Brand spanking new to kegging

[Dirk McLargeHuge]

You are remembering correctly, but also chill the bottles.

[jacbop]

Since you already are using quick disconnects (1/4 flare fittings) you may be interested in building a slightly fancier version of Tasty's filler. It's sort of a poor man's beer gun and repurposes your old bottle wand. It is not a counterpressure filler at all.

In fact, I use this to fill my bottle conditioned beers too. In those cases, the corny is used as a bright tank and a bottling bucket. I prime in the keg after cold conditioning and push the beer into the bottles using CO2 and my fancy assed wand.

Otherwise, I force carbonate in the corny and just whip out my fancy wand to fill a few bottles for competitions or for sharing.

I think it was < $4 in fittings and it comes apart well for cleaning and sanitizing. You could also replace the tubing every time if you are paranoid about sanitizing. you only need 2" or so.

Basically adapt a 1/4 MFL to a 5/16 barb. The use a small length of tubing to connect this to your old bottling wand. Hook it up to your beverage out and push the beer into cold bottles at about 2 psi. Just push in the bottom of the bottle and the beer flows, just like using a bottling bucket.

[BrewTa2]

Update?
Since you posted in "that other thread" that you were looking forward to a draft Kolsch I presume you got it carbonated.

[Bugeater]

Also, I've got about 7 feet of 1/4" ID tubing on my cobra tap, and get nothing but foam. Is this related?

I missed this line when I read your post the other day. This is probably most of your foaming problem. The diameter of your tubing is too big. You need to change to 3/16" tubing. With the smaller tubing, around 6' would be just about right. With the bigger tubing you would need closer to 15 to 20 feet of tubing to get enough resistance to drop your pressure enough to avoid foaming.

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company

[Brew Engineer]

Also, I've got about 7 feet of 1/4" ID tubing on my cobra tap, and get nothing but foam. Is this related?

I missed this line when I read your post the other day. This is probably most of your foaming problem. The diameter of your tubing is too big. You need to change to 3/16" tubing. With the smaller tubing, around 6' would be just about right. With the bigger tubing you would need closer to 15 to 20 feet of tubing to get enough resistance to drop your pressure enough to avoid foaming.

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company

I kind of figured that out, but thank you for confirming. I'm planning on getting some smaller diameter tubing tomorrow. I did get it carbonated, and it tastes great! But Im' still getting half beer, half foam. I'll try again with a smaller ID tube.

Thanks guys!

[Brew Engineer]

Another question!

I had a leak somewhere in my system, and I'm going through and double checking all my connections. But my regulator came with a red hard plastic washer (not a rubber o-ring). Am I supposed to use this instead of, or in combination with, the fiber washers I get when I fill the tank? I used just the red washer, and ran out of CO2 in a week.

I also suspect my beer line quick connect, but wanted to double check the washer first. Any thoughts?

Thanks!

[Lars]

Soapy water is your friend. Mix up a bit in a spray bottle, spray down all your connections and hose look for bubbles = find leak. Some of the new regulators use a o-ring but I have not seen a red plastic thingy. Maybe someone else can chime in on that...

[Bugeater]

Soapy water is your friend. Mix up a bit in a spray bottle, spray down all your connections and hose look for bubbles = find leak. Some of the new regulators use a o-ring but I have not seen a red plastic thingy. Maybe someone else can chime in on that...

Star San works even better for this. It bubbles up just as good and you don't have to worry about getting soap into anything it shouldn't.

Wayne
Bugeater Brewing Company