I really do not enjoy bottling. Like many others, that was one of my main reasons for switching over to kegging. Plus, you can avoid storing a surplus of empty glass bottles (my obsession with saving empties is fodder for another post). These days, the only time I bottle in large batches is for gifts. I started using John Palmer's nomograph for carbonation (can be found in How To Brew or in Brewing Classic Styles) and now I can reliably hit the proper carbonation levels for each style in every bottle. But all the extra work is still a pain.
This is really about bottling that handful of bottles to give to a friend or to send to a competition. In order to transport a small volume of beer, there is no way around bottling. Initially, I contemplated building a full-blown counter-pressure bottle filler. I decided against it, because they look pretty bodgy and didn't appear to be as 'simple' to use as commercially available versions. I decided I could pony up the cash for a CPBF, and decided on the stainless steel version listed at More Beer. But it was perpetually out of stock...
I spoke with my local homebrew shop owner. I reviewed info on the brewing podcasts that I listen to. I scoured the brewing forums. All of these sources assured the would-be bottler that a cobra tap and part of a racking cane was all that was necessary... Simply slide the plastic tube up into the opening of the cobra tap, insert this into the bottle, open the tap, fill to the brim, remove the filler, then cap. Oh yes, don't forget to "cap on foam"! Simple.
But my beer was always flat. I listened to podcasts on the Brewing Network again, where accomplished brewers such as Jamil Zainasheff and 'Tasty' McDole said that it wasn't necessary to 'over pressure' the keg (Tasty has repeated this over and over, and that he uses the cobra-tap-racking-tube method). But my beer was flat.
I did a little more research, and it seemed like a better seal at the bottle's opening might be of some help. So I built Ken Schwartz' 'Poor Man's Counter Pressure Bottle Filler' (the PMCPBF - based on the diagram posted here). I assembled the materials, but had problems with the valve stem popping off of the inflating needle. A quick mod involving two-part clear epoxy (it never touches the beer) - which looked great - solved that. This was better, and I was able to actually hold quite a bit more CO2 in the bottle as I went (better allowing the "cap on foam" step), but the carbonation level has still been inconsistent. About half the bottles are pretty flat, and half are properly carbonated - seemingly with no way to predict which way it will go!
This is not a huge deal when bottling a couple bottles to take to a friend's place (still not very aesthetically pleasing however), but it is a critical problem when bottling for comps! I had three solid beers that I sent to one this fall - all three had carbonation problems listed on the judging sheets.
My beer might not be anywhere near as good as Tasty's, but I should be able to replicate his bottling success, for Pete's sake!
Should I spend the money on a better CPBF? Should I try the Blichmann Beer Gun? I want my competition beers to reflect what I am serving out of my kegs - good beer at the proper level of carbonation. I need to figure this out...
No comments:
Post a Comment