mattmcl

Recipes 

This seems basic, but I switched to 22 oz bombers. It cuts bottling in half, and how often do you have one little 12 oz beer? I then found 24 oz pilsner glasses at Crate & Barrel for $3 a piece. Also, if you figure you leave 2 oz in the bottle when you pour, this saves a whole beer!

I also found labels to stick on the bottlecap. It's not pretty, but there's enough room for the name of the beer and date bottled. They are Avery labels, #05408, cost about $6 for 1000 labels and can go through laser an ink jet printers.

The actual bottling process takes me about 20 minutes, maybe another 20 for boiling DME and cleanup, but it's no longer the chore it used to be.

TerapinChef

Recipes 

Oh yeah revvy I really like your bottle tags too where'd you get the idea from?

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My 3/4 Ton Brewstand "Build"
The Belgian Lady Brewery

Revvy

Recipes 

Carbing To Style

Proper carbonation of beer enhances its quality. The relatively low carbonation of British beers accentuates their maltiness while the higher carbonation of European and American beers gives them a lighter, more spritzy taste. It also brings out the aroma of the hops. An undercarbonated beer is flat and lifeless; an over carbonated beer fills your glass with foam and not beer. Proper carbonation for the style beer you brew is important to its enjoyment. An adequate level of carbonation in also required in order to have a good foamy head.

Different styles of beer call for different levels of carbonation. The following table outlines the appropriate ranges for various beer styles:



When I'm carbing to style, I tend to err on the side of caution for most beers and aim for the middle of the range for that style.

Just remember for most situations the standard if you aren't carbing to style is 1 ounce of priming sugar per gallon of beer produces 2.5 volumes of co2 if the beer is at 70 degrees- ish..... That's why most kits comes with between 4 and 4.5 ounces of sugar. To prime between 2 and 2.5 volumes of co2....kinda average for most beers.

If you look at the second chart, you can see that for most beer styles you pretty much can't go wrong with shooting for 2-2.5 volumes of co2. Which is 4.5-5 ounces of sugar regardless.....

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Revvy's one of the cool reverends. He has a Harley and a t-shirt that says on the back "If you can read this, the bitch was Raptured. - Madman

I gotta tell ya, just between us girls, that Revvy is HOT. Very tall, gorgeous grey hair and a terrific smile. He's very good looking in person, with a charismatic personality... he drives like a ****ing maniac! - YooperBrew

AZ_IPA

Recipes 

+1,000,000

you can also then write (or print) the bottling date so you're not asking (as I did recently):

"hmmmm....I have 4 cases of apfelwein -- all look the same; 2 were bottled 4 months ago and very good by now, and 2 were bottled a month ago and not very good by now"

nowise

Recipes 

Haha, I put my kids to work on bottle day doing this. I get those little circular stickers and have them write A for apfelwein, P for pale ale, etc. and then stick them all on as I bottle. Free labor at its finest and I can't wait until one of them can start capping!

sigmund

Recipes 

I don't clamp mine, it's just a slight interference fit. I just slide the tube onto my bottling bucket and over my wand and off I go. No issues with air getting in.

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- Schoonie

Burkey Street Brewery

TerapinChef

Recipes 

I've got a dozen sitting in my basement. I'll go to kegging one day in the far far future but for now I have plenty of bottles (400+) a good organization system for empties, a full fridge for "fulls", a minifridge for drinking supply close to the living room, and a real love for opening bottles of my own beer. Now one day when I have room for a bar...I'll at least have a few more friends

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My 3/4 Ton Brewstand "Build"
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ryron01

Recipes 

Yay! for this post! I just started brewing and I just bottled my 1st batch last night. I have been reading for weeks that bottling is this horrible chore. Every time I went to read a post to get ideas on how to make this a little bit less of a chore there is always a post (or several) that read "I have one tip for bottlers... buy some kegs." After all is said and done I bottled everything in about an hour and it was a good time. Liberal amounts of beer consumed during the process probably helped.

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Bike night Brewing and Motorcycle repair

Primary: American Pale Ale II
Secondary:
Kegged: American Pale Ale II (11 months in the Primary and horrible)
Bottled: American Ale, B3's Stout
Next: Some light ale

Revvy

Recipes 

There is a group of friends on here that used to be collectively know as "No Clue Brew..." now they all go buy their real names...anyway they get together and bottle together, making a fun thing.

Like I said, it doesn't have to be a chore...you just need to make it a comfortable for you as possible.

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Like my snazzy new avatar? Get Sons of Zymurgy swag, here, and brew with the best.

Revvy's one of the cool reverends. He has a Harley and a t-shirt that says on the back "If you can read this, the bitch was Raptured. - Madman

I gotta tell ya, just between us girls, that Revvy is HOT. Very tall, gorgeous grey hair and a terrific smile. He's very good looking in person, with a charismatic personality... he drives like a ****ing maniac! - YooperBrew

BrianP

Recipes 

Yes, I made a dip tube for my bottling bucket out of a 3/4" PVC 90deg elbow. I think it cost $0.39 at Lowe's and threads right onto the tail piece of the bottling spigot. It couldn't be simpler. Check out my gallery for a poorly done schematic and/or PM me and I'll verify the part number. Or do what I did and bring the spigot with you to Lowe's and see what threads onto it. When I fill bottles with this I am usually left with about 2 or 3 oz. of beer in the bucket.

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Cheers,

BP

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Fermenter 1: Best bitter (1)
Fermenter 2: Best bitter (2)
Fermenter 3: APA
Fermenter 4: APA