Bottling

[steve123]

How long does it take you to bottle, and how can I speed it up

2 days ago I bottled 120 litres, from 6 batches, I didn’t start until 10pm,did priming sugar, sanitised bottles, transferred into bottling bucket, capped with bench capper. Finished at 5am. I know I could of done some of it the next day but just wanted to get it done.

so how can I speed it up. One mistake was drinking whilst doing it! My first 2 batches were into 330ml bottles the rest in 500 ml and 650 ml bottles.

 

[jof]

Takes ages for me to bottle 20L. Though most of that time is spent waiting for bottles to soak in sterilizer, then applying bottle brush & rinsing.
I can only get about 12 or so done at a time in the plastic tub I use for the purpose.

So Just have something else lined up to do in the meantime.
120L litres though - that sounds more microbrewery than 'hobby' to me

 

[BrewMeHappy]

Wow, 120L is a decent amount to bottle in one hit. I'm not sure what beer you do, but 330ml bottles sounds a bit of a chore so might be worth getting hold of more larger bottles.

I've just bottled a typical 23L brew tonight. It took me a bit longer than normal as I hadn't prepared as much but start to finish including cleaning up was about 1.5 hours. Normally it is less than an hour.

Preparation is my key one. I usually rinse all my bottles straight after I have used them with hot water and make sure they are clean. Depending on when my next brew is planned, if it is soon, I them pop them into a big lidded plastic storage box full of water and thin bleach and leave them to soak which can be a good few weeks. That way they are sterilising until I use them. Ditto for the Syphon etc.

When bottling day comes along, if I'm planned enough, I rinse all the bottles the day before (or earlier in the day) and pop them into my bottle crates and cover the tops over with one or to lengths of cling film.

Then bottling time is a doddle. Rinse out my syphon, whip off the cling film, prime each bottle with sugar, fill and cap. Job done.

Then a quick tidy up and feet up time.

 

[steve123]

Takes ages for me to bottle 20L. Though most of that time is spent waiting for bottles to soak in sterilizer, then applying bottle brush & rinsing.
I can only get about 12 or so done at a time in the plastic tub I use for the purpose.

So Just have something else lined up to do in the meantime.
120L litres though - that sounds more microbrewery than 'hobby' to me

I only ever rinse after use, or day after. Rarely use a brush on them, then put them on a shelf in the garage until I come to use. I then rinse them with steriliser using a bottle rinsed and putting them on a bottle tree, I can do about 80 bottles this way in less than 15 minutes. Definitely a worth while investment, don’t think they are expensive. Used to do it the way you do soaking and took an age.

 

[dad_of_jon]

about 5 hours for 20 litres usually 330ml bottles due to the strength or 15-20 bottles an hour.

 

[Nidger]

I only ever rinse after use, or day after. Rarely use a brush on them, then put them on a shelf in the garage until I come to use. I then rinse them with steriliser using a bottle rinsed and putting them on a bottle tree, I can do about 80 bottles this way in less than 15 minutes. Definitely a worth while investment, don’t think they are expensive. Used to do it the way you do soaking and took an age.

Same, rinse bottle after use, cap or crown on and store.
Bottle washer with milton and onto tree,
15 minutes wait and ready to go.
No rinsing.
Probably 45 minutes for 23ltr.
I'm going to go all 2ltr pop bottles for lagers/beers to make life easier.

Edit.
I also rack off into a bucket with tap and bottling wand as in the video in the next post by @Chippy_Tea

 

[Chippy_Tea]

 

[An Ankoù]

Takes ages for me to bottle 20L. Though most of that time is spent waiting for bottles to soak in sterilizer, then applying bottle brush & rinsing.
I can only get about 12 or so done at a time in the plastic tub I use for the purpose.

I've never timed it but it's certainly much less than an hour. After drinking the contents my bottles get well rinsed out the following morning (or the morning or two after that) with water, a bit of sodium metabusulphite solution from a PET already made up is added, and the old cap gets crimped back on.
On bottling day, it's just a question of removing the caps, rinsing with cold water, priming, filling and capping. I've never, ever, had a bad bottle!
What annoys me is when you give someone a beer or two and they return the bottles unrinsed and with a hard crust of dried yeast at the bottom.

 

[Nidger]

I've never timed it but it's certainly much less than an hour. After drinking the contents my bottles get well rinsed out the following morning (or the morning or two after that) with water, a bit of sodium metabusulphite solution from a PET already made up is added, and the old cap gets crimped back on.
On bottling day, it's just a question of removing the caps, rinsing with cold water, priming, filling and capping. I've never, ever, had a bad bottle!
What annoys me is when you give someone a beer or two and they return the bottles unrinsed and with a hard crust of dried yeast at the bottom.

