored cold, that will maximize dissolved CO2. If you give it a few days for the bottles to equilibrate and check on one, it probably will help set your expectations for the rest of them.

    I've only use my Last Straw bottle filler a handful of times. I never had crazy foaming, but the first time I used it I was pushing a little foam out of the bottle in order to bring the liquid fill level to the right spot. Come to think of it, I have only used it on English ales, which were not carbonated highly to begin with, and a still mead, so maybe no surprise that foaming has never been a big deal.
     
  3. Cobby76

    Cobby76 Initiate (0) Nov 19, 2016 Japan

    Thank you,I relieved a lot.First of all it’s white stout recipe was picked from this site my favorite recipe from all,yesterday I drunk Russian imperial stout and it was almost no carbonation.And before bottling I really forced carbed the beer 24 hours 45psi 24 hours 25psi and 12 hours 15 psi.Hopefully there some co2 left.I suppose to age that beer till next summer. But we’ll every day is a school day.

    Thank you.
     
  4. PortLargo

    PortLargo Pooh-Bah (1,831) Oct 19, 2012 Florida
    Pooh-Bah

    Whatever CO2 remains will last for months, but my experience is similar to what you just drank . . . poor carbonation overall. A few tips; try and get your bottles sub-zero (use the freezer), then place them in a small cooler with ice while bottling. Otherwise they'll rise to room temp in a matter of minutes. Pressure around 2 psi is ideal, just enough to push the beer up and over to the gun. From your description, it seems you never really stabilized the carb level in the keg . . . that's another variable working against you.

    A fancy gun doesn't necessarily eliminate all the problems. If you watch the instructional video on Blichmann's site you can rest assured they are bottling flat beer.
     
  5. Cobby76

    Cobby76 Initiate (0) Nov 19, 2016 Japan

    Thank you so much for detailed explanation ,next time I will definitely will take more care when I’m bottling.
     
  6. VikeMan

    VikeMan Grand Pooh-Bah (3,067) Jul 12, 2009 Pennsylvania
    Pooh-Bah

    As @PortLargo said, you need to reduce the pressure when bottling. But also, it sounds like you fast force carbonated sort of randomly, and it's likely you over carbonated the batch. This would have made the foaming problem even worse.
     
  7. VikeMan

    VikeMan Grand Pooh-Bah (3,067) Jul 12, 2009 Pennsylvania
    Pooh-Bah

    I don't think I've watched the video you reference, but I can often manage to use the beer gun and get very close to zero foam if that's what you mean. Of course, zero foam is not necessarily better than a little bit of foam. Probably isn't.
     
  8. Tebuken

    Tebuken Initiate (0) Jun 6, 2009 Argentina

    Excuse me, did you purge the keg head space before bottling?
     
  9. pweis909

    pweis909 Grand Pooh-Bah (3,250) Aug 13, 2005 Wisconsin
    Pooh-Bah

    Are you thinking of foam as an oxyegen barrier?
    (“Probably isn’t”)
     
  10. VikeMan

    VikeMan Grand Pooh-Bah (3,067) Jul 12, 2009 Pennsylvania
    Pooh-Bah

    Not exactly. I'm thinking of escaping CO2 as a breeze.
     
  11. riptorn

    riptorn Pooh-Bah (1,776) Apr 26, 2018 Georgia
    BA4LYFE Society Pooh-Bah Trader

    Aside from the question by OP “is if there any chance to enjoy the beer will it hold at least little of CO2 let say for few months.Or is going to be a waste.” It’d still be good to know the cause.
    @Cobby76 was the pressure to the beer gun in line with the 2psi mentioned by @PortLargo. Are you confident all your lines were tight?

    Caveat....I’ve not pressure filled bottles nor even kegged, FWIW.
     
  12. Cobby76

    Cobby76 Initiate (0) Nov 19, 2016 Japan

    Yes I did and I was bottling under 3 psi.
    Probably over carbonate my beer.
     
  13. Brewday

    Brewday Zealot (721) Dec 25, 2015 New York

    I found it best to carbonate for 2 weeks in the keg then bottle. You want that layer of foam (hit with co2) at the top just before you attach the cap. You'll have to make several co2 adjustments to get the perfect fill. I also use it to bottle condition by pushing the beer/priming sugar from the keg into bottles instead of a bottling bucket. Tilt the bottle then straighten as your filling it. My first try was also a fail.
     
  14. Cobby76

    Cobby76 Initiate (0) Nov 19, 2016 Japan

    How was your beer still drinkable?
     
  15. GreenKrusty101

    GreenKrusty101 Initiate (0) Dec 4, 2008 Nevada

    Trying to get motivated to bottle a 1/2 keg of Scotch/American Ale I've been sipping on for a couple years...maybe tomorrow with my beer gun gathering dust :slight_frown:
     
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