Bottling for a newbie

[Andysbrew]

Going to be starting a Youngs ubrew Definitive Lager in a couple of weeks. I plan to bottle for chilling purposes. My FV has no tap. I have a Wherry conditioning in PB at the moment, so if I have to transfer my Lager to PB to attatch little bottler to the tap I would have to buy another PB.

Any other ways I could bottle?

Thanks

 

[LeithR]

Hi there,
Yes you could take this approach, it would work fine as long as you don't need your PB for other brews. You could also investigate using another brew bucket like THIS, I would fit a tap at the bottom of the side of the bucket and gently siphon your brew into that along with some priming sugar and fit a short piece of tube or little bottler to the tap then fill your bottles from that arrangement. This has the benefit that all your bottles will be equally primed from the mixture of priming sugar and the brew. I use this approach all the time and it works a treat.

Good luck :thumb:

 

[nobyipa]

attach the little bottler to a syphon tube and get your brew out that way to bottle
[youtube:18yrtkws]UcPN9jMeLGI[/youtube:18yrtkws]

:thumb:

 

[Andysbrew]

I have that fermenting bin from Wilkos!. Fitting a tap ! that's bound to leak with my diy skills....

Thanks for the helpful replies.

On the video one, do you just keep turning the tap on the PB on and off? Looks easy!

:

 

[nobyipa]

I have that fermenting bin from Wilkos!. Fitting a tap ! that's bound to leak with my diy skills....

Thanks for the helpful replies.

On the video one, do you just keep turning the tap on the PB on and off? Looks easy!

:

have no tap
just syphon out
:thumb:

 

[nobyipa]

 

[Andysbrew]

Cool

Need to get one of them red pegs!

Got a youngs siphon with tap, will that do the trick?

Thanks nobyipa

 

[nobyipa]

Cool

Need to get one of them red pegs!

Got a youngs siphon with tap, will that do the trick?

Thanks nobyipa

youngs syphon
syphon tube
some type of clip
crocodile will do
or a strong clothes peg
bottling wand
:thumb:

 

[Andysbrew]

Thanks noby

Need to get it sorted.

Sounds good.

:

 

[Andysbrew]

Could I bottle from primary? as long as I don't disturb the trub?

Thanks

 

[winelight]

Yes of course. Everyone always used to do it this way, and so did I until very recently. The siphoning into bottling buckets and/or a second FV business is a recent innovation. A good idea, sure, but not at all essential.

 

[Andysbrew]

Looking online for a bottling wand....

Is a bottling wand the same as a little bottler as a little bottler is all I can find??

:?

 

[Andysbrew]

It seems they are the same thing....

 

[Pjam]

'Off Topic'

I'm probably anal here, but if my 'Little Bottler' knocked against the kitchen cupboard door (the video) I'd be reaching for a spray of StarSan !

 

[Andysbrew]

Just a thought, can I batch prime in original fermentor?

If not I will have to go and buy another FV.

Thanks

:pray:

 

[winelight]

Not really, because you have to stir the sugar in to dissolve it, and by doing that you will stir up the trub.

Why not just prime the bottles individually... it's actually quicker than that business with saucepans and dissolving sugar and transferring to a bottling bucket... takes about 2 minutes to do 40 bottles.

 

[Andysbrew]

Yeah will probably end up doing that winelight, how much sugar should I add? It's a youngs definitive lager kit.

Thanks

 

[winelight]

I would add a teaspoon per bottle but careful not to add too much... I use a little plastic funnel, it's faster and easier.

 

[PaulCa]

Depends of course on the size of the bottles. A heaped teaspoon is about 6g of sugar. Fine for a "normal" beer bottle, but if you use 1 litre PET bottles, you need more like 10g.

I like my beer fizzy and as I use plastic bottles that don't go bang, I normally add 200g of dextrose in the bottling bucket for a full 20-22litre brew. If you manage to get more than 20 bottles before you either loose the siphon or suck trub, you are doing well. So that works out about 10g per bottle.

I bottled direct from the fermentor for my first 3 or 4 brews. Didn't even have a bottle wand, I just used the basic siphon tap that came with the starter kit and later when I learn about oxidisation added an extra bit of pipe to the end so I could siphon into the bottom of the bottle.

My first upgrade was a spare FV to use a bottling bucket, because counter to what some people claim the bottle bucket method is SO much easier. Just put your sugar in a boil, pour on boiling water, let it dissolve, throw it into the bottom of the bottling bucket, by the time you rack the beer onto it, it will be mixed. The next advantage is, you end up with beer with no trub to work with. An overnight (no longer) clearing in the bucket will give less sediment in the bottles too.

Next I bought a bottling wand. Much easier than a tap. I currently keg most brews, but when I bottle I still use a bottling bucket with no tap and a bottling wand on a siphon hose.

Finally a little tip... rather than suck on the end of the hose, just fill it with water, hold you fingers over the end until you can get one end into the beer and one below the level. Just dump the water into a glass before you start on the bottles.

 

[thebarnsleybrewer]

I also will be bottling two 23 litre batches this weekend = a long time in the kitchen. I would always say that its best to transfer into a secondary vessel and batch prime, then attach a bottling wand to the secondary vessel and bottle from that is always the quickest way.

However, if you are like me you will find bottling is a long and tedious task and my main recommendation would be (as i will be doing on Saturday) get a couple of mates round and get a production line going, for the cleaning, serolising, bottling and capping. this will get it done in the fraction of the time.

It's amazing who you can rope in with the promise of free beer trust me. :drink: