Not sure if this would work but i thought i would ask, my buddies from another state want to try some beer that is only from a keg here in my state, i thought i could stop by my local home brew shop and pick up some bottles and just fill them with my kegerator, and ship it to them. Anyone every do this? Any bad experience with this????
Turn the pressure down on your kegs, it's funny to watch someone fill a bottle at 12 psi, but not fun to do it. Take a length of 3/8" ID hose or whatever it takes to attach to your tap. Make sure it's long enough to get all the way to the bottom of the bottle. Insert hose into bottle, open the tap and fill slowly. There will be considerable foam, but this will help push oxygen out. Note that these bottles should be consumed pretty soon. Or go high dollar and buy a Blichmann Beergun
Thanks, when you say soon how soon do you think? Should i tell my friends when they recieve to chill it and drink right away?
I've stored bottles for a week or two without negative effect when filled according to RocDoc's instructions. Also, I find swingtops are hugely helpful when filling bottles this way. Let the foam overflow out of the bottle until all of the foam is pushed out by the liquid. It will make a puddle, so I put my bottles in a large bowl when I'm filling them. I also chill my bottles first. Not sure where I picked that up or if it makes a difference, though.
Here's how I do it. Although I've also started purging all bottles with CO2 first as well. To do that I just hook my bottling rig up to a corny full of CO2 and give a shot to each bottle before swapping it back over to the beer to fill bottles. I usually have a purged, pressurized corny hanging around so that's the most convenient way for me.
Chilling is supposed to help cut down on foaming. I've never done a side-by-side test, but I always chill my bottles as well.
I guess you will need to get a packaging that do not let bottles agitate or at least diminish agitation the more you can to avoid beer spoilage.Another thing to be aware is temperature while beer is traveling.
I use a picnic tap w\racking cane, chill bottles and fill. Don't use a drilled stopper as some others do, just turn the pressure down to a couple psi, and as the bottle fills I raise the tip of the cane. This allows me to fill as close as possible to the top and still produce a nice foam cap. I'm not sure what the effect of then letting them warm and shipping them, but I'd be interested to know how it worked out since I only keg and I'd like to ship my son some brews in another state.
This is exactly how I bottle for competitions, and I've never had negative feedback that I could attribute to this bottling method. They will occasionally sit warm for weeks (between shipping and judging), so you should be fine shipping to your son.
