Bottling setup and questions....

[RubbleUK]

My first brew is now a week old and looking good so I need to decide on my bottling setup. I'm using a standard 25 litre fermenting bin to brew but I plan on siphoning that off to a dedicated bottling bin as soon as I get 2 days with the same SG. I've found a cost effective setup as follows.

Youngs 25 litre screw top fermenting barrel:
http://www.wilkinsonplus.com/home-brewi ... t/0075885/

Little bottler:
http://www.4u2brew.co.uk/product_details_540.htm

Total cost £18.99 and both in stock at my local Wilkinson and HBS! I know I could just use another 25 litre fermenting bin with the little bottler but I would prefer to have something more substantial if it's going to get moved around between siphoning and bottling. The Youngs fermenter is only £4 more than another bin so it seems a negligible amount extra to pay.

I'm also considering an Auto Syphon, so can anyone give any feedback versus a normal syphon tube?

Once I've siphoned the brew from the fermenting bin into the bottling barrel, do I need to leave it to settle at at all? Also, if I batch prime using dissolved brewing sugar, do I do it immediately after siphoning or immediately before bottling, assuming I'm leaving the bottling for a while to give time for the brew to settle?

Thanks in advance...

Chris

 

[RobWalker]

Auto syphon...not essential, nice to have. Nothing wrong with a suck imo. Ahem!

You syphon into your bottling bin, add sugar and.bottle immediately. In a perfect world your beer will be 100% clear going into bottles, only the secondary fermentation will cause any cloud and sediment. The main point of one is to batch prime and avoid the sediment from the primary :)

 

[RubbleUK]

Auto syphon...not essential, nice to have. Nothing wrong with a suck imo. Ahem!

You syphon into your bottling bin, add sugar and.bottle immediately. In a perfect world your beer will be 100% clear going into bottles, only the secondary fermentation will cause any cloud and sediment. The main point of one is to batch prime and avoid the sediment from the primary :)

Thanks.

I'm planning to be super careful not to disturb the sediment when syphoning so hopefully it'll be pretty clear into the bottles. I had originally though the main benefit of using a bottling bin would ease of use with a little bottler. Batch priming and reducing the risk of primary fermentation sediment going into the bottles are big pluses too though.

Chris

 

[Baz Chaz]

Does the Youngs barrel not come with a tap I use 2 and both came with taps :hmm:

Bottling day, carry FV up to house leave to settle, minimum disturbance really.

Prepare all bottles while FV settling.

Then prime the 'spare' (sanitized) FV with 80/90g of sugar solution.

Decant FV into FV with sugar solution ready to bottle.

My little bottler's attached direct to the tap on the FV so easy job :thumb:

 

[lovelldr]

Why not put beer in to second DC where it currently is, then take upstairs and leave to settle (should then mix less sediment up), then bottle...

 

[Baz Chaz]

I reckon there's less chance of getting the nasties in anywhere decanting up at the house rather than back and forwards outside ('down the den') anyway the disturbance is minimal, I'm not too worried about a bit of sediment, by the time its been decanted into spare FV the tiny amount of sediment isn't a problem for me :thumb: and by the time it's been in the bottle conditioning for a few weeks or months there's hardly a spit of waste in the bottle :!:

 

[RubbleUK]

No tap here:

http://www.wilkinsonplus.com/home-brewi ... t/0075885/

It's only £13 and if I'm going down the little bottler route, I don't need the tap anyway.

The primary FV is already on a worktop in my utility room so my only movement will be the bottling bin to the worktop after syphoning. I hadn't considered putting the batch priming sugar solution in before syphoning but I guess it makes sense, assuming you know exactly how much brew you're going to syphon in. I guess you can always estimate low and top up if necessary?

Thanks again for the comments, hopefully it should all go nice a smoothly....!!

Chris