Or more annoying, never return the bottles

 

[chopps]

“If the bottles don’t come back, I can’t fill them again for you” ... It also gives the recipient a polite way to tell me that my beer was terrible :)

 

[smcc]

I invested in the blichman beer gun its expensive but if you have keg and CO2 setup its an ideal and quick way to bottle and you dont need to worry about priming etc it can also prime the bottles with CO2. bottle sanitising I just fill large wide bucket that holds all my bottles with no rinse sanitiser and leave them for a while as long as you are rinsing out quickly after drinking your beer there shouldnt be any real yeast residue that needs brushing. I also have one of those pump spray things that can force sanitiser at a little pressure in to the bottle but I found I didnt really need it. But to be honest I rarely bottle anymore usually only if friends want to try some of my homebrews I will fill a few, when I moved to kegging life is so much simpler

 

[Simoncbr600steelie]

How long does it take you to bottle, and how can I speed it up

2 days ago I bottled 120 litres, from 6 batches, I didn’t start until 10pm,did priming sugar, sanitised bottles, transferred into bottling bucket, capped with bench capper. Finished at 5am. I know I could of done some of it the next day but just wanted to get it done.

so how can I speed it up. One mistake was drinking whilst doing it! My first 2 batches were into 330ml bottles the rest in 500 ml and 650 ml bottles.

Wow you’ve got tons of stamina, that’s an amazing amount of bottling, I only brew in 21l batches that works out 40 swing top bottles and 1l for wastage, brew regular smaller batches making sure you have some coming through the fermentation and conditioning process so you’ve always got some ready to drink, I use a bottling wand with swing top bottles and carbonating drops and the whole process takes around 45 minutes. Swing top bottles are a good investment as you seal them as you go doing about 5 at a time.

 

[Pablosaurus]

It's such a faff! Surely the biggest efficiency change you could make is to use plastic screwcap PET bottles instead of glass and caps.

Personally I'm loathed to do this - it ruins the romance and I don't want all the plastic in my life.

Are bench cappers faster/easier to use? My plastic hand capper can take three or four presses before I'm happy that rhe cap is seated properly...

 

[Pablosaurus]

I use a bottling wand with swing top bottles and carbonating drops and the whole process takes around 45 minutes.

+1 for swing tops - they add to the romance (although I don't like paying £1 a pop for them) and keep the capper in the cupboard.

 

[Mavroz]

Around an hour for me, if I bottle a 20 to 25 litre brew into 500ml bottles. That includes cleaning the equipment up after bottling also.

 

[jeg3]

Washing bottles a couple of days before is about half an hour of effort spread over a couple of hours. Sanitising with chemsan a few minutes.

I batch prime in the conical fermentor and bottle straight from there. The actual bottling takes about half an hour. Back when I used to rack to a bottling bucket or syphon using a bottling wand it used to take ages, now there's no syphoning it's a cynch.

I bottle a single 23l batch at a time.

 

[damienair]

I just bottled my 3rd brew at the weekend. I transferred 23 litres to a bottling bucket with tap and bottling wand. Batch primed. Sterilised 42 x 500 ml bottles with Chemsan and filled them, capped using my hand capper. I got 41 bottles from that batch. Altogether 2 hours including the cleanup afterwards and leaving the fermentation buckets sanitised and ready for the next brew.
I like bottling, for me it’s all part of the process. But couldn’t face doing anymore than 23 litres at a time.

 

[labrewski]

I sanitize 40 bottles
Prime them all
Fill them all
Cap them all
1.5 hr

 

[UKSkydiver]

Are bench cappers faster/easier to use? My plastic hand capper can take three or four presses before I'm happy that rhe cap is seated properly...

If I could go back in time and tell my self something, it would be spend the extra £5 on a bench capper from the start and don't bother with the lever capper. They're ok, but they are a faff and the bench capper is so much easier and faster.

Also, if you need to re-prime with more sugar, it's like having a third hand; put the cap on the magnet, sugar in, under the capper and cap before the foam rises above. It's much harder to do this with a lever capper.

I go nuclear on the bottles in batches of ~10-12 midweek and then store with an old / clean cap in a box until bottling, then it's just a squirt with sanitiser and upside down to drain, then prime, fill and cap. Maybe an hour for 20-odd bottles.

 

[thesteve]

one steve to another.............120 litres is a hell of a lot of beer. Surely you won't need to do it again for a while

Agree with a lot said above. I rinse out the bottles immediately after pouring a beer which makes a massive difference. Whenever bottling I also wash the bottles the night before I am bottling. I normally do smaller batches so I am only filling maybe 20 500ml bottles. I would also consider ditching the 330ml bottles, I just don't think it is worth all the hassle for that size of bottle, it takes twice as long.

Hat's off for doing what you did though :hat: