Blichmann Beer Gun

[Beer-lord]

I got my Blichmann for under $75 from More Beer. Maybe it was on sale but I got it but it's good to know there are options now besides building one on your own.

[ScrewyBrewer]

I'll be breaking out the BeerGun this afternoon to package up some beer in 12 ounce bottles. I want to free up a few corny kegs so that I can get another brewday in before Thanksgiving Day.

beer-gun-1sml.jpg (78.7 KiB) Viewed 1489 times

[Beer-lord]

You've got a clean ship there Vince. Looks cleaner than a hospital!

[GUI_Center]

I've been kegging for a while and have had a history of issues trying to bottle from the keg. I have a perlick tap adapter and bottling wand which does not do a good job and foams too much. I currently just bottle straight from the top which actually gives me better results. In both cases I turned the psi down to 4-5 and purged the head. However, even bottling straight from the tap is not great and I don't like the idea of all the oxidation and loss of carbonation, especially with the amount of IPAs I brew. A friend of mine has a beer gun and let me borrow it to bottle for a competition. Well let me tell you that it was bad. I turned down to 5 psi, set secondary regulator to 5 as well. I kept the keg in the fridge. All I got was 1/4-1/3 bottles of foam. I ended up continuing to fill and pushing out all the foam until it was only beer left. This created a lot of carbonation loss even with doing a higher carb to try and offset. I don't know what I did wrong. He said he has no issues with it. Any ideas?

I just got my own and really hope I didn't waste all the money and hope I can get it to be as easy and simple as you all make it out to be. I have not tested it and am actually not looking forward to it.

When I used my friends I chilled the bottles as well. I did not chill the gun. He had 10ft line I believe. I did reduce to 5 psi and purged head. Thoughts?

[Beer-lord]

I don't always chill the bottles but try and it does help a bit but I think the key is to purge the keg very well first and not to shake it up much.

I did just watch a Midwest video showing how to use their new beer gun (the Last Straw I think it's called) and it seems very nice. No need to purge the keg and it fills a bit faster I think.
Just found the video.......

[bpgreen]

I've been kegging for a while and have had a history of issues trying to bottle from the keg. I have a perlick tap adapter and bottling wand which does not do a good job and foams too much. I currently just bottle straight from the top which actually gives me better results. In both cases I turned the psi down to 4-5 and purged the head. However, even bottling straight from the tap is not great and I don't like the idea of all the oxidation and loss of carbonation, especially with the amount of IPAs I brew. A friend of mine has a beer gun and let me borrow it to bottle for a competition. Well let me tell you that it was bad. I turned down to 5 psi, set secondary regulator to 5 as well. I kept the keg in the fridge. All I got was 1/4-1/3 bottles of foam. I ended up continuing to fill and pushing out all the foam until it was only beer left. This created a lot of carbonation loss even with doing a higher carb to try and offset. I don't know what I did wrong. He said he has no issues with it. Any ideas?

I just got my own and really hope I didn't waste all the money and hope I can get it to be as easy and simple as you all make it out to be. I have not tested it and am actually not looking forward to it.

When I used my friends I chilled the bottles as well. I did not chill the gun. He had 10ft line I believe. I did reduce to 5 psi and purged head. Thoughts?

I've never seen problems like that with the beer gun.

Did you vent the keg?

I've done it with the PSI set higher than recommended and not seen any issues.

[bpgreen]

I don't always chill the bottles but try and it does help a bit but I think the key is to purge the keg very well first and not to shake it up much.

I did just watch a Midwest video showing how to use their new beer gun (the Last Straw I think it's called) and it seems very nice. No need to purge the keg and it fills a bit faster I think.
Just found the video.......

I'm beginning to hate flash. I used to only hate it when it was done badly, but I'm starting to hate it with a passion in general now.

[Pudge]

Try to chill the bottles if you can. Temperature differences can kick up foam. I also turn the gas off, vent the keg completely, then turn on just enough pressure to move beer through the lines again.

I also use the growler adapter for my tap and fill growlers foam free using this method although I'm sure they aren't good for long term storage. The Beer Gun is far better.

[Dawg LB Steve]

If I am bottling 4-6, I will just use picnic tap and wand, if more then the beer gun. Before I got my beer gun I used a picnic tap and bottling wand, had issues of way overcarbonated bottles, which I had finally figured out was that I had 3 kegs hooked to one gas line, did not have a manifold at the time just tee'd off. I would purge the keg I was bottling from and it took a while to figure out the other two kegs were back feeding full 10 lbs pressure even though I had the regulator turned down to 4 lbs.

