another bottling question...

[motomaniac]

hi .... my first brew is about ready to bottle, after reading some info on here, im leaving it a few axtra days... anyhoo, the question is, am i ok to use plastic water bottles??.. lady where i bought the can from says her husband does this , i just dont want any bottle bombs.... my other thought was to use the wifes empty wine bottles ( cos theres loads ) and just use corks... ( i have new corks and a corker) would the cork be forced out of these before a bottle blew???.....

also, when putting into bottles, i will be using a wine syphon, i guess i just suck this till it runs??.. was just worrying about any bacteria from my mouth, would this be ok??....

and finally.... once bottled, i just keep in the house, poss understairs, where its warmer, for how long ??.. what do you recommend...... also do i need to turn the bottles at all?? ... and once left for x amount of time in house, they just go in my beer fridge???

thanks in advance... mm

 

[Baz Chaz]

hi .... my first brew is about ready to bottle, after reading some info on here, im leaving it a few axtra days... anyhoo, the question is, am i ok to use plastic water bottles??.. (water bottles might not hold the pressure as good as 'pop' bottles) lady where i bought the can from says her husband does this , i just dont want any bottle bombs (don't overprime) .... my other thought was to use the wifes empty wine bottles ( cos theres loads ) and just use corks... ( i have new corks and a corker) would the cork be forced out of these before a bottle blew???..... (again, these bottles are not designed to cope with pressure, they could well push the cork out or break)
also, when putting into bottles, i will be using a wine syphon, i guess i just suck this till it runs??.. was just worrying about any bacteria from my mouth, would this be ok??.... (shouldn't be a problem, you're only getting the flow going with the first suck)

and finally.... once bottled, i just keep in the house, poss understairs, where its warmer, for how long ??.. (I leave my bottles in the warm for a week, then out into the workshop) what do you recommend...... also do i need to turn the bottles at all?? (No, just leave em stood upright in the dark ) ... and once left for x amount of time in house, they just go in my beer fridge???

thanks in advance... mm

 

[graysalchemy]

First of all what are you brewing? you havent said but since you mention a beer fridge then perhaps it is beer? If the drink is wine and not carbonated then yes. However if you are carbonating you drink ie cider and beer then you need to look at if they will hold the pressure.

So if they have hadFizzy Water in them then Yes if it was still water No.They have to be able to withstand pressure like fizzy pop bottles.

 

[Baz Chaz]

First of all what are you brewing?

I assumed beer :!: mainly 'cos I haven't the patience for wine :whistle: it was hard work getting started leaving beer long enough to mature :whistle:

 

[graysalchemy]

:rofl: :rofl:

 

[motomaniac]

thanks for the quick replies... sorry, its coopers lager.... (put in my intro post, but not here..d'oh) .... never thought about the pressure, thanks for that... ill have to sort out some botles sharp..lol.... just had all my stella bottles picked up by the recyclers too... nuts....

 

[Andyhull]

i will be using a wine syphon, i guess i just suck this till it runs??.. was just worrying about any bacteria from my mouth, would this be ok??....

What you can do (i don't bother) is fill the syphon with water and then run the syphon from the FV until the bee starts to come through into a bowl/bottle, then stop it and commence bottling.
The initial water in the syphon creates the syphon effect you require without sucking.
Only down side to this is you don't get a taster at the beginning of the bottling

Andy

 

[motomaniac]

nice tip andy.. thanks...... ive just been looking at pressure kegs..... can u please tell me.... once i have finished fermenting the beer, instead of bottling it, with a "king keg" i add the sugar and then the ferment, top it up with co2 and leave as i would when bottling.... basically... do i then put it into bottles??.. or just stick the "king keg " in my beer fridge....... ??

we have two fridge freezers in the garage, one of which is solely for my beer and wifes wine .... just thinking that the keg is going to be rather large.. and u can only get one lager chilled at a time....

 

[Baz Chaz]

nice tip andy.. thanks...... ive just been looking at pressure kegs..... can u please tell me.... once i have finished fermenting the beer, instead of bottling it, with a "king keg" i add the sugar and then the ferment, top it up with co2 and leave as i would when bottling.... basically... do i then put it into bottles??.. or just stick the "king keg " in my beer fridge....... ??

we have two fridge freezers in the garage, one of which is solely for my beer and wifes wine .... just thinking that the keg is going to be rather large.. and u can only get one lager chilled at a time....

Errr lost me a bit there but there again sometimes I'm easily confused :wha:

If you've put it into your keg you don't need to bottle

If you're bottling are you just looking to put it into your keg to use as a vessel to batch prime into bottles

 

[motomaniac]

just read it back and it did seem a bit badly worded..... the basic question is, if i use a keg, do i then move liquid from keg to bottles, as these will sit in the fridge better than a big keg,( although i have room in the fridge) ... or is a keg more for a beer which you drink at room temp and not so much a chilled lager.... hope this makes a bit more sense...

 

[Tricky]

just read it back and it did seem a bit badly worded..... the basic question is, if i use a keg, do i then move liquid from keg to bottles, as these will sit in the fridge better than a big keg,( although i have room in the fridge) ... or is a keg more for a beer which you drink at room temp and not so much a chilled lager.... hope this makes a bit more sense...

I'm a newbie too chief-only on my second brew. The way i understand it is you either slap your brew (doesnt matter what) in a Keg OR you bottle it.
Its better/recommended to bottle lagers as bottles can get up to pressures that your keg can't (lagers require more bubbles as i'm sure you know :thumb: )

I bought a cheapo keg from wilki's and used it for my first brew - John Bull bitter.
This was left in the warmth for a week or two then i removed all my shelves in the fridge :whistle: and slapped the keg in there as i prefer ice cold beer/ale (who needs food when you've got beer? :drink: ).
However, once you transfer it to the fridge it stops fermenting as it's too cold so unless you've got a keg with CO2 on it it'll loose the pressure after about three days and taste flat.
It will pick up again though if you move it out of the fridge as i learnt.

Regarding bottling - I think the done way is straight from FV to bottle (remember to prime/add sugar) but thinking on it it's probably easier to bottle from a keg after you've primed it because:
A) batch priming is easier apparently, than priming each bottle
B) You have a tap on the keg to control but not on the FV.

 

[Baz Chaz]

Righty ..... the easiest way of explaining might be what I do for priming.... and I bottle all my brews :!:

After the fermentation is complete I drop the contents of the FV into a second FV which contains between 60 to 90 g of sugar syrup ie 60-90g of sugar dissolved in 150ml of water which is batch priming, the resultant mixture is then immediately bottled. I do not like fizzy beer.

Now I don't use kegs, but I would think anyone wishing to keg their beer would drop the contents of the FV into a keg containing sugar syrup between the same sort of amount of sugar syrup as I use to batch prime.

Hope this helps, if not there's an element of trial and error, what makes me right anyway :wha:

I can't help with lager, sorry not my drink :!: