How To Make A Simple Counter Pressure Bottle Filler
Recently I started kegging my homebrew beer and found that it was a lot easier than bottling. However if I wanted to take a few beers with me I needed to take the whole keg. So after looking at a number of designs for counter pressure bottle fillers, I settled on the cheapest and easiest counter pressure filler; also known as a beer gun.
The principle is simple; beer foams because of the rapid decompression from the keg. This is what creates the head on the beer, but when you’re filling bottles you don’t want the head in the bottle. So counter pressure filling simply is filling the bottle under the same pressure as the keg.
The design is simple it’s a picnic tap with a tube on the end and a rubber stopper in the middle that fits snug in the bottle. This design was chosen for the price because for under $10 dollars you have a counter pressure filler or beer gun that usually costs $60 plus dollars.
The operation is even simpler: you will need to relieve the keg pressure to 5 PSI first. Then place the tube in the bottle and press the rubber stopper down over the mouth of the bottle. Open the tap and put it in the locked open position; as the pressure equalizes in the bottle the beer will stop flowing. When the beer stops rising just lift up on the tube, to create a leak of air between the stopper and the bottle and beer starts flowing again. When you’re done you can top off the bottle as long as the tube is in the bottle.
Note: Make sure your beer is fully carbonated before filling. I usually force carbonate and refrigerate condition my beer for 2 weeks.
Parts:
1 – Picnic Tap Assembly $6.00
1 – 3/8” OD Racking Plastic Tube $1.50
1 – #2 Drilled Rubber Stopper $0.50
Construction:
- Cut the tube to about 12 inches with a tubing cutter or hacksaw. You can always trim more off later, but remember you may want to fill taller bottles. Be sure to clean up rough edges with light sandpaper.
- Press the tubing into the picnic tap end, if it fits too snug and won’t go in; heat the picnic tap end with a lighter to make it a little soft.
- Press the rubber stopper up on the plastic tubing.
- Begin filling bottles…
Tags: Beer