I hate bottling because...

[robsan77]

quote Robsan

They are also great for bottling from as you dont have a large bucket that you have to tip at the end while waiting ages for the last bottles to slowly fill.

The night before bottling I place a piece of 2" x 2" wood under the back of the fermenter, this tilts it forward. Any sediment has the night to again settle.
With this I get nearly all the brew out of my vessel without disturbing it or tipping it more

Good thinking! But I do like squeezing my bag. And there is less risk of o2 getting in the brew.
Sounds like you are bottling straight from the fv though .

 

[PD]

I am, and usually the 2nd vessel too after being syphoned from the primary and off its trub a week previous

 

[kacanepa]

I'll be siphoning out of the fermenter and into a bottling bucket with priming sugar (in this case dme since that's what I've got). I have a little bottler filler on the bucket so that should make things go a little more smoothly.

As for looking at bottling as just part of the process and making the time for it, well, I can see the point. However. Even when I've had nothing else in the diary and all the time in the world to get bottling done, I still loathe and detest doing it. Bottling sessions are infinitely more enjoyable if there's at least one other person helping. The only fond memories of bottling I have are when a friend and I (both of us detest bottling) did a joint bottling session together. It was memorable because we consumed large amounts of high alcohol beer and amiably swore like sailors for the duration. Unfortunately, I won't be able to replicate that experience this evening. But at least I'll have some help!

 

[jonewer]

Good thinking! But I do like squeezing my bag.

 

[PD]

yea....whatever floats your boat.....

 

[Capone]

Hey all,


kacanepa I looked online at great lengths to find a shortcut with this task but the truth is there is no real shortcut it just takes a
little effort.
I found the best way for me is to put 5 bottles in a sink at a time of boiling water and washing up liquid and leave for
5 minutes.
I then peel off the lables and use the rough pad side of the sponge to rub off the glue.
It doesn't that that long to do maybe an hour but thats only if you want to recycle 40 bottles if not just go buy some from your
local HBS they will have no lables.

The alternative is to get some blank printable lables design your own and stick them over the old glue :)

I found Bulmers Original or Hobgoblin/Kinggoblin best for me using that method.

Good Luck

 

[LeedsBrewer]

I just leave 20 bottles in a bath of bleach and warm water to soak for an hour. the labels usually peel straight off. then give a few rinses and a quick wipe to get rid of any glue residue. Jobs a good un'.

I have a few 330ml Desperado bottles etc... the labels just wont come off them. not without a lot of effort anyway. then theres glue left on the bottle that i cant remove! :evil: I leave those few bottles as they are and just use them for quality assurance testing every few days.

 

[Halfacrem]

I've just finished my first ever bottling session. 3 1/2 hours in all from bottle sanitising, batch priming, filling, cleaning out FV's and stashing bottles in the corner of the kitchen.

For a clumsy, impatient bugger, I kept pretty calm and only lost a bit of beer to the floor, though I had to resort to sucking on the syphon tube at one point and I also managed to put my hand in the wort

I hope the end result is worth the time and effort :pray:

 

[LeedsBrewer]

:lol: yep the first bottling session's a nightmare! took me the same amount of time. got myself a bottle rinser Cost 11 quid but well worth it. my second bottling day took an hour. :thumb:

 

[Halfacrem]

:lol: yep the first bottling session's a nightmare! took me the same amount of time. got myself a bottle rinser Cost 11 quid but well worth it. my second bottling day took an hour. :thumb:

Father Christmas will be informed :thumb:

 

[kacanepa]

Well, the bottling session is now behind me and took a couple of hours because some of the bottles wouldn't work with a capping tool which meant sorting through the rest of the bottles to find ones that would work, sanitising them, etc. Had the usual fun of trying to siphon without getting my mouth on the siphon tube, getting a bit of air mixed into the beer in the bottling bucket, letting the beer sit in the bottling bucket for quite a while as the right bottles were prepared and getting beer all over the floor. Truth be told, the kitchen smelled great and even the bathroom where we washed up smelled like a brewery (that lovely combination of yeast and sanitiser - mmmmmm). Got 36 bottles out of it and about a pint to share with my helper. It's a nice brown ale with a touch of sweetness and I'm hoping that it will carbonate and be ready for Christmas. And not turn into bottle bombs.

Looking to do a New Year's Day brew next. With some modifications to my brew day...

 

[bottler]

Nice one pd :thumb:

 

[bottler]

quote Robsan

They are also great for bottling from as you dont have a large bucket that you have to tip at the end while waiting ages for the last bottles to slowly fill.

The night before bottling I place a piece of 2" x 2" wood under the back of the fermenter, this tilts it forward. Any sediment has the night to again settle.
With this I get nearly all the brew out of my vessel without disturbing it or tipping it more

nice one pd

 

[TRXnMe]

I'm a converted bottler

My first couple of brews went into the keg, then I tried to bottle a brew and it was horrible, took forever and was no fun, so I went back to my pressure kegs, but the general consensus on here was that bottling was best for flavour and helped the brew stay fresh longer, so I looked into making it less boring.

I never scrape loads of labels off in one go, if someone gives me a few bottles I soak 4 ro 5 at a time and scrape as and when I pass the sink through the evening.

My labels are plaine white address lables, they peel off when I've drunk the contents.

When I empty the bottle I immediately flush it under the tap put it to dry.

I have a bottling tree and avinatore, this makes sanitising bottles superbly simple :)

If I forget to batch prime I use a small funnel to get the sugar into the bottles, not onto the seat.

I have a bottling bucket and little bottler, makes bottling sooo much easier :)

The one thing I want next is a bench capper, my current two handed job works OK, but having seen a bench capper in action, I want one, it's the last step in simplifying the process.

I can fill 40+ bottles with beer in an hour, including labelling them :)

I do still crave for cornies though, but can wait for now.

 

[periolus]

There are many reasons why I find bottling abhorrent but the one that really stands out has to do with getting rid of labels!

Why bother? I colour code with little coloured sticky labels on the caps. If you're giving it away. stick an adhesive label over the original label with the info on.

 

[Ceejay]

There are many reasons why I find bottling abhorrent but the one that really stands out has to do with getting rid of labels!

Why bother? I colour code with little coloured sticky labels on the caps. If you're giving it away. stick an adhesive label over the original label with the info on.

^ :thumb:

I found a great idea the other day. I'm going to start doing this when I get my printer back up and running:

http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f46/wine-beer-bottle-hanging-tags-93201/

 

[kacanepa]

Ceejay -

Great idea! Particularly if giving beer as gifts. I was thinking up labels for the beer I brewed and stopped myself because I'd just have to remove the labels later. This solves the problem!

Thanks for sharing!

 

[Loetz]

This is one of the few reasons it's nice to be a homebrewer in Austria. I put my bottles in a tub of moderately hot water and the labels float right off after about 5 or 10 minutes. Never once do I have to peel. I have probably over 100L worth of bottles sitting here in my place, and it took almost zero effort to prepare them.

 

[kacanepa]

Loetz,

Maybe British breweries need to follow the example of Austrian ones when it comes to labelling? Not all but many labels from American craft beer bottles simply need soaking in hot water to remove them. How I think wistfully of all the bottles I have stored away in Alaska; clean and label-free. Sigh...

 

[Loetz]

The big breweries here refill and reuse their bottles, so they need to be able to easily clean them. Most brewers share a common bottle style too, so that way it is easier to sort things out. One day a bottle might have beer in it from one brewer, a couple months later it could have beer in it from another brewery. They are nice and sturdy, and do not break easily.

This is the typical stuff that you find in the grocery store. You can tell that most of those are using the same bottle.