Ok, so I woiuld like to bottle my new brews

[troublebrewing]

Having got two kegs of beer sorted, and have clarified in my mind about sterilising bottles, I would like to bottle the stuff. I think I may be doing this a little arse about face, so let me know if that's the case...

So, I made the wort in the fermenting bin - no tap on it, so when the fermention was complete/SG had settled to between 1014-1016 in the two kegs in question, I then siphoned (with sterilised kit) the brew into the two kegs I have. They have spent almost a week in the darkened shed/temp of about 14 degrees.

Am I right in thinking that I can now put the beer into bottles without them exploding? Am i also right in thinking that I could have missed out the keg stage and simply bottled straight from the fermenting bins?

Moving on a bit, I have read on 18000ft about priming the bottles. Now, i have added 80g of sugar to the beers, so does this mean that I should simply sterilise the bottles and bottle the beer with no more ado?

And when bottling, do I siphon the beer or use the tap that the kegs have, and hold each bottle under the tap? How much room should I leave in the neck?

Thanks for viewing, and hope I have not repeated too much well-worn ground.

[kenmc]

Having them in the kegs will make the beer mature and clear, so when you go to bottle them they will be better. HOWEVER, having primed them (and presumably tightened the lid on the kegs) they are now also carbonated. When you go to bottle them they will likely be quite foamy. Also, chances are you will need to reprime the bottles, as the yeast will have used up the previous priming sugar to make this carbonation. I suspect the best thing to do is let it go flat by venting the kegs, then reprime and bottle - will probably need to siphon, as there will be no CO2 to force the beer through the tap.

Maybe leave one keg, and bottle the other keg?? what sort of kegs are they?
If you just want to have a small amount of bottled stuff e.g. to take over to a friends place of an evening or so, you can always pour some from the keg into a 2l PET (coke) bottle and it will probably retain most of it's carbonation.

[troublebrewing]

Having had a sudden whoosh of air in the face some time ago when I lifted the lid on a fermenting bin, I was a bit concerned about the kegs also blowing up in my face - so I released the caps a little to let the pressure out.

In hindsight perhaps this doesn't make sense, because if the SG was stable then there shouldn't have been any pressure to speak of - correct?

You mention siphoning, and this reminds me that I read on 18000ft that you shouldn't suck on a pipe to initiate siphoning - so how do you do that?

The kegs are white plastic and came from Leyland Home Brew - sorry that's about the only way I know how to tell what they are.

I was thinking of bottling less to allow me to carry the beer anywhere, more to free up the kegs so that I can ge on with some new brews. I have a small collection of glass bottles that I can use.

[kenmc]

Ok well the difference between a fermenting bin and a keg is fairly substantial construction difference (i'm assuming that you're talking about a pressure keg - ie one in which there's a valve that you can add CO2 to presurise - e.g. king keg or similar). The keg is supposed to become pressurised in order to make the beer carbonate, so by priming it with the 80gms sugar you were basically feeding the yeast a tiny bit more after they had eaten most/all of the sugars from the initial fermentation, just so they produce enough CO2 to make the beer a bit fizzy, but not so much that they make loads more alcohol. You'd do the same thing in bottles - a teaspoon of sugar per bottle is usual - just enough to make it fizzy, not enough to make it explode! So by releasing the pressure on your kegs you now have flat beer anyway, so you need to do something - either reprime in the keg and tighten the lid, or reprime and bottle.

WRT the syphoning, my syphon has a small tap on it at the end. I simply have a small piece of tubing - 3 inches or so, which I attach to the end of the tap and suck on that. Then when i get beer into my mouth I close the tap, and remove the tubing bit. The siphon tube is now ready to go - just bring the tap below the level of the liquid in the keg/fermenter and open the tap - the beer will flow thanks to the laws of gravity.

There are other ways you can achieve this - one way is to completely immerse the siphon tube in sterilized water so that it is entirely full. Put your thumb over one end. Insert the other end into the beer, bring the thumb-end below the level of liquid in the fermenter and release your thumb, the first watery bit of liquid can be dumped, the rest will be transferred to your secondary. Same applies when bottling, but it is a bit of a messy to do so, unless you have a bottling wand attached to your siphon tube.

You will need about 44x0.5l bottles or 66x0.33l bottles per batch, assuming 23 litre batches, allowing for 1l of loss between siphoning off and leaving cak behind in each fermenter.
Hope this helps

[PieOPah]

When bottling, the best thing to do is transfer your beer from the primary to a bottling bucket. This could be a keg, no problem there....

In the bottling bucket you put your priming solution (dissolve your sugar in about a pint of boiling water). You then transfer all your beer. This will ensure that the priming sugar is equally distributed through the beer. So, when you come to bottle, all bottles will have the same proportion of sugar meaning the same carbonation.

Using a tap is much easier than using a syphon as you will no doubt have worked out by now.

Also, after you have transferred to a bottling bucket, bottle immediately so that all carbonation takes place in the sealed bottles.

[Burner]

I'd definitely go for putting it into another bin with a tap for a while to improve clarity and make sure a bottling stick is used as it makes it so much easier.

[PieOPah]

I'd definitely go for putting it into another bin with a tap for a while to improve clarity and make sure a bottling stick is used as it makes it so much easier.

Personally I've never bothered with putting it into secondary to help clear. The most I have done is leave it in primary for longer than usual (3-4 weeks is the longest).

I only ever use secondary if I am adding something extra to the beer (like vanilla or fruit - not that I'm in a rush to ever use fruit again!)

[troublebrewing]

Thanks for the great replies guys. One thing, the keg - in the middle of the cap is a small matt white cyclinder, perhaps a centimetre across - is this the pressure valve?

Also, are there other things that I can do with this valve? ie add co2 or some other function?

Sounds like I could do with a tap and pipe on the end of my siphon, and/or indeed, install a tap on the fermenting bins.

TB

[kenmc]

Doesn't sound like it TBH - the valve for adding CO2 will have screws on it. It sounds like a pressure RELEASE valve in case too much pressure builds up in it. Not sure though for certain - post a pic maybe??

Be careful with the tap on the fermenter option. Search for my post on sunday about infection, which I can only attribute to using those taps. I have since purchased 2 fermenting bins sans taps. It may be a bit of a PITA to syphon all the time, but at least I know it's clean. Paranoia perhaps, but peace of mind all the same.

[troublebrewing]

Here's the cap:

[kenmc]

personally can't tell you what it is. only idea I have is that it's something you break out/off to put an S30 valve in maybe?? Anyone???

edit is it one of these??? http://www.leylandhomebrew.com/item838.htm
if so it says a 'pressure release cap' so thats what it is - just a pressure release mechanism to stop the keg getting too carbonated and blowing up rather than an input mechanism to add more CO2..

[troublebrewing]

I reckon that's the one, kenmc.

[Horden Hillbilly]

That is definetly a pressure relief valve only, if you wish to inject CO2 into that keg you will need a new cap with an S30 valve fitted, as item no. 6 shown Here

Your cap is item no. 7.