[ScrewyBrewer]

You've got a clean ship there Vince. Looks cleaner than a hospital!

Haha, thanks Paul! I've been told that I am a bit of a clean freak, but after all I am a brewer of beer.

[GUI_Center]

I did try with chilled bottles. Also, I turn off the gas, purge, and then fill with about 5 psi.

[BlackDuck]

I did try with chilled bottles. Also, I turn off the gas, purge, and then fill with about 5 psi.

HHmmmm...I'm not sure what to tell you here. It sounds like your doing everything right.

Maybe have your friend come over and watch what your doing. Maybe he might notice something that your doing differently than he is. Sometime an extra set of eyeballs can really help.

[MadBrewer]

I've been kegging for a while and have had a history of issues trying to bottle from the keg. I have a perlick tap adapter and bottling wand which does not do a good job and foams too much. I currently just bottle straight from the top which actually gives me better results. In both cases I turned the psi down to 4-5 and purged the head. However, even bottling straight from the tap is not great and I don't like the idea of all the oxidation and loss of carbonation, especially with the amount of IPAs I brew. A friend of mine has a beer gun and let me borrow it to bottle for a competition. Well let me tell you that it was bad. I turned down to 5 psi, set secondary regulator to 5 as well. I kept the keg in the fridge. All I got was 1/4-1/3 bottles of foam. I ended up continuing to fill and pushing out all the foam until it was only beer left. This created a lot of carbonation loss even with doing a higher carb to try and offset. I don't know what I did wrong. He said he has no issues with it. Any ideas?

I just got my own and really hope I didn't waste all the money and hope I can get it to be as easy and simple as you all make it out to be. I have not tested it and am actually not looking forward to it.

When I used my friends I chilled the bottles as well. I did not chill the gun. He had 10ft line I believe. I did reduce to 5 psi and purged head. Thoughts?

Try using even lower pressure. I usually don't touch my regulator, I will shut off the keg I'm going to bottle from at the manifold and purge that keg of just about all co2 pressure. I then start filling bottles, giving the keg a spurt of co2 here and there by opening that keg's valve on the manifold. I keep just enough pressure to keep beer flowing. Any foam is lost carbonation. I don't bother chilling the bottles, I haven't really noticed a difference but for some it does help. If you are getting too fast a flow, fill your bottles at a higher elevation, say on top of a cooler or chair. I usually do it at ground level in front of the fridge with the door open and me sitting on a bucket or cooler. Now that I think of it that way, I bet I could set up a table and work at a better level and use say 5 psi of pressure, it would need that much to push the beer vertical.

[ScrewyBrewer]

I've been kegging for a while and have had a history of issues trying to bottle from the keg. I have a perlick tap adapter and bottling wand which does not do a good job and foams too much.

I currently just bottle straight from the top which actually gives me better results.

In both cases I turned the psi down to 4-5 and purged the head. However, even bottling straight from the tap is not great and I don't like the idea of all the oxidation and loss of carbonation, especially with the amount of IPAs I brew.

A friend of mine has a beer gun and let me borrow it to bottle for a competition. Well let me tell you that it was bad. I turned down to 5 psi, set secondary regulator to 5 as well. I kept the keg in the fridge. All I got was 1/4-1/3 bottles of foam. I ended up continuing to fill and pushing out all the foam until it was only beer left. This created a lot of carbonation loss even with doing a higher carb to try and offset. I don't know what I did wrong. He said he has no issues with it. Any ideas?

Well I'm not sure who might agree with me but from what I read I would think your beer was over carbonated....or...

Turns out the black beer post connector I was using to connect my 5 gallon corny keg to a new Perlick Beer Faucet was bad. I took it apart and cleaned it and couldn't see anything wrong with it. After trying everything else, from using longer and shorter lengths of beer line and different Co2 pressures, I replaced the beer post connector. The very next pour I made from the new tap was perfect! Before swapping the connector out every pour I made foamed wildly it nearly drove me mad.

[GUI_Center]

Well I'm not sure who might agree with me but from what I read I would think your beer was over carbonated....or...

Turns out the black beer post connector I was using to connect my 5 gallon corny keg to a new Perlick Beer Faucet was bad. I took it apart and cleaned it and couldn't see anything wrong with it. After trying everything else, from using longer and shorter lengths of beer line and different Co2 pressures, I replaced the beer post connector. The very next pour I made from the new tap was perfect! Before swapping the connector out every pour I made foamed wildly it nearly drove me mad.

I still plan to give an update once I have a chance to try my gun, just have not had time.