Thanks to HBF Contributor Aaron Nord for this fingers on evaluation! Aaron is a complicated award successful brewer, a very long time reader and a serial tipster!
Nukatap Bottle Filler
As with many homebrewers, my expertise with the passion started with making a boxed package on my stovetop with about 50 bottles of drinkable beer when all was stated and accomplished. It was sufficient to maintain me coming again, advancing in talent and buying tools as time went on. I spotted shortly that bottling was my least favourite half and was wanting ahead to ditching the bottles and entering into kegging. This modification was one which made a huge impact so far as growing enjoyment of the passion for me – that and getting out of stovetop brewing and into an electrical brewing setup.
Inevitably, I discovered myself within the scenario the place I nonetheless wanted to fill a number of bottles once in a while, primarily for competitions. Now that I used to be kegging all my beer, I needed an possibility that wouldn’t interrupt that follow an excessive amount of. On the time, essentially the most prevalent choices for homebrewers have been difficult counterpressure methods or the Blichmann Beer Gun. I opted for the latter and used that for a number of years to efficiently bottle my competitors beers. It has its execs and cons (mentioned extra later), and I all the time saved my ear to the bottom on different choices.
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When a pair homebrewing pals of mine advised me about their new units that carried out the identical perform because the extra difficult counterpressure rigs however in an easier trend, I used to be intrigued. Then, not an excessive amount of later, I used to be offered with the chance to check out Kegland’s creation on this area. I’m admittedly a little bit of a Kegland fanboy as I respect their endeavor to supply prime quality, usually inexpensive, and well-engineered merchandise for homebrewers. I suspected that their Nukatap Bottle Filler wouldn’t disappoint.
Breakdown of Parts
When bought from MoreBeer, the bottle filler comes with the next:
- All stainless-steel counter stress filler
- Push-in spout suitable with forward-sealing taps
- (2) 8 mm Duotight adapters for filler and NukaTap spout
- (2) Ball Lock Submit Adapters (Crimson / Yellow)
- 19.5″ size of 8 mm OD x 5 mm ID EVABarrier tubing
The counter stress filler itself was notable immediately due to its heft. The principle physique is milled stainless-steel with exactly tapped screw-in ports. Port (1) is for the stress aid valve, port (2) is for the liquid in provide, and port (3) is for the gasoline in provide. Subsequent to the liquid in provide there’s a purge valve (4) and on the underside of the stress filler physique is a telescopic liquid out line (5) fitted with a silicone bung.
The stress aid valve consists of an inside and an outer physique with the inside physique screwing out and in of the principle bottle filler’s physique which is used to regulate the filler stress. The outer physique is a knurled pin that acts as a guide stress aid valve, to be pulled when the stress within the bottle must be purged to stabilize it with the ambient stress. There’s a spring and gasket that sit between the inside and outer physique to permit for the inside physique to take a seat tightly inside the outer physique.
The liquid provide in is threaded to just accept ¼” BSP fittings permitting for a number of alternatives for connections. The package from MoreBeer included two Duotight connectors, one with an 8 mm Duotight hook-up and one with a 6.35 mm Duotight hook-up. These fittings enable for connecting the favored EVABarrier tubing in each sizes. The 6.35 mm hook-up additionally accepts the barb on the underside of the Ball Lock Submit Adapter (aka Carbonation Cap). The opposite included connector is a 10mm submit with two gaskets which inserts immediately into the next taps: Kegland Nukatap, 600-series Perlick, Intertap, Ventmatic.
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The purge valve is small and compact with a brief motion, requiring a good quantity of pressure to function, with a agency return motion.
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Lastly, the telescopic filler wand consists of three interlocking items, permitting for lengths between 3.75 inches and 10.25 inches for the filling of as much as 500 ml bottles. It’s fabricated from stainless-steel and is simple to function, with a satisfying opening and shutting motion. On the high of the filling wand, immediately underneath the principle physique of the bottle filler, is a silicone bung. The included bung is well-suited for the “Grolsch” fashion, however there are different choices out there. The William’s Brewing web page for the Nukatap Bottle Filler has an add-on possibility for a #3 Silicone Stopper to suit 12-ounce bottles and so they notice particularly that the silicone stopper that comes with it matches all 16-ounce and 32-ounce “Grolsch” fashion bottles.
Palms on Assessment
With a homebrew competitors developing, I got down to fill bottles for 3 entries, plus a number of extra to get some extra expertise with the filler. Having cleaned and reassembled the bottle filler, I let the elements soak in StarSan together with my bottles simply previous to filling. I related a ball lock disconnect coming from my CO2 tank to the carbonation cap on the gasoline in facet of the bottle filler. For the primary bottle fills I used the ten mm submit for the liquid provide facet and inserted it into my 630 sequence Perlick faucet. It match snugly. I pulled a bottle from the StarSan bucket, emptied its contents, then inserted the absolutely prolonged telescopic wand into the bottle. I then proceeded to make use of the purge motion on high of the filler physique to fill the bottle with CO2, holding it for about 8-10 seconds to make sure the remnant gasoline within the bottle was largely CO2. I then proceeded to push the bottle up in opposition to the silicone bung as tightly as potential, which collapsed the wand to only the size of the bottle. Urgent the bottle up required quantity of upward pressure to create a seal. After that seal was made, I opened the tap, inflicting largely foam to fill my bottle.
