FINALLY!!!! I am going to bottle my belgian wit on Saturday. I have a two friends coming over to help and we are pretty excited.
Any tips to make the "joys of bottling" any easier? I do have a bottling wand, so that will make things smoother. I have read posts about filling all bottles and setting the caps on top to allow O2 to be purged by CO2, then crimp the caps once all bottles are filled. I am hoping for a smooth process but I am sure there will be some hic-cups!!
I plan to practice with water in the bottling bucket to get the hang of it. Any tips or advice is greatly appreciated.
__________________ Pa-in-Utah
John Henry Brewing Co. Clinton, Utah
Primary: "Holiday Hooch"... Apfelwein spiced with Cinnamon and brown sugar.
Secondary 1: German Wheat
Secondary 2: Nuttin'
Bottled: Hefe (002), Belgian Honey Ale (003), Arrogant Ale (005), Schwheat Honey Wheat (006), "J&R" Cream Ale (007), Apfelwein (008), The Dogs Bollocks English Ale (009), Cinn-Nilla Spice Ale (010), Apple-Berry Apfelwein (011)
On Deck: German Kolsch
GREAT tip!!! One down, I am sure many more to come!! Thanks Mot.
__________________ Pa-in-Utah
John Henry Brewing Co. Clinton, Utah
Primary: "Holiday Hooch"... Apfelwein spiced with Cinnamon and brown sugar.
Secondary 1: German Wheat
Secondary 2: Nuttin'
Bottled: Hefe (002), Belgian Honey Ale (003), Arrogant Ale (005), Schwheat Honey Wheat (006), "J&R" Cream Ale (007), Apfelwein (008), The Dogs Bollocks English Ale (009), Cinn-Nilla Spice Ale (010), Apple-Berry Apfelwein (011)
On Deck: German Kolsch
I just bottled an IPA and it took me about 30 mins. Sanitize the bottles in advance. With 3 people it should take you about 10 mins! One guy can pass bottles to the filler, filler passes bottle to capper....should be done in no time.
__________________
SIN BIN BREWING
Up Next: IPA
Primary: Winter Warmer
Secondary: Empty
Bottle Conditioning: Empty
Drinking: Commercial
RIP:English Special Bitter, American Pale Ale, American Amber Ale, IPA, American Wheat w/Raspberry Puree, Oatmeal Stout, Summit IPA
It takes me ages to bottle on my own. I sanitize by filling my bath, adding my sanitizer to the water and submerging all the bottles. It's great that you have a bottling wand, I couldn't imagine bottling without one.
It's great that you've got help. With 2-3 people helping me it all takes around half an hour. Just me, takes an hour. Humph.
Have a good session
__________________ Next Up: More Strawberry Wine! Primary: Strawberry Wine Mini Primary: Empty Secondary: IPA Bottled: Cheesefood's Caramel Cream AleAlmost gone :( t'were delicious! Mysteriously Disappeared: Some Random Dark Ale - Cooper's Bavarian Lager - Mexican Cerveza - Black Sheep Export Bitter - Edwort's Apfelwein
Here's what I do, takes about an hour with one person.
1) Boil water and priming sugar for 10 minutes, then let sit to cool while preparing bottles, ect...
2) Sanitize bottles in bottling bucket. I use 2.5 gallons of water with iodophor and can sanitize 8-10 bottles at a time. After the 2 minutes of contact, I drain the bottles and place them upside down in paper towel lined dish trays (see gallery for pics, can't seem to link).
2) Sanitize bottling bucket, siphon tube, autosiphon, bottle caps, and turkey baster used to take hydrometer sample, then drain bottling bucket.
3) Add priming solution to bottling bucket.
4) Rack beer.
5) Bottle away. I like to fill 6 beers, then cap and repeat when bottling alone. When I have a friend to help, they do the capping, cuts the time down by about 15 minutes or so. Be prepared for leaks, spills, ect... bottling can be quite a mess.
Take your time, eventually you'll get a system down that works for you.
__________________
And now we go AG!
On Tap: Nadda
Primary: Nadda
Planning: Extra Special Bitter
__________________
SIN BIN BREWING
Up Next: IPA
Primary: Winter Warmer
Secondary: Empty
Bottle Conditioning: Empty
Drinking: Commercial
RIP:English Special Bitter, American Pale Ale, American Amber Ale, IPA, American Wheat w/Raspberry Puree, Oatmeal Stout, Summit IPA
In a weird way, I find a nice zen-ness to bottling. The attention to your activity but repetitive nature, and the inherently constructive nature of what you're doing, kind of unstresses me.
As does beer.
Is zen-ness a word?
__________________
"An Irishman is never drunk as long as he can hold on to a blade of grass, and keep from slipping off the face of the Earth."
I dont Know if it helps, but i heard a interview with one of the people who works or created Idophor on basic brewing radio and he said , basically, you dont have to soak for 2 min. Its 2 min wet time. In other words dip your bottles and put on the tree. thats what i got, might double check me though. Still a noob.
bottling 1st batch--- Any good tips?
Linear Mode
