13 replies to this topic

[North]

i have been debating about getting a beer gun. anyone use one? good? bad? not worth it? reason being, i'd like to start kegging but i do not have a fridge to cool the beer. so the beer gun would be the bridge till i can find a chest freezer of some sort.

[ANUSTART]

I say it's definitely worth it, but I use it to bottle a six pack every now and then from a keg. It's easy and does the job well.If you're not kegging yet and just using it to bottle primed beer, it would be less valuable. In that case it's serving the same purpose as a $1 bottling wand.

[gnef]

so you can't keep the kegs cold? If you can't keep the kegs cold, then the beergun won't be of much use for you either. If you could put the keg in the fridge temporarily to cool the beer to use the beergun with, then that would work.I have a beergun, but rarely use it, as I rarely bottle carbonated beer from the kegs for long term storage or competitions. If/when I use it though, it works quite well. I would consider it to still be a two-person team though to work best. One person on the beergun filling the bottles constantly if possible (again, with the beer/keg cold), and the other capping as the bottles are filled.I've only used mine a couple times in the past year or so; a friend wanted to split a batch of mine, and I had already carbonated and put it in the chest freezer, so we used the beergun to bottle it. It worked quite well, as I was on the beergun, and he was on the bench capper, and those bottles have done well to my knowledge, even after months of storage.If you decide to get one, be careful of the tip. That is the weak spot of the beergun, and I have heard of tips coming off and spraying beer. I've always been careful with it, and haven't had a problem, and I have heard of some tips breaking after a lot of use. You can get replacements at most large homebrew shops that sell the beergun.

[BrewerGeorge]

I can imagine that you might be thinking you can bridge the gap by getting a keg to carbonate beer at room temp, then use the beergun to fill bottles for the fridge. Unfortunately, that won't work, because of the way the beergun handles the drop in pressure. Your warm beer would foam up badly. OTOH, a more traditional counter-pressure filler could be made to work that way, just at a higher pressure to go with the higher temp.

[SchwanzBrewer]

Beer gun is about $80. you can get a used dorm fridge for less than that to turn into a kegerator. Then you have cold kegged beer FTW!Cheers,Rich

[ThroatwobblerMangrove]

Beer gun is about $80. you can get a used dorm fridge for less than that to turn into a kegerator. Then you have cold kegged beer FTW!Cheers,Rich

a good point here

[HVB]

I have one. Got it when I was bottling a bunch for our wedding. I honestly do not use it that much anymore. I just throw a bolting wand in the end of a cobra tap and go to town. Granted, I am only bottling a few bottles but quick and dirty. And I have had the tip come off while using it. Wow, that was a mess!!It is a good tool, well designed and easy to use. I just have found I use the cobra tap more.

[VolFan]

I think most of the replies you are getting here will be the norm from keggers. I bought the gun 4-5 years ago and it's doubtful I've use it more than 10 times. Even when I fill growlers for friends, I just turn the pressure down real low and fill from the taps on the keggerator. I don't even use Cobra taps and a bottling wand. Point being if you are patient and scour Craigslist and for sale ads you can probably put together a small kegging system with a dorm fridge for just a little more money. The regulator will probably be the hardest thing to find used.A friend turned me on to this search program for Craigslist. It really speeds things up. Try it and keep your eyes open. My linkGood luck.

[Brownbeard]

I use mine all the time. It is great for filling bottles out of the keg. The biggest upside is that the beer stays carbed for such a long time. I did not get that when filling with a tube in the tap.

[VolFan]

I will add this. I bottled an IPA about 3+ years ago to send off for a comp (with the beer gun). Gave my friend one and he stuck it in the fridge. We found that beer about a month ago while we were brewing. We cracked the top, poured the beer and it was just like the day I bottled it. Perfect head and the beer tasted really good. I was quite surprised how well it had held up.

Edited by VolFan, 21 June 2010 - 11:56 AM.

[MakeMeHoppy]

I have the task of filling 20 2-liter soda bottles from 3 different ksgs for my daughter's wedding rehearsal dinner. I have filled growlers and 2 liters as well as regular bottles in the past from a keg. The real key is to get the keg cold and properly carbed and then release the head pressure and slowly fill. I use the cobra tap with tubing as I've found if the beer starts to foam a little I can raise the bottle higher in the air and when the flow starts to drop I can lower the bottle back to the floor. Once I get going I can usually set the tank at 3 PSI can continue to fill. In this case I have the luxury of using 2 liter soda bottles so if they foam too much and lose some pressure I can use a carb cap to get them back up. I'm not overly worried about oxydation as the beer will be consumed within a week of bottling. I really have to agree that the money for the beer gun would be better spend on a fridge or chest freezer.

[shmgeggie]

Depends on how much bottling you want to do. I just do the tube over the cobra tap at low pressure and it works fine. You won't lose carbonation over time doing it this way. A cap is a cap, regardless of how you got the beer in the bottle.

[3rd party JKor]

I had been using my counterpressure bottle filler whenever I filled bottles before and just in the last few days I started using a piece of tubing jammed in the picnic tap because I didn't want to go through the hassle of setting up the CPBF. It worked really well. I don't think I'll be using the CPBF much anymore.I never used the Beer Gun, but I don't think it's worth it. Lots of people love it, and maybe if you consistently bottled out of your kegs it might be a bit of a timesaver, I'm not sure though. Correct me if I'm wrong, isn't it just a fancy way of using cobra tap method?

Edited by JKoravos, 21 June 2010 - 07:20 PM.

[Stout_fan]

so you can't keep the kegs cold? If you can't keep the kegs cold, then the beergun won't be of much use for you either. If you could put the keg in the fridge temporarily to cool the beer to use the beergun with, then that would work. ...

EEEEEyup!