Beer guns, any good ?

[beer today]

I hate bottling, like most people. Am I right in thinking beer gun means I can force carb my beer in my corny, then 'gun' it into bottles and be drinking carbonated beer quicker than natural carbonation. I assume this is the case, but am surprised more people aren't using them. Anyone any experience with Morebeer or Blichman types ?
cheers
bt

[Jim]

I've not used one myself, but you're correct re how they work. They transfer carbonated beer into bottles under pressure (you need a CO2 supply, but if you're carbonating in a cornie, you have one by definition).

The reason more people aren't using them is probably something to do with £££s.

[stelongy]

yea they are make your own do a search on homebrew talk forum ,we dont need no stinking beer gun.

OH forgot to mention plenty of vids on youtube about making a beer gun.

[roscoe]

yes after building your complete brew rig and your ready to bottle you can embark on designing and refining a bottling widget over many months.....
or just buy a 'beer gun', works really well, although as the temperature creeps up about now, its better to chill the beer before bottling then you have no/less losses due to foam and go even quicker, I think its over priced but works great for me.

excluding bottle/keg prepare/clean time I can rattle through nearly 80 bottles an hour

how much would I have spent making thing or a counter thingumajig, version 1 then 2 etc ..... it's your call.

[Martin G]

The other way to balance the pressure is to drop the pressure in the source vessel. I have cracked the lid on a KK and then purged it after bottling.

[asd]

And now the Pegas bottler is on the scene.

http://pegasdistusa.com/pegas-novotap/

A couple of members on here have acquired these, and may well share their experiences.

In short, if you buy a knockoff from China - beware! you may well be in for a long ride to actually get it working. If you buy the genuine plastic version, they work a treat, at a reasonable price!

[chickenbroot]

I would second roscoe's comment - I bought the one barneey put up on here recently, and I think it's great. Not cheap, but in terms of the time and hassle it saves, for me it's worth it! I'm definitely the sort of person that if I tried to make my own, I'd spend more money (by buying bits to make one, covering myself in beer many times and then finally just buying one anyway), but there's some very handy people around here...

[alix101]

It's a great piece of kit worth the money IMHO. Setting up can seem a pain but it's not difficult and many of the steps are the same for any bottling session.
I use a bottle tree and the whale sanitizer it's really good and quick method no sediment and it keeps well.
I've even used it to dispense beer at party's.

[beer today]

thanks chaps, I feel a flush of plastic coming on

[darkonnis]

The more beer counter pressure fillers work really well.

[roscoe]

Darkonnis, have you had the chance to try both CPF and beer gun ?
Would be interested to hear a hands-on summary of the pros/cons.

[darkonnis]

the blichman beergun isn't as good from what I can tell, it isn't counter pressure where as the more beer one is. I've never used it however.

[alix101]

the blichman beergun isn't as good from what I can tell, it isn't counter pressure where as the more beer one is. I've never used it however.

The simplicity of the beer gun is its strength the trouble with more beer filler is you need another arm to use it...with the beer gun you simply purge the bottle and fill.
I've had no problems with bottled beer that's been in there for over a year.

[roscoe]

I have zero experience of counterflow, but really like beer gun, rather surprised it works so well with gassed beers.

I can work beer gun with one hand purge and filling bottles whilst my other hand loads and caps the bottles, just need to get the labels at the same time !

Outside summer with lower carbonation I just fill, but for high carb like say wiessbier's I will chill keg down towards zero and the beer gun works a treat otherwise your foam losses increase.

[Waffty]

I have a beer gun and really like it. Ok, so it does take a bit of setting up and getting just right but once that's done, it works really well.

As mention before, if you have the wrong length/diameter pipe, over carbonated ale, use too much pressure to dispense and your ale and bottles are 'too warm' then all you going to get is a foam making machine (believe me, I've been there).

For my experiances, I ensure my corny and contents are cool (stored in garage), my dispensing pressure is low and I change the pipe from the stuff supplied to the really thin stuff. I then chill my clean bottles by placing them in the fridge and then it's a doddle, push the CO2 button to purge out the air, fill the bottle with the other button (to the top) remove the beer gun (level drops) and top off with a blast of CO2 and cap.

My Ale is bright, carbonated to my liking and because the same process is followed, it's repeatable, so therefore consistant. If I get a helper to cap off, then you can easily 'fly' through a corny's worth in no time.

I did think about a counter pressure but as mentioned before, the two taps are on opposite ends, so not one handed operation + you have to maintain the seal on the bottle itself at the time of fill and once filling, you have to alter he blead pressure. So whilst it's usage may give better results (marginal?) it's just too fiddly for me to use on a regular basis.

Horses for courses but I do like the Beer gun. Cleaning is also straight forward and I believe all the parts are available, should you ever run into problems.