Have you ever wanted to give your home brew as a gift/present but only have a keg setup? Since moving house and using my keg equipment more I have been thinking the same..

I use to syphon some beer off into a bottling bucket and condition x amount of beers (usually 6 or 12) to give to, say my dad, as a gift or fathers day present. However in the past the carbonation of the bottles have been somewhat inconsistent and on one occasion (bottled version of my Breakfast Stout) a bottle bomb could of happened. Well almost - upon opening it frothed out more than the Kilauea volcano (too soon?)  so my dad didn't end up having much apart from a big head on a few bottles. You also always get unwanted sediment and the time to condition is always an extra factor to take into effect.

So I thought of the idea to use my keg and use my bottle filler to bottle from my keg directly. Knowing I can get the carbonation right and will eliminate the issues I've had with bottling.
One problem however is that if I give a full 6/12 pack to my dad he could not drink a bottle for a few weeks. Which could mean that the carbonation levels drop in the bottle. All the how to videos I've watched state you should cap on foam and you purge the bottle before filling.

Something that is quite common when bottle filling from a keg, regardless of the way you transfer it. Counter pressure fillers work well but I wouldn't want to leave for 2/3 weeks to find it was flat. A week seems the cut off before carbonation starts to drop.

Transferring to a Flip top bottle.

So this leaves me with doing some 'Beer Tokens' that I intend to give to the amount (in pints/bottles) that I would usually give. In my case for this Fathers Day I intend to fill my 9l keg for my dad and have beer tokens to the amount (in pints) that the keg holds.

If you have someone that lives close you could do a few bottles a time to take around/they come to you whenever they want, it'll be like having your own personal tap room!

It might even be a bit more fun for them to get stamped for the beers.
I still have my old bottling bucket so can give this a try this time and if it doesn't really work then I can go back to bottling. 
Have you any other good ideas to give your home brew away as gifts?

What beer tokens could look like

Until Next time......Happy Brewing

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Bottle Conditioned

Its been 3 weeks since I bottled Saison of Love. I finished the keg in quite quick time, mainly due to it being 1/2 full, my attention is focused on the bottles.

Thursday I had one of my smaller sized test bottles that were bottled with some of the remaining beer left in the bottling bucket once I finished bottling all the other allocated bottles.

The beer has turned out very well in the bottles. Nicely carbed up, having a nice white 1 & 1/2 - 2 finger head that dissipated slightly but still had about 1/2 finger all the way down to near the end of the glass.

This bottle had a crisper flavour and drier finish seemingly than the keg version. It still had that distinctive white wine flavour I was going for, the aroma does remind you its a saison.

The keg had a merky looking head, probably because some hops and other gunk got into it when I transfered it from the fermenter, racking too close to the Trub. Also I had a real issue with force carbing the keg.

Keg Version

I probably over carbed the keg (for the amount that was in the keg) or it had too much of a co2 blanket so when I pulled a glass of it there was so much foam. The colour of the keg version was also some what paler than the bottle version.

I'm now looking forward to enjoy all the remaining bottles that I've got for myself, its time now to chill the bottles to store and slow down the ageing.


Lets also see what the 1st July brings as its being entered into the Welsh National Homebrew Competition.




Until next time......Happy Brewing

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Its being a while since my last blog post, so I thought Id write on a hot topic with homebrewers that is a long disputed and much asked question...to keg or bottle? 

Some like to bottle so they can keep track on how much they have drunk and like to just chuck a bottle or two in the fridge. Its cost effective to bottle, the equipment you need is very minimal. You will only need a capper, caps and of course the bottles which many I expect you could have from empties collected. 

When I first majorly bottled I 'minesweeper-ed' a lot of empties from a friends BBQ party. However there always is a constant rinse and clean cycle, which when it comes to sanitising and filling come bottle day some find it quite tedious which you also may run out of space in the kitchen surrounded by bottles. Bottling however is a great way to share the fruits of your labor. 

Kegging is very convenient, after a long day you get home and fancy a beer but only 1/2 having a keg is very handy for this. It also reduces alot of time come bottling day and cleaning. For carbonation and clarity kegging is the way to go. 

There are many entry levels to kegging you can get a 5l mini keg or Tap a Draft (TAD) that are seemed as a good stepping stone into the world of kegged beer.  

I have used a TAD when I first started out, I really liked using it, however after 4 kits (one which was a stove top extract kit) I quickly went into 12l BIAB batches as I didn't see the need of using these as I could easily just bottle 18 or so bottles and let them naturally carbonate over a few weeks. So I have lined this up to give to a friend who has very recently started home brewing, catching the bug very quickly however he has had problems with a leaky pressure barrel.

For me I would dearly love to do a DIY Kegerator however I know the powers that be (aka Mrs B) will not have that until I have a man shed or such area she can lock me away in.  So if I can push it to just a 9L corny keg (tucked away in a corner) with a regulated Co2 charger and chrome tap will cost in the region of £130. That's not including a cool jacket or Co2 capsules. 

You never know I might try my luck placing it on my upcoming birthday list. 




There is so many pros and cons for the two so I'll leave it here....How do you do yours? do you bottle, keg or a mix of the two? What do you prefer?

Are there any Home Brew Suppliers/companies willing for me to test/review keg products? 

Until next time......Happy Brewing

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When I first started brewing I bought 2 boxes of swing top bottles from the The Range they were £9 for 12 500ml bottles, good value! Although they wont last forever they are a great style of bottle that allows the beer to carbonate very well. I love the sound they make when they open. 

Over time I've boasted my individual bottles from either the odd supermarket bought bottle or from a BBQ or house party and helped with the 'recycling' by taking a few empties home with me.  

Now I have enough bottles to probably do a complete batch in bottles if I wish (or do 3/4 bottles and 1 TAD, so I have some leftover bottles for a batch sooner than waiting another month. 

I've basically found that there's certain types of bottles that wont cap well due to the neck being a bit more dumpy, so my hand capper can't fully grip on the bottle. These I've found are Kopparberg, Wychwood and Badger bottles, some bottles like the Proper Job or 660ML Punk IPA bottles have either the label on a piece of plastic then glued onto the bottle (which stinks and leaves the bottle very sticky if you do try to remove it). Which I then have had to recycle for real. 

Really easy bottles to reuse I've found Budweiser, Rekorderlig or the standard ale bottles that you usually get in the 3 for £5 deals at the supermarket. These labels generally just soak of after some time in hot soapy water, you'll then just have to lightly scrub off any label stickiness that is left.

It's nice to have a mix of swing/flip top, standard capped bottles (that look good if you are giving them away for presents) and a larger dispensing system.

Until next time........Happy Brewing. 

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Ever had any bottle bombs due to over carbonation? 

Ever had a flat beer from under carbonation?

Branching out on creating different styles in 2016?

I have recently come across a few Priming Sugar Calculators that will help, it certainly opened my eyes to the different beers styles and amount of sugar & CO2 that is recommended.


When I first starting brewing I came across a quick and fast rule of the sugar amount, which with the beers I was brewing probably made them off style and in cases slightly over carbonated. 

The best one I found was Homebrew Dad's Priming Sugar Calculator  this calculator has both the option to input the desired CO2 level that you want to achieve (for the science boffin). If you like me find it easier to relate to the styles they have a very extensive list to select from and aims to place the carbonation at the mid range level of each style. 

A very useful tool indeed! I'll certainly be using it in the future.

Until Next time......Happy Brewing. 

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