Life in bottles

[loftyambitions]

We put our brew from the FV into a Keg for a period of 2-3 weeks. When we come to decant this into bottles we often get nice lively beer flowing from the keg into the bottles. However, by the time the bottles are ready to be drunk the beer is often a little flat and nearly all of the time has no head.

Are we doing something wrong?

The obvious solution is to go from FV straight to bottle but we simply dont have the amount of bottles (40 per week) required to do this.

Is there any way of putting some life into the bottles without adding sugar and restart the secondary ferment. We thought a pinch of bicarb could maybe do a job.

We have been brewing kit beers but in the next two weeks will be moving on to bottling the extract ones we have started.

As always any help is much appreciated.

[crafty john]

You need to prime your bottles if you want lively beer and a good head, the CO2 needs to absorb into the beer whilst in the bottle, bottling from a keg without priming sugar is like going to the pub and bringing a falggon of draught beer home with you, by the time you get home its got no head and tastes crap, commercial bottling factory's inject their beer with CO2 when bottling, I haven't heard of anyone replicating this at home although I am sure many have thought about it.

[guidomax]

Crafty John mentions injecting bottles with CO2 when bottling - this can actually be done if you have a cornelius setup (or some other supply of CO2). Search the forums for 'counter pressure filler', which (AFAIK, I've never used one, just read about them) purges the bottles with CO2 then injects lively beer into the bottle, ready for sealing.

[rivetcatcher]

I think the best option here is to prime your beer in the keg then immediately siphon as much as you can into the bottles. Leave the rest in the keg and drink the remaining beer from it. Do not transfer into bottles at a later date or your just gonna have flat beer. If you dont have enough beer bottles now and insist on bottling it all, you can use some old 2l fizzy pop bottles which have been cleaned and sanitised. Provided that you keep them out of sunlight when conditioning, they should do the job just as well.

Hope this helps

[HighHops]

Hey loftyambitions

I wouldn't put bicarb in to your beer, but it is good for getting the labels off old bottles. You need to get yourself a good stock of bottles. I bought a grabby thing from a disability shop for £5 and I pluck whatever I need from the local bottle banks. (Safety first - Wear a pair of gloves so you don't cut yourself). I've now got 300 bottles all at various stages of conditioning. If you don't want to look like a pikey (I really don't care) then join your local freecycle.org - Theres always people giving away boxes of bottles. Failing that ask your local landlord for his empties.

[Bayerd]

I just scan the neighbourhood when it's glass recycling day, look for the houses that have plenty of beer bottles in them, knock on the door and ask if you can help yourself in return for a couple of full ones. Never been refused yet.....

[HighHops]

I just scan the neighbourhood when it's glass recycling day, look for the houses that have plenty of beer bottles in them, knock on the door and ask if you can help yourself in return for a couple of full ones. Never been refused yet.....

I like it! Like the Alpine man who used to deliver pop when we were kids and collect the empties, but this time with beer.

[epeius]

on the priming front you could prime with glye (a portion of wort that youve saved before you pitched the yeast) and you wouldnt have to use sugar..
the glye should hold in the fridge provided youve sealed it well and you sanitised everything properly
pop the beer out of the keg into your beer bottles primed with glye and youre sorted

personally i just use malt extract.. sont have the space in my fridge to store a few pints of unfermented beer... yet