Bottling

[trummy]

Well you can learn something every day! Never thought about a bench capper or a bottle store. Food for thought! Did 120 pints once. 3/4 in 2 ltr bottles and rest in 500mill cap bottles. Never again!

 

[yrhendystu]

I use 2L pop bottles. Less bottles to clean and prime. I clean them in the bath with a dab of bleach and rinse and prime in the kitchen. Then bottle in the shed. Probably takes an hour all in.

 

[jof]

A bench capper seems fine if:
1) you do your bottling in the shed/workshop with a solid workbench you can mount it on
2) all your bottles are the same size

As my bottles are a random selection of recycled bottles - I will stick to the lever capper, its a lot better than the original metal thing I had to bang with a mallet.

 

[UKSkydiver]

A bench capper seems fine if:
1) you do your bottling in the shed/workshop with a solid workbench you can mount it on
2) all your bottles are the same size

As my bottles are a random selection of recycled bottles - I will stick to the lever capper, its a lot better than the original metal thing I had to bang with a mallet.

Agreed - you have to go with with what works for you. (Never used the mallet strike capper version - sounds bloody awful)

I have mounted my bench capper to a wide-ish off cut of something or other; so it's move-able and storable.

In terms of bottle sizes, I try to get the 330ml and 500ml of the same height, but I can't always do this, so I either set on the highest needed and use a bit of wood underneath the smller ones, or cap all of the tall ones first and then move the height for the smaller ones.

 

[Simoncbr600steelie]

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.

I love the bottling part of the process it’s rewarding seeing them when you finish & nice when you pop one open fresh out of the fridge.

 

[moto748]

My brews always go from bucket to demi-johns, normally 4 or 5. So if I want to split the bottling into two spells, I can easily do that. I don't find it any great hardship, it's all part of the process IMO. As others have said, washing out and sterilising your bottles after use makes all the difference. They get another quick wash and shloosh in steriliser before use. I agree about 330 cc bottles, I don't bother much with them, although it's nice to keep one or two handy. I use a lever capper now, but back in the day, every crown top was hammered on with a hand tool and mallet. I shudder to think now what a slow and messy business that was!

As for the bottling versus kegging debate, I will say this: bottling does assist self-discipline!

 

[jof]

The hand tool with mallet option was also quite dangerous.

Had more than a couple of bottles just collapse on me spilling contents & shards everywhere.

Please spend the extra few quid on a level capper.

 

[Nidger]

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...

When I started again last year I had the romantic notion of all matching 500ml bottles capped etc.
OCD in me.
I must have around 150 bottles including 6 crates for storage.
I also have around 120 330ml bottles.

I've not bothered with the 330ml and am yet to decide whether to keep or give away.
I have around 70 500ml bottles of turbo cider left of about 80.
The turbo cider can give me heartburn although some are really fizzy (had a couple of gushers) so I've made a still cider to try.

I have enough 1ltr and 2 ltr plastic bottles to bottle at least two 23lt
Batches, possibly 3 or more.
Apart from kegs as mentioned I find the 2ltr bottles a breeze
10 or 11 bottles per batch with 1 or 2 1ltr.
They soon get drunk
I also bought a bench capper which is great along with bottling wand and no rinse sanitiser etc.

I just want the work bit easier so as to spend time with my feet up supping


My wine however is all in matching bottles and racked or 6 bottle batches each in those Tesco/Asda wine bags

 

[steve123]

Bench cappers are great, my bottles are different sizes so put them in order of the same size, did them adjusted the height of the capper and continued. I timed I could do about 5-6 a minute.

ive got a bottling wand but found it took slightly longer that having a small tap on the end of the tube. I will have to try it again as not spent much time using it.

 

[steve123]

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:

ive been practising with some recipes, my mash tun is too big, I can get a lot of grain in there, so I did a big batch and separate boils. It was far too much work and effort so don’t think I will be doing it again in a rush, I had 2 boil kettles in the go and ran them each 3 times.

I will likely give a lot a way, provided as you say I get my bottles back

 

[steve123]

“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 :)

my friends dad used to drink a lot of bottled beer, so I would get a lot from them, however they would be left in the recycle box, un-rinsed some with mould! I’m not ungrateful without his bottles I wouldnt of been able to bottle so much

 

[steve123]

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.

I want to look at conical fermenters in the future but they are quite expensive. Is it a stainless steel one you have? Do you batch prime under pressure? Do you use priming sugar or Co2?

 

[steve123]

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

I’d like to prime with CO2, is the blichman gun quicker how many could you fill in a minute. Would you need to cap quickly to stop Co2, escaping? This may be obvious but never looked into doing it this way

 

[Nidger]

Bench cappers are great, my bottles are different sizes so put them in order of the same size, did them adjusted the height of the capper and continued. I timed I could do about 5-6 a minute.

ive got a bottling wand but found it took slightly longer that having a small tap on the end of the tube. I will have to try it again as not spent much time using it.

The only trouble I've had with a wand is the odd time it seems to get clogged probably at the valve with a bit yeast.
It can get really slow pouring for a few bottles then clear.
The last time I tapped it a few times and pressed it on and off.
Seemed to clear.

The other issue is tipping the bucket towards the tap at the end so I need to get some books ready or make a wedge

Otherwise I find it much easier than a tap on the pipe.

 

[Flan]

Does anybody wash their bottles in a dishwasher?

 

[Nidger]

Does anybody wash their bottles in a dishwasher?

I'm not posh enough to have a dishwasher, just the mrs
But I have read of people washing and sanitising with a dishwasher.
Also oven sanitising.


https://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/...ing-all-new-chemsan.83415/page-13#post-939538

 

[steve123]

Anyone used one of these or similar and would it be any good?

https://www.brouwland.com/en/our-pr...bottle-filler-autom-3-heads?gaCategory=search

 

[UKSkydiver]

Anyone used one of these or similar and would it be any good?

Specifically says:
"Only for 75 cl bottles.
Less suitable for beer because of the present CO2"

 

[pilgrimhudd]

Agreed - you have to go with with what works for you. (Never used the mallet strike capper version - sounds bloody awful)

I have mounted my bench capper to a wide-ish off cut of something or other; so it's move-able and storable.

In terms of bottle sizes, I try to get the 330ml and 500ml of the same height, but I can't always do this, so I either set on the highest needed and use a bit of wood underneath the smller ones, or cap all of the tall ones first and then move the height for the smaller ones.

I've just bought a bench capper (arriving tomorrow) and I was wondering what to mount it too, hadn't thought of using an off cut (duh!!) so thanks for that!!

 

[UKSkydiver]

I've just bought a bench capper (arriving tomorrow) and I was wondering what to mount it too, hadn't thought of using an off cut (duh!!) so thanks for that!!

Yeah - its like, 400mm x 400mm x 22mm of cupboard door or worksurface of some description