Beer Gun

I use a Beer Gun and love it for important bottle fills. You'll also need the accessory kit, unless you happen to have all that miscellaneous hardware sitting around.

I've never used a CPF, so can't comment on that.

 

I use the Blichmann and have been pleased . . . there are a few nuances, but you'll learn them pretty quickly. The price seems to be about the same with all the vendors. If you are a serious kegger you will probably have all the parts in the accessory kit except the coupler for supplying CO2 to the gun. It is a brass ¼"npt x ¼" flare coupler which HD has for a couple of bucks (this threads onto your CO2 supply line swivel nut and onto the gun).

Holster is optional . . .

 

I absolutely love my beer gun. Easy to use and easy to clean. Bottles hold up very well.

My only complaint is that if you aren't careful, the portion of the trigger assembly that clips to the shaft of the filler can detach and lose tension so it will spew out a bit of beer til you reattach it. It's only happened a couple of times and I wouldn't consider it a major issue, but a little messy when it happens.

 

I like mine. You also need to learn how to clean and sanitize, but that is not too hard.

 

Here is a video which demonstrates how to fill out bottles more economically (not need to purchase a beer gun):

 

Count me in as another beer gun lover. I would not hesitate to recommend it. Never tried a Counter Pressure filler, so I can't compare. I have used the picnic tap/bottling wand method and didn't like it. Much easier to just push a button to purge bottle with c02 and pull a trigger to fill it, but then I do tend to opt for the "paths of least resistance" in life.

 

I keep my beer gun loaded at all times , either with Starsan when not in use or beer when I aim to do some bottling . I have never cleaned it in 4-5 years...I simply purge it from a keg of Starsan when finished and spray/dunk the exterior with Starsan also. I use a small 2 1/2 gal sanitized betterbottle as a holster when I'm capping. I've found a table is the best thing to buy for bottling, otherwise you'll be working on your knees .

 

How well does this work for you?

 

^ this

 

I upgraded to the beer gun at Christmas after using the picnic tap/racking cane combo, and have been happy so far. I did have some issues trying to bottle a quad due to the CO2 brewing out, but that's no different than I would have had with the old set up. Does anyone have tips for bottling beers with greater than 3 volumes CO2?

 

Keep the beer as cold as possible, toss the bottles in the freezer too to keep them colder, burp the keg and turn down the psi to 2 or 3. Not sure if this will work as well with the higher carbonated beers.

 

Have everything, including the gun, as near freezing as possible (bottles even colder). Don't believe the official video where it shows the bottles all lined up on the table, you really want to pull each bottle as you need it. It helps to crank up the pressure a little the day before. Work fast, it's really a two man job if you bottle more than one.

 

Yeah thanks. That's pretty much what I tried. Worked great for beers around 2.5 vols, but the one >3 were foaming like crazy. The one thing I didn't try was freezing the gun beforehand, maybe that will help a bit.

 

One thing that seems to work for me is to lower/vent pressure in kegs and only use enough CO2 to the beer gun to get beer to flow (usually only 2-4 #s) ...and yes the colder everything is the better.

 

Crank the pressure up?

 

If you are the DIY type, you might kick yourself after opening up the $25 accessory kit. All of the pieces can be had for, what, 7 or 8 bucks?

 

I think he means crank it up (temporarily, for a day) to force more CO2 into solution, then reduce again before filling. The higher CO2 won't prevent foaming (and will probably cause more of it), but you might end up with more (net) CO2 in the bottles. i.e. the loss of CO2 during filling will be somewhat offset by the increase in pre-bottling carbonation.

 

Yes, my technique is to add 1 psi the night before. When starting bottling the headspace pressure is reduced to the 3-4 psi range and off-gassing (slightly) starts at this time. Once the gun fills the bottle, the beer is off-gassing similar to if you had popped a bottle . . . you are losing carbonation. That's why you want to work fast . . . cap each bottle as it is filled rather than fill a dozen or so then start capping. You want no interruptions, let any phone calls go to voice mail.

Even this technique isn't suitable if you want to cap a lot of bottles. I wouldn't do 30 or 40 without stopping and resetting the headspace pressure to the normal range for an hour or so.

And you're very correct about the accessory kit. I bought the coupler only, everything else was in the spare parts bin.