Bottle Filler

[robcoombs]

I'm looking for something to fill bottles with. Currently I put bottles in the freezer, turn down the gas pressure, keep the bottle tilted. But I still get a foamy mess to deal with. I was wondering if anyone has tried one of these growler fillers, or has another solution?

[Roger]

I use pretty much the same method but I first make sure the bottles are not only cold but wet as well. If I fill for consuming within a day I just fill my bottles with cold tap water and wait a couple minutes then fill with a growler filler. If it's to save at all I refrigerate the clean bottles then just before filling I sanitize them with cold star san and fill.
You might want to look into a beer gun or the traditional bottle conditioning method.

[Scott]

I bottle with a beer gun which is great but....no matter what we've tried the first half dozen or so bottles are a foamy mess. Even if we take a break for a half hour or whatever, its the same mess for the first half dozen when we start up again. Bottling sucks.

[robcoombs]

I guess I should have specified. I only want to fill a few bottles at a time to take to an event. Or share with someone else. I still bottle condition appropriate styles but I keg hoppy beer and would like a less messy method of sharing.

[Two Wheeler]

Hey Rob, I bought one of those but don't find it helps me much. It certainly doesn't hurt with foaminess, but it just is messy. After I'm done filling and close the tap, I find there is beer still in the growler filler tube, presumably because of physics? Anyway, as soon as I pull that filler off the tap... bam... beer on the floor.

I've found success lately by doing what Roger does... cold water rinse, turn the PSI down to 4 and I fill off the tap directly. This is just for quick consumption though. I have a blichman beer gun for long term bottling that works good once you figure it out.

[blisster]

I use those growler filler adapters for pretty much the same purpose (only filling a few bottles here and there).  I have one for Perlick taps and one for Standard taps but they can be hard to put on, especially the Perlick one I find. I usually end up using a vinyl tube that fits over the taps instead.

I still get a lot of foaming once in a while especially for highly carbonated beers but this is what seems to work best for me:

• Rinse/sterilize the bottles/growlers (make sure they are not dry, wet decreases friction and causes less foaming).
• Rinse/sterilize the growler filler/tube and connect to sterilized tap.
• Turn down the CO2 regulator completely
• Purge the keg of CO2
• Slowly turn on CO2 regulator and fill about 1/2 pint of beer into a glass or more (the beer in the lines seems to be the foamiest).
• Slowly fill the bottles while throttling up the co2 regulator (Slow and steady at around 2-3 PSI usually)
• Once done, return regulator to normal serving pressure.
• Drink the glass of beer you poured yourself as a reward for a job well done.
• Repeat last step as many times as needed

There are probably easier/quicker ways but that seems to work best for me.