I have quit bottling

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petep1980

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So, I have a half batch sitting in the corner and I'm simply dreading the idea of bottling it. I have to run the dishwasher, empty it, then fill it with my own bottles and run it again, rinse them by hand and then continue bottling.

I've decided I'll just top off my keg with this batch and go on my life without ever bottling again.

I feel FREE!!!!

I don't like to share my beer anyways.
 
Bottling is not that hard. :p

I agree.

get a 19 gallon tub - fill it with water and sanitizer; get a vinator and bottle tree, clean and sanitize your bottles and bottle. takes me less than 2 hours start to finish for a 5-gallon batch.

the key is to rinse out your bottles well after pouring from them.
 
Bottling is not that hard. :p

I agree.

get a 19 gallon tub - fill it with water and sanitizer; get a vinator and bottle tree, clean and sanitize your bottles and bottle. takes me less than 2 hours start to finish for a 5-gallon batch.

the key is to rinse out your bottles well after pouring from them.

Ditto....I still maintain that if bottling is "so hard" it's your own damn fault for not pimping the process to work for you.


Repetitive, yes (and if repetitive is "hard" then you have attention deficit issues you instant gratification, mtv watchin, text message sending attention span of a gnat young un, who would never hack an assembly line job.:D)

But hard, no....all it takes is adapting the process to work for you and where you are the most comfortable doing it.

No one SAYS you have to do it like it is described in papazain or palmer's books...sitting on the floor with your bottling wand on a hose and your bottling bucket on a counter, spilling half your beer because your back hurts and you can't see the beer actually filling the bottles so you end up with more on the floor. And knocking your bottles over while you try to hold them with your legs and cap them.....

That's why we have a ton of tips here. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/revvys-tips-bottler-first-time-otherwise-94812/

Pick up a few of them and you'll be bottling easy peasy and quickly in no time.

It takes me on average about 45 minutes to bottle a 5 gallon batch of beer. I can do it and be cleaning up before the CD or basic brewing podcast I was listening to while bottling has ended.

It's funny, we adapt all manner of the brewing process to work for us...Hydrometer or not, carboy or bucket, secondary or long primary, yadda yadda yadda...

But most brewers bottle exactly how it is written in the book, get pissed off, and either make it a chore to dread, or switch to kegs and feel the need to bash bottling left and right, and mention "kegging" in every bottling thread, like the poster is an idiot who doesn't know kegging exists to begin with.

But never do they actually try to become it's master.....
 
I don't bottle anymore either. It's not "hard" to bottle, but washing, sanitizing and filling the bottles takes time. I prefer to put that time into something else. If I'm going to share my beer, I pull from the tap into a growler. If I'm going to enter a competition, I bottle from the keg.

Just my $0.02.
 
I just bottles my latest brew,86 bottles. first time it came out exact. most of the time I am short a few. but it was not hard and I got 86 frigging bottles of beer to drink and share. its called working for it. :rockin:
 
Ditto....I still maintain that if bottling is "so hard" it's your own damn fault for not pimping the process to work for you.

Beer_Bottling.jpg


heck, while I'm brewing an Oktoberfest tonight, my goal is to bottle 2.5 gallons of Apfelwein, 1 gallon of grape mead, 1 gallon of medium show mead, 1 gallon of blackberry wine, and 1 gallon of white-grape/raspberry wine.
 
It's really the time.

Dishwasher is NEVER empty, so I'll need to run it to empty it. 2 hours

Then I need to run my bottles through. 2 hours there.

The actual process sure may only take 45-60 min, but the time adds up.

I still bottle wine.
 
It's really the time.

Dishwasher is NEVER empty, so I'll need to run it to empty it. 2 hours

Then I need to run my bottles through. 2 hours there.

The actual process sure may only take 45-60 min, but the time adds up.

I still bottle wine.

But, then don't use the dishwasher. It's faster and easier to rinse the bottles when you empty them. Store them upside down until bottling day. (Maybe 10 minutes total over the weeks?) Then on bottling day, turn upside up and push onto the vinator and onto the bottling tree. That's about 15 minutes for 50 bottles. Then, fill them. Capping takes the longest, about 10 minutes by the time you cap them all and put them away. It takes less than an hour from start to finish including putting everything away.
 
It's really the time.

Dishwasher is NEVER empty, so I'll need to run it to empty it. 2 hours

Then I need to run my bottles through. 2 hours there.

The actual process sure may only take 45-60 min, but the time adds up.

I don't even OWN a dishwasher. I rinse my bottles out when they are done with a jet bottle washer. Or sometimes soak them in hot water and oxyclean over night then rinse them.

Every couple months or so I process a bunch of labeled bottles from the store, and any other bottles I have lying around, soaking them in a big tub of oxclean over night, then spend about an hour with a podcast playing, or a game on, rinsing them, soaking them in starsan to both sanitize and remove any oxyclean "scale", and get them into milk crates or cases for when I'm ready...I'm talking 4 to 8 cases prepped and ready for bottling day in about an hour....that's hardly anything.....it adds up to maybe 5 or 6 hours an entire year in prep time.

