A few more novice questions after bottling my 3rd batch

[Bashley]

Hi all

Last night I bottled my 3rd batch (this time without secondary fv) and encountered a few issues.
If anyone could help it would be greatly appreciated.

1. PBW. Do I need to fill up the FV with PBW solution every time to clean? The FV is never that dirty - I was wondering if I could just use washing liquid as I imagine it can get a little expensive.

2. I didn't use the built in tap on the FV as I'm worried that they harbour bacteria. And the last time I tried to dismantle one in order to clean it, it starting leaking. Am I worrying unnecessarily?

3. I used a big nylon bag from youngs and placed the syphon inside to avoid sucking up unwanted sediment.. My only issue with this it that it was a nightmare getting the beer to shift as the bottling wand needs to be pushed down at the same time. Once I had the pressure and flow it wasn't a problem. But I created a whole lot of mess in the beginning. I'm just wondering how you guys do it.

4. When boiling water for priming, is it really necessary to boil the water (containing sugar) for 10 mins or is it sufficient to take it off the boil and simply dissolve the sugar?

 

[Bigcol49]

'Ow do @Bashley
1. Don't use washing-up liquid! Use a litre or so of PBW solution in the FV and wash it out with a sponge - use Marigolds or similar gloves as PBW is murder on the skin.
2. Yes, you are worrying unnecessarily. It is very straightforward to bottle directly from the FV (although I always use a bottling bucket).
Before fermentation, run your PBW solution through the tap - it will clean anywhere that the previous rinse has been. Rinse the FV well and allow clean water to run out through the tap - it will rinse of any trace of PBW. Sanitise the tap by allowing sanitising solution to run out through the tap. Once fermentation is complete spray the outside of the tap with sanitising solution just before you transfer the beer to the bottle.
3. You have to accept the fact that you will lose some beer to avoid picking up sediment. Make sure that your racking cane has an inlet point that sits above the sediment - many have a red plastic gizmo on the end.
I would recommend using a bottling bucket - any sediment that you do pick up when racking will settle out in the bottling bucket.

 

[IainM]

Hi all

Last night I bottled my 3rd batch (this time without secondary fv) and encountered a few issues.
If anyone could help it would be greatly appreciated.

1. PBW. Do I need to fill up the FV with PBW solution every time to clean? The FV is never that dirty - I was wondering if I could just use washing liquid as I imagine it can get a little expensive.

2. I didn't use the built in tap on the FV as I'm worried that they harbour bacteria. And the last time I tried to dismantle one in order to clean it, it starting leaking. Am I worrying unnecessarily?

3. I used a big nylon bag from youngs and placed the syphon inside to avoid sucking up unwanted sediment.. My only issue with this it that it was a nightmare getting the beer to shift as the bottling wand needs to be pushed down at the same time. Once I had the pressure and flow it wasn't a problem. But I created a whole lot of mess in the beginning. I'm just wondering how you guys do it.

4. When boiling water for priming, is it really necessary to boil the water (containing sugar) for 10 mins or is it sufficient to take it off the boil and simply dissolve the sugar?

1) No, you don't. What works for me is to rinse out as much muck as possible, then wipe the inside clean with the soft side of a sponge (no soap, soap residue can kill your head), then pour a kettle full of just boiled water down the sides, tilting the fv and turning it slowly so that all surfaces are rinsed down with the boiling water. I then pour it out, also rotating the fv. I leave it to drain then give it a spray with StarSan. Every 10 or 15 brews or so, if it starts to get stained, then I'll give it a clean with oxy cleaner.

2) You can just boil the tap. Nothing will survive that.

3) If your syphon has a sediment trap, like the one in the photo below, then the should be fine. Just lower it carefully and secure it to the lid, either with a rubber band and clothes peg or syphon clip (like this one, but I prefer these ones). Takes a bit of practice, but once you've got the hang of it you can lower the syphon are barely disturb the sediment layer. Letting the brew cool as much as possible (without freezing), and letting it sit for a day or two, will really help compact the sediment at the bottom of the fv, as will choosing a flocculant yeast.

