Bottling - Tips?

[Snrub]

Hi All

I have 3 x 5 gallon batches to bottle tomorrow. While I love my beers and the results are worth the effort, I don't mind telling you that bottling day is beginning to fill me with dread, it can be a pain in the ass, and it't taking me several hours.

I've asked for tips elsewhere for advice on bottle prep, and learned that I was somewhat over-preparing. So i'll simplify tomorrow.

I have two questions I'd like advice on please...

1 - Siphoning - what's the best way to work this? I watched a video online which showed me how to get a flow into the tube, put the finger over the end and then drop it into the fermenter. That avoids sucking the tube - great - but I find it takes a few goes to work right. Is that the right way to get the flow?

2 - I rack from primary to a bottling buck that has a tap (bought the bucket especially), but to my disappointment found the bottliong wand had a tube that doesn't fit the tap (too narrow). It would be sooo much easier if I could fit the tube to the tap. I tried submerging it in boiling water to make it flexible, but it still doesn't fit, so I have to put it in the top of the bucket, which means I have to restart the flow several times while bottling. Again - any tips?

Thanks in advance...

Mr Snrub

 

[Martybhoy]

1 - siphoning. Get yourself an auto-siphon. You'll get one for less than £20 and it'll make your life so much easier.

2 - I've bought 3 bottling wands and they've all fit straight on to the numerous taps I've bought for my buckets. I don't use a tube between the tap and the bottling wand.

Hope this helps somewhat, as I agree, bottling is a PITA.

 

[Fil]

too late for this sesssion but get yourself some thin walled silicone tube, its very very elastic and can easily be stretched, ebay will provide you with lots of choices, a 1mm wall thickness is ideal, but thicker walled tube still works well just takes a bit more encouragiing onto hard tube ends

soft silicone tube 10mm od 8mm id makes great siphon tube too :) and its easily pinched shut with your fingers between bottles.. and that size is ideal for friction fitting onto any 3/8" or similar sized tube, accessories..

for starting the siphon off i have a 2-3" length of tube i use for a mouthpiece for sucking, i will dip my hand in a bowl of no rinse sanitiser and grip both the siphon tube end and my 'mouthpiece tube' my sanitiser wet fist sealing the joint sufficient for me to suck and start the siphon and discard the mouthpiece with my oral microlife and dna teaming all over it

Im sure you have this sussed, but a few 2l pet bottles per batch cut down the work load cleaning/rinsing, and filling, and your bound to want to serve up a few pints of each batch sooner or later

but my #1 tip would be to sort it out so that your sitting comfortably during the procedure..

 

[Clint]

Great advice offered...and kick everyone out!

 

[james1988]

If you can convince somebody else to help, it will make a world of difference. My wife used to help on bottling day (I keg now because I got so frustrated with it) by rinsing the bottles while I was filling.

Then, she would pass the filled bottles while I capped them. The two of us working together meant we had a 5 gallon batch squared away on just over an hour.

James

 

[-Bezza-]

just takes a bit more encouragiing onto hard tube ends

Leaving the silicone tube for 2-3 mins in hot water soon sorts that out.

 

[Covrich]

You can buy the spigot to fit a wand seperately if needed and change it.

 

[Graz]

Still find bottling a PITA to be honest but here's my take on it.

Equipment:

Bottling bucket + bottling wand: http://www.home-brew-online.com/equ...5-ltr-including-little-bottler-plain-lid-p800
Bottle Rinser: http://www.home-brew-online.com/equipment-c40/home-brew-online-bottle-rinser-washer-boxed-p613
Bottle Tree: http://www.home-brew-online.com/equipment-c40/home-brew-online-bottle-drainer-tree-80-bottle-p616
Bench Capper: http://www.thehomebrewcompany.co.uk...ed-suits-26mm-and-29mm-crown-caps-p-2187.html

So first up, whenever I've poured a bottle of beer I immediately rinse the bottle several times under the hot tap to clean it out then store it away with my other empties upside down so it will drain and dry. That's it, no further cleaning.

For the next bit wetting everything that comes into contact with the beer with Starsan beforehand is a given.

First thing I do come bottling day is siphon the brew out of the primary into the bottling bucket, I just use a bog standard siphon (sometimes with a filter if dry hopped) and I suck it , never caused me an issue, maybe I'm lucky?

Now to prepare the bottles, work out how many you need and line them up. Put some Starsan in the bottle rinser. Each bottle gets several squirts on the rinser and then put on the bottle tree.

I'll then add my priming sugar, that I've previously dissolved in boiling water and cooled down to around 20°C, to the bottling bucket. I give it a gentle stir.

Now to bottle, using the wand fill each bottle fairly close to the brim using the wand, when you withdraw it sufficient head space will be left in the bottle. As each one is filled I'll put it to one side and place a crown cap on it ready for capping. Fill all the bottles / empty the bottling bucket.

