10 gallon batch bottleing

Are any of you who brew ten gal. batches still bottling? If so do you simply use two buckets, or do you have a different setup? It seems like two buckets would be a pain.

I bottled my first 10 gallon batch, and just used the same bottling bucket twice. Then as soon as I finished with all that hassle (it was like doing real work to bottle 10 gallons) I went and bought a kegging setup.

I can't imagine bottling 10g. I think I would keg 5g and bottle 5g if I didn't keg it all. Usually when I do a 10g batch I split it with somebody.

My kettle limits me to 7 1/2 g batchs. So I do two primaries, then sometimes it fits in one 6.5 secondary. So I made a one gallon primer in my bottling bucket, syphoned 3 gallons of the 'concentrated beer' onto it, and bottled. Then I did it again.

Some batchs fill the 6.5, then I use a 5 litre wine bottle as a second secondary. So I get 75 bottles of beer for not much more time than 52 bottles takes. I have all the keg stuff, but i just don't drink that much. I give away more than I drink, one good beer a day is my limit. I'll probably keg a batch for a Christmas party. If I get invited to one...

Bottling ten gallons, over 4 cases of beer.....your a tougher man than I am, especially if your doing it by yourself!!!!

my set up is very streamlined. i can bottle and always do bottle - 10 gallons in about an hour and a half. i find it very relaxing on bottling day at around 6:00 in the am - everything all crisp and quiet.

and if you think i'm crazy one of our local brewers - rj rockers - bottles barrels at a time.

i fill my sink with star san solution - i have milk crates that hold 25 bottles a piece - i have a grate that fits down over the bottles inside the milk crate - i put the grate over the bottles and submerge into the star san solution until they are filled - set all 100+ bottles in 4 milk crates to the side and let them sanatize - put the grate back on and flip upside down and drain bottles - then proceed with bottling. i use a single bucket. i leave the bottles in the crates and fill with my bottling want - place them over by the capper - and cap -1.5 hours no prob nbd

I just bottled 10 gallons from two different 5 gallon batches. But it was 5 gallons at 02:00 AM then the other 5 gallons later the same day at 05:00 PM. It didn't seem particularly taxing, but I did have a long break in there. Ended up with four cases plus nine bottles of beer.

brewhead said:

i have milk crates that hold 25 bottles a piece - i have a grate that fits down over the bottles inside the milk crate

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I was contemplating something along these lines. Did you make the grate that holds the bottles in the milk crate? That would make it a very fast and efficient process, since you don't have to handle so many bottles one by one.

Howdy,

I can brew, or bottle, two batches a day,
ie. 10 gallons, and for bottling I just use the same bucket twice.
However I fill the bottles with Idophored water from the valve on the bottom of the bucket, and it is slow.
Filling the bottles en-masse by the 'milk crate full', by dunking,
{ I use milk crates for my bottles too !}
is a good idea and would save me lots of time,
thanks...

Bottling is a lot of work and I am always saying I will go to kegging,
but I don't. I like to see all the bottles on the shelf in the brewery,
{the former pantry.}
Rows and rows of green glass bottles,
full of my homebrew.
I wash the bottles before filling to eliminate greasy fingerprints.
And to make them look clean and appealing.
Don't label the bottles,
just the shelf they are on in the brewery.

I told a friend of mine once, as I showed off my stash,
some people's idea of wealth is beautiful flashy women.
Others idea of wealth is fancy race cars and lots of property.
Tons of 'stuff' you know.
These are not my idea of 'wealth' at all,
as both are really,
' just a big hassle.'

I looked up at my 200+ bottles of homebrew,
rows and rows of clean green glass bottles,
shelves and shelves...
filled with homebrew,
and held my hands open in 'a profound reverance',
this... as I took a deep breath,
'is wealth',


J. Knife

I've only filled a single keg so far, but after doing that, I'm hooked. BUT, I still like to have several bottles from each batch on hand for long-erm sampling or a party where I want to offer lots of different beers.

I have 2 fermenting options: a 15-gal conical and the standard starter bucket (7 gal or so). SO, whenever I brew (I do extract with specialty grain kits from the LHBS or online sources), I add 2-3 lb of LME or DME to the boil, then top up either fermenter by 2 gal or so. That way, I feel like I can get 1 or 2 full kegs out of each batch PLUS several bottles without "watering down" the flavors I'm trying to get out of the specialty grains. It's not very scientific, but eventually I plan to refine the process and add appropriate amounts of specialty grains so as to get a keg+several bottles out of each brew.

Focus, you can easily use any of the brewing software packages to determine how much to boost your specialty grains in a recipe. I use BeerSmith but a lot of the AG guys seem to prefer ProMash.

Edit to fix the verb in the first sentence.

well I just built a 15 gallon fermentor. I will be doing 10 gal batches soon with some select 15 gallon batches. Once I get the gas side set up, I can bottle right out of the fermentor.

I bottle in flip tops for gifts and capped bottles for me. I use only 22oz bottles.

I saw a very large food grade container in Smart and Final. Its a 20 gallon restaurant tub. Im thinking of using that for now. Just add a valve to bottle from.

Jack,

That is a beautiful post man. Sniff, just beautiful!

Now I want you to do the same thing, but now with more feeling....and with cornies.

EdWort said:

Jack,

That is a beautiful post man. Sniff, just beautiful!

Now I want you to do the same thing, but now with more feeling....and with cornies.

Click to expand...

....LOL....

Thanks Guys


either I was being made fun of or not, It was done so smoothly maybe it was actualy a compliment.


Who knows

brewhead said:

i fill my sink with star san solution - i have milk crates that hold 25 bottles a piece - i have a grate that fits down over the bottles inside the milk crate - i put the grate over the bottles and submerge into the star san solution until they are filled - set all 100+ bottles in 4 milk crates to the side and let them sanatize - put the grate back on and flip upside down and drain bottles - then proceed with bottling. i use a single bucket. i leave the bottles in the crates and fill with my bottling want - place them over by the capper - and cap -1.5 hours no prob nbd

Click to expand...

That is a great idea. Im not sure if I could get that to work in my apartments sink, but I'll have to keep it in mind for later

i usually use 2 buckets, but midwest does have some larger 10-14 gallon pails that would work nicely.