For these first fills, I struggled to get sufficient liquid within the beers and expel the froth. Ideally there can be 90% liquid with a bit foam cap on high of the liquid to have the ability to cap onto to cut back the possibilities of oxygen staying within the bottles, however most of mine have been 50/50 liquid to foam, requiring me to attend for the froth to subside in an effort to high off the liquid.
I adopted this identical course of for my subsequent bottles which have been on an Intertap faucet with stream management inbuilt. This further stream management possibility aided in decreasing the froth a bit, as I might gradual the stream right down to a trickle. That is what the stress valve on the facet of the filler is meant to do when the equipment is used correctly. Since I didn’t have the bottles pressurized, that possibility appeared to do nothing.
Lastly, I made a decision to check the performance of the filler’s tap-free methodology of bottle filling. I hooked my EVABarrier tubing from the keg on to the bottle filler and stuffed a number of bottles with this methodology. It was troublesome to handle all of it – the stream of the beer, the now downward stress I needed to apply from the filler down onto the bottle, and the stress aid valve. When the bottles have been nearing full, I additionally needed to handle the keg stress, turning off the CO2 and purging the keg to cease the stream of beer by the EVABarrier tubing. Had I been considering, I might have positioned a DuoTight stream management valve inline to have the ability to flip off the stream. It additionally would have helped if I had correctly pressurized the bottle beforehand because the stress aid valve on the facet of the filler would have been simpler.
After I consulted with a few pals who each personal the Tapcooler bottle filler, they instructed me that after I place the purged bottle onto the silicone seal tightly, I want to make use of the purge button as soon as extra, this time to extend the stress contained in the bottle. This almost equalizes the stress inside the bottle with the stress within the keg, permitting for a counter-pressure fill of the bottle. With this surroundings, a bottle fill must be low on foam and the gasoline contained in the bottle must be very near 100% CO2.
Utilizing this methodology, I used to be far more profitable in filling bottles that have been virtually all liquid with just a bit foam. I used to be nonetheless not capable of get the quantity of froth I’m used to for capping onto however, being assured that the bottle was full of CO2 previous to being full of beer, I used to be glad that there was little oxygen within the headspace after capping. This new course of additionally resulted in a lot much less cursing as an additional bonus.
Filling From Faucet Facet View Virtually Crammed
One different change I made for this second go round was ensuring the faucet was sufficiently cooled earlier than bottling. As with every pour on my system, the primary one normally is foamier than the others, so prepping it by pouring a pint first ensured that the primary bottle stuffed utilizing the Nukatap Bottle Filler was decrease on foam, too.
I did my greatest to make sure that the seal between the bottle and the silicone grommet was as tight as potential. Sooner or later I’ll put money into a #3 Silicone Stopper earlier than making an attempt to fill every other 12-ounce bottles.
Nukatap vs Blichmann Beer Gun
Getting used to the Blichmann Beer Gun, utilizing the Nukatap Bottle Filler was actually a distinct expertise. The entire idea of counter-pressure filling was new to me and never one thing I wanted to account for when utilizing the Beer Gun. Evaluating the 2 additional, I do just like the less complicated methodology of filling bottles that the Beer Gun gives. It has the identical choice to purge bottles with CO2 previous to filling however doesn’t require pressuring the bottles. When filling bottles with the Beer Gun I’ve been capable of cap on foam virtually on a regular basis as a result of once I pull the bottling wand from the bottle it normally rouses the liquid sufficient to create a pleasant foam cap. This offers me some extent of confidence that I’ve restricted the oxygen within the headspace.
The place the Nukatap has an edge on the Beer Gun shouldn’t be within the filling course of, however just about all the things else. The Nukatap is far simpler to assemble and clear owing to its fewer elements. It’s extra compact and takes up much less area when not in use. Filling straight off the faucet is less complicated for my setup in comparison with opening my serving fridge and hooking up a ball lock disconnect. With out performing a Dissolved Oxygen (DO) take a look at on bottles full of each strategies I can not say definitively, however I might think about that bottles full of the counter-pressure methodology would have much less DO than these full of a Beer Gun.
After talking extra to my pals with the Tapcooler and evaluating with the Nukatap bottle filler, one possibility the Nukatap gives that isn’t included with the Tapcooler is the power to hook a ball lock disconnect for the gasoline provide. The Tapcooler has a barb for gasoline hookup making it a bit extra fastened and fewer versatile than the Nukatap. I did discover that there’s an optionally available adaptor for the Tapcooler enabling this characteristic, nevertheless it doesn’t seem like normal like on the Nukatap. Additionally, the stress aid valve on the Tapcooler is less complicated and doesn’t embrace the inside piece. It solely has the screw kind adjuster with out the fast launch valve, one other level for the Nukatap.
Abstract
After my preliminary frustration owing my inexperience with a counter-pressure bottle filler, I can say that I respect the Nukatap Bottle Filler for what it gives. As with a lot of the tools I’ve seen from Kegland, it’s a high-quality addition to my brewing gear that can final a very long time if correctly cared for. I can see myself utilizing the bottle filler once I wish to fill a number of bottles shortly. It can enable me to carry out the perform in a faction of the time in comparison with the Beer Gun due to its easy setup/teardown and cleansing course of. Nonetheless, for situations the place I have to fill many bottles, say for a contest, I believe I’ll depend on my Beer Gun to do the job and settle for the trade-off of getting to take extra time organising and cleansing for much less complication within the bottle filling course of.
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Make sure that the elements you utilize are suitable and rated to your supposed utility. Contact producer with questions on suitability or a particular utility. All the time learn and comply with producer instructions
Thanks to MoreBeer for offering the models used for analysis on this evaluation.
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