Finally crimp the caps on using the bench capper and stick the bottles somewhere warm to prime for a week or two.

After that clean the FV, bottling bucket, siphon etc. using your usual regime and put away for next time. Not timed myself but I'd guess I can package 5 gallons in under 2 hours and clean up.

 

[Richard_H]

Still find bottling a PITA to be honest but here's my take on it.

Equipment:

Bottling bucket + bottling wand: http://www.home-brew-online.com/equ...5-ltr-including-little-bottler-plain-lid-p800
Bottle Rinser: http://www.home-brew-online.com/equipment-c40/home-brew-online-bottle-rinser-washer-boxed-p613
Bottle Tree: http://www.home-brew-online.com/equipment-c40/home-brew-online-bottle-drainer-tree-80-bottle-p616
Bench Capper: http://www.thehomebrewcompany.co.uk...ed-suits-26mm-and-29mm-crown-caps-p-2187.html

So first up, whenever I've poured a bottle of beer I immediately rinse the bottle several times under the hot tap to clean it out then store it away with my other empties upside down so it will drain and dry. That's it, no further cleaning.

For the next bit wetting everything that comes into contact with the beer with Starsan beforehand is a given.

First thing I do come bottling day is siphon the brew out of the primary into the bottling bucket, I just use a bog standard siphon (sometimes with a filter if dry hopped) and I suck it , never caused me an issue, maybe I'm lucky?

Now to prepare the bottles, work out how many you need and line them up. Put some Starsan in the bottle rinser. Each bottle gets several squirts on the rinser and then put on the bottle tree.

I'll then add my priming sugar, that I've previously dissolved in boiling water and cooled down to around 20°C, to the bottling bucket. I give it a gentle stir.

Now to bottle, using the wand fill each bottle fairly close to the brim using the wand, when you withdraw it sufficient head space will be left in the bottle. As each one is filled I'll put it to one side and place a crown cap on it ready for capping. Fill all the bottles / empty the bottling bucket.

Finally crimp the caps on using the bench capper and stick the bottles somewhere warm to prime for a week or two.

After that clean the FV, bottling bucket, siphon etc. using your usual regime and put away for next time. Not timed myself but I'd guess I can package 5 gallons in under 2 hours and clean up.

+1 this is almost the same as my bottling day
A bench capper helps massively once you get used to them, put the radio on on a Saturday or Sunday afternoon and accept you will lose a few hours to the least fun part of home brewing

Its now very much a mini production line that feels routine, i will never enjoy it but with all the above i find it far less painful

 

[Snrub]

Thanks all for your replies. I reckon I've got the whole process down to approx 1 hr per 5 gallon batch, plus bottle prep time. Whilst it's not much fun, I don't think it's going to get much quicker, so i'll just work on strategies for keeping myself entertained while I do it. Drinking a few beers helped tonight!

@james1988 unfortunately the Mrs is pretty unappreciative of the fact I do this once a month already, so getting her to help, err, won't help!

@Fil couple of great tips there. I cut a piece off the end of one of my siphon tubes to use as a moutpiece tonight, which worked great. Doesn't work for the bottling part though as the end of the wand is there, but great idea. And BTW - I am so dim it hadn't occured to me to fill some 2l bottles, but that makes perfect sense! Will do next time...

@Martybhoy1980 willl definitely look at auto-siphons. Had previously dismissed as an extravagence, but like you say, pain in the ass.

@Graz your bottling process isn't far off from mine, but I don't have a rinser or a tree. I kinda decided it wasn't worth it because I'm doing 2-3 5 gallon batches a time, but i'll revisit that thought now. Sanitising and rinsing under the tap is taking up a lot of time! Thanks also for the links.

Cheers - here's to the 104 bottles now sat in my study :) (I do share them BTW)

 

[Wilfy]

Or get a corny keg setup.

 

[james1988]

Or get a corny keg setup.

You know this is the real answer! Haha

James

 

[Wilfy]

You know this is the real answer! Haha

James

My three had 2 babies while the wife was on holiday. Need a bigger keezer now!

 

[CliffC]

I've reduced the number of bottles by reusing supermarket 5 litre mini kegs. A couple of these makes a big dent in the number of bottles you need. Not as good as corny kegs but much cheaper and they fit into the fridge.

 

[Gunge]

Put Hawkwind on repeat, having just had a spliff, make sure your target-zone vectors are locked in, then knuckle down. Then you and every bottle become momentarily as one, a pair of synchronous cogs in something beautiful which is turning with the pulse of the cosmos.

 

[GerritT]

Great advice offered...and kick everyone out!

This. If you love your family, don't have them around. You gonna use a lot of space, make noise, claim the kitchen top, drip a bit on the floor (just a few drops but the missus will claim "the floor is ruined" pshh).

And it will take 2 hours at least, including rinsing/sanitising before and cleaning up after.