4) That's fine. Just add the sugar and water to the pan, bring to the boil, and you're good to go.

 

[Bashley]

Thanks Bigcol!
1. So you don't actually soak the ring of crud around the bin, you just clean with PBW solution?
3. Yeah, I'm just testing this method out and it's a bit cumbersome I find. I guess you've got to find the easiest way for yourself. I found it easier transfering to a bottling bucket to be honest.

 

[Bashley]

1) No, you don't. What works for me is to rinse out as much muck as possible, then wipe the inside clean with the soft side of a sponge (no soap, soap residue can kill your head), then pour a kettle full of just boiled water down the sides, tilting the fv and turning it slowly so that all surfaces are rinsed down with the boiling water. I then pour it out, also rotating the fv. I leave it to drain then give it a spray with StarSan. Every 10 or 15 brews or so, if it starts to get stained, then I'll give it a clean with oxy cleaner.

2) You can just boil the tap. Nothing will survive that.

3) If your syphon has a sediment trap, like the one in the photo below, then the should be fine. Just lower it carefully and secure it to the lid, either with a rubber band and clothes peg or syphon clip (like this one, but I prefer these ones). Takes a bit of practice, but once you've got the hang of it you can lower the syphon are barely disturb the sediment layer. Letting the brew cool as much as possible (without freezing), and letting it sit for a day or two, will really help compact the sediment at the bottom of the fv, as will choosing a flocculant yeast.

4) That's fine. Just add the sugar and water to the pan, bring to the boil, and you're good to go.

Cheers Iain, yeah I have the youngs syphon with the thingy at the end. Yesterday when bottling, one of the slightly sanitised clothes pegs lept off and fell into the FV as I was bottling! I hope I haven't messed up the brew.

 

[IainM]

Cheers Iain, yeah I have the youngs syphon with the thingy at the end. Yesterday when bottling, one of the slightly sanitised clothes pegs lept off and fell into the FV as I was bottling! I hope I haven't messed up the brew.

Haha. I was bottling yesterday and did exactly the same thing with one of the blue syphon clips. I don't usually sanitise them, because they don't touch the beer, but I will be in the future. I'm not stressing about it though. Once the beer is fermented the hops, alcohol and lack of simple sugars mean that its a lot more resistant to infection than unfermented wort.

 

[-Bezza-]

1. So you don't actually soak the ring of crud around the bin, you just clean with PBW solution?

After fermentation, I only ever clean with water from a shower head and sponge until it looks clean - the crud comes away really easily on plastic; not sure if your FVs are made of something else that requires a bit more chemical interference to get clean? I do have those non-scratch sponge-backed scourers and will gently use the scratchy side if there is something a little more glued on.

When it comes to using the equipment, I clean again quickly with water and sponge and then sanitise.

 

[Bigcol49]

So you don't actually soak the ring of crud around the bin, you just clean with PBW solution?

I use Wizz Oxi to clean - I've got PBW but I keep it for the really cruddy stuff, like if I forget to clean the FV immediately and the crud has dried on.
If you clean the FV as soon as it's empty you will be able to clean off the krausen tide mark with gentle rubbing.

 

[Clint]

Yeah oxi and hot water is good! I tried the wizz stuff yesterday on my cooker hood filters....

 

[ITMA]

After fermentation, I only ever clean with water from a shower head and sponge until it looks clean

Oh my God this is the best post I've seen on the forum so far. I have a very limited kitchen and I've always struggled with cleaning buckets etc. Faffing attaching the hose etc, puddles of water on my useless carpet tiles - it never once occurred to me to use the shower. That will improve my brew and bottling days substantially!

(I clean my running shoes in the bath - have done for years - so I don't know why I didn't think of this!)

 

[Nicks90]

Were talking about the standard plastic 25l fv bins I presume?
I just put a squirt of multipurpose kitchen cleaner in and fill them up in the shower and use a soft brush to clean them. Gets rinsed twice and chucked in the shed till I need it again.
But then it gets a proper clean and sanitise, but at least it gets put away in a clean "muck free" condition.