I still sanitize them with a vinator on bottling day and it still only takes me about an hour for five gallons.

Besides the juries still out as to whether or not a dishwasher is a good way to clean bottles....most dishwashers are a breading ground for tiny bits of unrinsed away biomatter, plus you should run it once before you add bottles with nothing in it to get rid of the soap or your bottles will kill head retention..and tme it's just a waste of lots of water AND electricity to do it..I'm not an eco-geek or anything, but it seems like an inoordinate waste of resources....
 
Yupper to Yooper. For my brewing assistant and me, it takes us a total of an hour to bottle, all inclusive ( cleaning, sanitizing, filling, capping).

But, then don't use the dishwasher. It's faster and easier to rinse the bottles when you empty them. Store them upside down until bottling day. (Maybe 10 minutes total over the weeks?) Then on bottling day, turn upside up and push onto the vinator and onto the bottling tree. That's about 15 minutes for 50 bottles. Then, fill them. Capping takes the longest, about 10 minutes by the time you cap them all and put them away. It takes less than an hour from start to finish including putting everything away.
 
What ever happened to the "Relax" part?

It takes me a while to bottle. I'll turn on the tv or radio, open a beer, and bottle. Sometimes one of my kids'll happen by the kitchen and help. (My seven-year-old daughter is my chief bottler and likes that I put that down in my brew log - 'Chief Bottler: Josephine'.) With help or not, I'm in no hurry. Yes, it may take me a couple of hours to get everything done. But, what else would a father of four rather be doing on a Tuesday night?

Me, I'll drink a few homebrews, bottle some beer, and hang out with my family.
 
My dad and I have a system down where it takes about an hour to do 10 gallons. This includes prep time, but cleaning two glass carboys adds a bit more time. We use a good mix of big and small bottles which speeds things up a bit. Bottling tree is a must.
 
My dad and I have a system down where it takes about an hour to do 10 gallons. This includes prep time, but cleaning two glass carboys adds a bit more time. We use a good mix of big and small bottles which speeds things up a bit. Bottling tree is a must.

Awesome 10 gallons in an hour-ish... That is SO cool!!!!

:rockin:
 
I started keggin this year. It is faster in some ways... if you leave out alot of variables and factors. Faster if you just count draining into one sanitized, ready to go keg.

But kegging has other time consuming parts: tinkering with the system, the tools, the refilling of tanks. Then paying the $10 bucks a month more in electric. And most keggers still end up bottling some... so you aren't reducing equipment.

Kegging is not better... just different. A lot of things are really cool about pulling beer off tap... and bottling off tap with no sediment. But there is a certain beauty and art to bottling.

I will always bottle in the winter with some recipes that I do not consume as much of. And split batches... 5 into bottle and 5 into keg. Then I can hide some from my wife (and myself) and enjoy it at various ages.

You have to spend as much time learning to bottle well as learning to keg well.
 
It sounds like part of the problem is that you're using the dishwasher!

The bottles should already be clean. Clean them when you drink them, not 2 months later.

Then the day you bottle, a 30 second dip in star-san, then put em on a bottle tree to drain, and start filling.

I can bottle, and clean up, 5 gallons in less than 1 hour....while your dishwasher is still running its first cycle.
(you know dishwashers aren't good at cleaning bottles right? and that lots of hot sanitizing reduces the life of the bottles...all that hot/cold/hot/cold over time makes stress fractures)
 
I haven't bottled since I got my kegs in January. I'm thinking about getting rid of all my bottles. Kegging is sooo much easier. Cleaning a keg takes about a minute. Take the keg apart, drop all the pieces inside it. Fill it 7/8ths with hot water, put a scoop of oxyclean in, let it sit for an hour or tw, invert it in a five gallon bucket with the weater still in it, let it sit some more. Next morning rinse it with the hose, Sanitize it in the same manner with idophor and fill it. It's NO MORE THAN FIFTEEN OR TWENTY MINUTES.
 
I quit bottling 15 years ago. Bottling was the main reason I quit brewing then.

50 bottles or 1 keg...the math is simple.

:mug:
 
I don't bottle anything except meads and the occasional sample to send to someone. I went straight to 5L kegs and then cornies. I gain nothing bottling. If I want to take beer to an event, I'll fill a growler or take a keg.
 
I started kegging this year. It is faster in some ways... if you leave out a lot of variables and factors. Faster if you just count draining into one sanitized, ready to go keg.

But kegging has other time consuming parts: tinkering with the system, the tools, the refilling of tanks. Then paying the $10 bucks a month more in electric. And most keggers still end up bottling some... so you aren't reducing equipment.

Kegging is not better... just different. A lot of things are really cool about pulling beer off tap... and bottling off tap with no sediment. But there is a certain beauty and art to bottling.

This sums up very well the way I feel about it. And being lazy, I'll just plagiarize and save myself the typing.
I will add that bottling had become quite a chore for me after I started doing 10 gal batches. I streamlined the process the best I could and it was actually pretty efficient. I just did not enjoy that part of the process. Plus, having a dog and four children around the house made it that much more stressful. Bottling has many advantages, as does kegging. You yourself have to determine what works best for your life, personality, and household and go with it.
 
