How can I fill bottles from a keg and maintain pressure

Question

I've been kegging for awhile now, but I still haven't managed to successfully fill bottles from my kegs without losing all pressure.

I don't have a counter pressure beer filler or a Blichmann Beer gun, and for the moment I'd rather spend my beer-money on something else.

The few times I've tried to fill a couple bottles I've done this:

1. Chill the keg (well, already done)
2. Chill the bottles
3. Turn down the keg pressure to almost nothing, like 1-2 psi
4. Raise the keg
5. Insert a piece of bottle-length tubing over my cobra picnic tab
6. Slowly fill
7. Cap

I'll leave the bottle in the fridge, then come back a couple hours later (or bring it to a friend's house, etc) and the beer has almost no carbonation. My capper seems to work fine, as my regularly bottled beers don't seem to lose any pressure.

Any suggestions?

Answer 1

Use a BMBF! Get a racking cane and a stopper and you're all set. I bottle regularly from kegs using this method and it works great.

Answer 2

Counter pressure and beer gun aside. I think you might want to up the pressure. ALso you can get a stopper to run through and squeese it to let a little pressure to let the beer in but keep it pressurized.

Answer 3

Use normal pressure, don't fill too slow, then fill them so a little foam starts pouring over, then cap right onto the foam. Wipe the beer off the bottle after.

Answer 4

Your method looks correct. You may want to overcarbonate the beer by 2-5 PSI, and raise the keg pressure to around 5 PSI when bottling. Slightly overcarbonating will help ensure that there's still a good amount of CO₂ in suspension after you lose some from the bottling process. You may need to play with the keg pressure a little to balance bottling speed and foam production.

Answer 5

I never tried it without the Blichman Beer Gun, but after using the gun, it seems that would need to use something like that. I split the cost with a friend, since you only need it sporadically.

It's a bummer to spend money on something that doesn't actually make beer, but it's been a great investment. I buy seasonal commercial kegs and transfer the entire keg to bottles so I can have the beer I like and not take up a spot in the keg fridge.