Priming, why not just chuck the sugar straight in the bottle? Why mess about dissolving it in boiled water first?
I have a 50p funnel and a little ground coffee scoop (holds 4gm sugar) and just work my way along the row of bottles dropping it in. Takes literally 2mins to do all 40 bottles in a brew

 

[LarryF]

1. I blast off as much crud with the shower pipe with the shower head removed (and my thumb over the end to get some pressure). After that hot water with Oxy and a soft cloth and that gets rid of everything. When I've done the tap(below) I put it all back together throw about a litre of sanitiser into it, seal it all and give it a good shake 5 or 6 times when I'm passing.

2. During the washing I remove the tap from the FV, soak it in hot water with Oxy then clean it out with an old toothbrush and then rinse thoroughly. I then soak the tap in sanitiser for about ten minutes before rinsing and then reassembling the FV.

3. I bottle straight from the FV using a bottling wand. I prime the bottles individually using measuring spoon, butter knife and funnel. With everything lined up I can prime 46 bottles in under 15 mins. One thing I would suggest is that if you do use a bottling wand that you dismantle and wash it immediately after use. There's a tiny hole in the spigot that can collect crud and I've always been paranoid about it.

 

[Bashley]

I have different sized bottles so can't really be bother to measure up sugar for all.
For sure, bathroom is the way to go!!

 

[-Bezza-]

Oh my God this is the best post I've seen on the forum so far. I have a very limited kitchen and I've always struggled with cleaning buckets etc. Faffing attaching the hose etc, puddles of water on my useless carpet tiles - it never once occurred to me to use the shower. That will improve my brew and bottling days substantially!

(I clean my running shoes in the bath - have done for years - so I don't know why I didn't think of this!)

It's the simple things, hey!

I used to struggle in my kitchen, making a right mess but didn't think to move to the bathroom to prepare everything. It was only when we moved house into a place that has a stupid little sink in the kitchen (some twatty designer thing that is all form over function) that I twigged to do everything in the bath. It's made life so much easier. I'm also quite fortunate in that there is a hand shower in the bath which detaches really easily so have a nice tube to poke into the interstices of my equipment. And, as LarryF says, you can put your thumb over the end to build up pressure.

 

[wfr42]

https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/threads/how-i-do-bottling-day.62200/ may be some use for you.

For my priming solution I weigh my brewing sugar in a jug and pour 250-300ml of boiling water and stir until dissolved. I then pour this into my bottling bucket and siphon on top of this.

Since putting the above thread together I've invested in a bench capper and have "halved" my time for bottling/capping as I can cap while filling the next the bottle.

 

[Zephyr259]

#3 - ah, the fun of starting a siphon with a bottling cane. I bottle beer from a bottling bucket now, but when I made wine/meads I'll bottle from the demijohn as I can't really bottle 4.5L from a 23L bucket efficiently. Now I ask the wife for a hand, one holds the bottling stick so the button is depressed and the other pumps the auto siphon, once it's flowing it's back to a 1 person job.

I seem to be less worried about cleaning chemicals, until I have a problem I guess. FV gets rinsed out to knock off all the krausen, then gets washed out with some multi-purpose kitchen cleaner and rinsed until it doesn't smell of the cleaner. I wanted to use something that would kill any remaining yeast so I don't end up with cross-yeasted batches, after on of the first cleans I went back to the FV and it still smelled strongly of yeast/beer which made me nervous. A boiling water rinse would probably accomplish this too I guess.

 

[Clint]

DITCH THE MULTI PURPOSE CLEANER. ....NOW!!!!
Get oxi and starsan!
The beer smell after cleaning and sanitation is normal!
....well at least in plastic fv. ..steel and glass may be different.

 

[Zephyr259]

I like the dramatic caps. :-) I use starsan for sanitising already. Had been considering trying out another cleaner but keep forgetting. Famous last words but not caused an issue yet. :-)

 

[Nicks90]

Can someone explain why we shouldn't be using a multipurpose kitchen cleaner?
It's a plastic bucket. It's getting rinsed multiple times and then sterilised before the next use...

 

[Clint]

Cause they're 'orrible!