I like my kegs for the carbing fast and easy pour features, but bottling is not a big deal either. I use the top rack of the dishwasher like a bottle tree. I don't wash them in there, or sanitize (not since I discovered Oxi and Starsan!)

Luckily for me, I have a teenage daughter to usually keeps the dishes done. But running the night before and then emptying the top rack is no big deal.

Anyway, kegging can be so much faster and easier, until you get into the CO2 and line settings. They can give you problems unless you read up on it and understand it ahead of time.

I just think Revvy is correct that once you get a good system down, including the way you clean bottles, it can go much faster and easier.
 
I guess I am on overkill mode. I put my empties on the counter with any other dirty dishes and then when I fill the dishwasher there are a few bottles that go in. The clean bottles that come out are places in the six pack holders and stored in a closet in the garage until I bottle. On bottling day I run the bottles through the dishwasher again just to get rid of any spiders or dust and then hit'em while they are still hot with the star san and place them on the bottle tree to dry.
For bottling I place a kitchen chair on top of the counter and the bucket on the chair. All the bottles are at a good level for me to see and with a five foot hose and bottle filler, it's a pretty easy job. I have learned to hold onto the hose with one hand and the filler wand with the other. The long hose can loop around a bottle and pull it down.
 
I saw a post from someone on this here forum and I have since "adopted" his method of sanitizing bottles. Having my 7 year old daughter assist helps, but I have been able to do it myself.

1) Fill one 5 gallon pail with empty bottles (upright - you will fit 12)
2) Fill second 5 gallon pail with star san solution
3) Cover the tops of the bottles with one of those retractable colanders you use for steaming vegetables (it is basically a flat colander).
4) While holding down the colander (this is where the daughter comes in helpful) dump star san solution in the bucket. The colander will will keep the bottles from floating and force them to be filled with the solution.
4) Once bottles are filled, put one hand on top of the colander and pick up the bucket by the bottom and drain back into the other bucket until all bottles drain
5) Place bottles in dishwasher or just bottle brew ASAP! I use a spray bottle filled with Star San and spray the rungs in the dishwasher to ensure sanitization.

Just repeat steps until all bottles are sanitized. I'm able to sanitize 53 bottles of beer for bottling in less than 10 minutes.

ALSO - don't forget bottling can go much faster if you can get your hands on a lot of 22 oz bomber bottles.
 
I can not understand why people hate bottling. Like it takes an hour?? Hello?

Why not do both instead of dissing one. There are advantages and disadvantages to both.
 
Confirmed kegger.

Bottles are more work for me. Don't hate it just prefer to skip it.

Bottles make me drink in preset defined amounts of beer. What if I only want to drink 13.5 oz of beer or 27 oz. or just a quick 8 oz glass, how am I going to do that with a bottle without wasting beer.

I only bottle if I have leftover from overshooting my recipe because the hops decided to give up a bit more liquid this time.
 
I was dreading bottling my first batch because I've read so many complaints about it. Once I got going I thought to myself "What the hell is so hard about this?"

For sanitization I used a method I had read on here. Soak the bottles in sanitizer (I let mine sit for 45 minutes) drain them, wrap some tinfoil over the top, set them in a box (they were virgin bottles, so I still had the box they came in) upside down. The excess sanitizer dripped into the tinfoil and kept the opening of the bottle wet over night. Bottled the next day.
 
Bottles make me drink in preset defined amounts of beer. What if I only want to drink 13.5 oz of beer or 27 oz. or just a quick 8 oz glass, how am I going to do that with a bottle without wasting beer.

This thought did cross my mind, which is why I've been debating getting one party pig.
 
Damn on bottling.
When I first started brewing, my buddy and I had to brew/bottle in a garage that had a sink. We did bottly many, many gallons of beer. While the gulf coast of Texas isn't the Sahara, it is uncomfortably hot. Luckily, it gets cool for the 7 - 8 hours of fall. Two days of winter, then back to summer. It certainly seemed to be faster and easier to keg, so we got to it ASAP.
I think everyone should learn how to bottle properly. Especially now that I can bottle just by watching my two sons do it, I find it really isn't that bad. Got to pay your dues and all of that! - Dwain
 
Me and my wife can bottle a batch in 45 minutes start to finish.

I usually get the bucket ready and then my wife fills bottles as I cap them. Her part takes less than 15 minutes. So 45 minutes start to finish sounds about right.
 
before brewing my own I had put in a full bar in the den, so I was already set up for draft beer, I also had lying around: a 6.5gal glass carboy a stainless turkey fryer, a thermostat (thanks Geoff!) and a small fridge to ferment in, so for me starting up brewing involved getting just a few more tidbits and a capper was not one of them. I do love a good homebrew out of the bottle but it never fit my plan, I just pour pints for friends and neighbors while we sit in the bar watching the game. no bias here, just workin with what I already had at hand.
 
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