[hamiltont]

I use an old bottling wand (with the tip cut off) and a short piece of 3/8" tubing shoved up into the Perlick. Use starsan to sanitize everything including inside the faucet. Rolled up paper towel saturated with starsan works great for inside the faucet. Drop the pressure to 2-3 lbs., pull the relief valve on the keg to eliminate the pressure, chill the bottles to the temp of the beer (tried the freezer once but it really foamed up), fill the bottle from the bottom and cap on foam.  If it doesn't foam then I shoot CO2 into the top of the bottle to remove the O2 and then cap. Simple & cheap.  Cheers, and Happy Brewing!!!

[mtnandy]

I don't have much experience with this, but I have done it a couple times before. I overcarbed the keg a bit since I knew some carbonation would be lost in the bottling. I just chilled my keg and bottles very cold (31 degrees if I remember correctly) and set the regulator so the beer would come out at barely a trickle. I filled the bottles directly from the sanitized picnic tap and capped on foam. The bottles sat around for a couple months before being judged in a comp. for what it's worth, one of those bottles won first place (steam beer) at my first competition. None of my score sheets for any of those beers mentioned anything about oxidation.

[Gribble]

I use an old bottling wand (with the tip cut off) and a short piece of 3/8" tubing shoved up into the Perlick. Use starsan to sanitize everything including inside the faucet. Rolled up paper towel saturated with starsan works great for inside the faucet. Drop the pressure to 2-3 lbs., pull the relief valve on the keg to eliminate the pressure, chill the bottles to the temp of the beer (tried the freezer once but it really foamed up), fill the bottle from the bottom and cap on foam.  If it doesn't foam then I shoot CO2 into the top of the bottle to remove the O2 and then cap. Simple & cheap.  Cheers, and Happy Brewing!!!

I love the idea of using a bottling wand, but why remove the tip??  if you hooked it up directly to the keg, you would almost have a beer gun, w/o the CO2 purge of course.

[tubercle]

Fill 6 or 12 bottles, prime, cap, keg the rest.

[Joe Sr.]

That's my typical MO.  But it doesn't answer the OP...

Good advice nonetheless.

[pinnah]

That is a good suggestion as well Tubercle.  I might miss the keg hop.

Thanks everyone for all the good ideas.  Cheers to portable beer!

[hamiltont]

I use an old bottling wand (with the tip cut off) and a short piece of 3/8" tubing shoved up into the Perlick. Use starsan to sanitize everything including inside the faucet. Rolled up paper towel saturated with starsan works great for inside the faucet. Drop the pressure to 2-3 lbs., pull the relief valve on the keg to eliminate the pressure, chill the bottles to the temp of the beer (tried the freezer once but it really foamed up), fill the bottle from the bottom and cap on foam.  If it doesn't foam then I shoot CO2 into the top of the bottle to remove the O2 and then cap. Simple & cheap.  Cheers, and Happy Brewing!!!

I love the idea of using a bottling wand, but why remove the tip??  if you hooked it up directly to the keg, you would almost have a beer gun, w/o the CO2 purge of course.

The tip causes the carbonated beer to foam up.  Cheers, and Happy Brewing!!!

[beersk]

What do you cut the racking cane with?  And it should probably be sanded off before using, yes?  I just use a bottling wand.  I get little foam, especially when the PSI is set to 5 or lower and fill within half an inch from the top, cap on foam.
I was reading the huge long thread about the el cheapo method on Homebrew Talk.  Someone used a stainsteel racking cane and cut and angled it to the length they needed.  Sounds like a nice idea.
I don't use the #2 stopper though.  That acts as a counter pressure deal?  I think I'm going to pick one up though, supposedly that helps reduce foaming too.

[Joe Sr.]

I used a tubing cutter to cut the racking can.  I think you could also just use a hack saw, but you'd need to clean it up a lot more.

I had a broken racking cane anyway, so I just went with it.

[Pinski]

I don't use the #2 stopper though.  That acts as a counter pressure deal?  I think I'm going to pick one up though, supposedly that helps reduce foaming too.

Yep, works pretty well.

I broke down and picked up a beer gun, get to test it out this weekend bottling a lot of beer to give away for the holidays.

Cheers!

[beersk]

I don't use the #2 stopper though.  That acts as a counter pressure deal?  I think I'm going to pick one up though, supposedly that helps reduce foaming too.

Yep, works pretty well.

I broke down and picked up a beer gun, get to test it out this weekend bottling a lot of beer to give away for the holidays.

Cheers!

Man! You didn't need to spend all that money for that thing!  The cheap method is sufficient.  Countless homebrewers have reported good success with it, including me.  Cap on foam!

[hamiltont]

What do you cut the racking cane with?  And it should probably be sanded off before using, yes?  

Hacksaw, sanded smooth, and then hit very lightly with a torch to "seal" it a bit.

[markaberrant]

This is another step I take, is the O2 absorbing caps coupled with filling to about half an inch from the top and capping on foam.

This is how I do it too, no problems so far.

I won a Beer Gun at a competition a few years ago.  Love using it when doing a lot of bottling, but if I just want to fill a bottle or two to take somewhere, I shove a bottling wand in the picnic tap, works good enough and cleanup is faster.

[Pinski]

I don't use the #2 stopper though.  That acts as a counter pressure deal?  I think I'm going to pick one up though, supposedly that helps reduce foaming too.
Yep, works pretty well.
I broke down and picked up a beer gun, get to test it out this weekend bottling a lot of beer to give away for the holidays.
Cheers!

Man! You didn't need to spend all that money for that thing!  The cheap method is sufficient.  Countless homebrewers have reported good success with it, including me.  Cap on foam!

Need? No. Sufficient? Perhaps, but when bottling 5 gallons into 12oz bottles the stopper method can become very tedious and time consuming, let alone the 15 gallons that we plan on bottling to give away for Christmas. I'm not discounting the stopper method, folks just seem to be very happy with the speed and performance of the beergun.

[hopfenundmalz]

The racking cane tube in the bottling wand works fine, until your Pilsner gets dinged in the second round of the NHC, 2010.  This year a Beergun fixed that.