Beer gun and and bottling for competition

[rossiski]

So I am going to buy a beer gun because I have moved into kegging all of my beer and I want to still bottle a few from time to time for friends and competition. My question is if the keg is cold and the bottles are supposed to be cold to reduce foam. Do I have to ship bottles cold for competition or is it ok for the beer to return to room temp?

[Ozwald]

It's not the wisest idea to let beer get warm, regardless, but to answer your question, no it won't affect the beer any differently than had you bottle conditioned or Tasty-filled it.

Edit:

The proper thing to do is to buy a refrigerated box truck, drive to all other BN'rs who are also competing to pick up their beer & deliver it yourself to the cold room where it will be held before the contest happens. Also, don't forget to bring a thermometer to make sure our beer is placed in the walk-in's sweet spot. You may have to sit in there a while to monitor the trends as the compressor cycles. Bring a hat.

[rossiski]

Nice. I will start looking into the commercial truck market.

[TheDarkSide]

Once I bottle from the keg for competition, I keep them cold as long as possible. Once they are in the hands of UPS or the competition organizers, I know I have no control but at least the warm time is minimized.

I also ship the entries closer to the cutoff date so they don't sit around a long time before the competition.

[brewinhard]

+1 to Darkside. just try to minimize the time spent being warm and in the hands of others. Keep in mind you can only do so much.

[Ozwald]

+1 to both those guys, I was just answering the initial question about there being a difference. Get that truck yet?

[Lupulin]

I keep mine cold as long as possible also. I am fortunate as my wife is a nurse in a dermatology clinic so I get all of the insulated boxes that botox is shipped in. These boxes perfectly fit a six pack of bottles to ship. Living in Minnesota, I tend to enter competitions in the spring and fall also, so I figure the beer is pretty well refrigerated when on the delivery truck also.