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***Yooper*** · 12-03-2012, 01:20 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Revvy

Yoop, how do you bottle wines? Do you come out of the secondary with the wand on the end of a hose? I've helped folks bottle them, and that's the method they use. But I'm so used to bottling using the bucket, that I just out of habit transition to the bottling bucket, and fill like I do with my beers....At eye level, etc. Now the person I helped bottle made beers AFTER making wine. So he was used to filling from a secondary with the wand on the end of his autosiphon.

You know what? For all of my wines, I use a bottling bucket!

It's easier to mix in the k-meta, as well as to fill the bottles on my dishwasher door with a bottling bucket and not trying to maintain a siphon.

ludomonster · 12-03-2012, 01:25 PM

I've bottled using a bottling bucket and by siphoning out of a carboy. To bottle out of both, you still have to clean and sanitize a vessel, a siphon, and a bottling wand (I guess this is optional if you use clamps). When you bottle out of a carboy, you have to clean and sanitize a funnel.

The ability to maintain the siphon when bottling could be an issue. You might not want to take this approach if you are flying solo, but it's still not difficult (unless you lose the siphon). Once you get down to about a gallon or two, you can prop up the carboy and move the cane deeper to get an extra beer or two.

Being able to open and close the bottling bucket valve seems like an added convenience.

You also have the general carboy vs bucket arguments to consider.

I'm confident in my bottling process. Last weekend, I drank a 9 month old Dunkelweizen that I forgot to prime before I bottled it. I ran out of caps, so I dumped it all in a keg and bottled it a few days later. Even will all that transfer, the beer did not taste like sherry or wet cardboard after storage. Amusingly, it also cleared.

**Revvy** · 12-03-2012, 01:25 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yooper

You know what? For all of my wines, I use a bottling bucket!

It's easier to mix in the k-meta, as well as to fill the bottles on my dishwasher door with a bottling bucket and not trying to maintain a siphon.

Lol....good to know I'm not the only one.

**WesleyS** · 12-03-2012, 01:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Revvy

Lol....good to know I'm not the only one.

I always transfer everything, beer, wine etc. to my bottling bucket. It's so much easier to bottle and have a good measurement of how much I actually have.

To the OP, it's really easier to use a bottling bucket than what you've been told.
Here's a few pictures of mine. I have the same bucket as revvy mentioned earlier with a spigot from my LHBS and a spring tip bottle filler.

I don't know if you can tell from the pictures but I put the spigot as low as it could possibly go so I don't need a dip tube and only have to tip the bucket toward me for the last bottle. And end up with basically nothing left in the bottom.

And everything disassembles for easy cleaning.

**GrogNerd** · 12-03-2012, 02:45 PM

spring tip is key

gravity tip is POS, gets stuck open and you'll overfill bottles.

I got impatient, couldn't wait for my spring tip to arrive, so I went ahead and used a gravity tip. must have lost at least one whole beer.

ONE WHOLE BEER!

it was that traumatic. I'm still having nightmares.

**unionrdr** · 12-03-2012, 04:02 PM

Always take the lil pin valve apart & clean it. No more worries.

homebrewdad · 12-03-2012, 04:04 PM

Good grief. Listen to Revvy, and use a bottling bucket.

Maintaining a siphone via autosiphon - while holding each bottle - while trying to not overfill them? Gah. You'll spill beer, you'll get air in it, you will get frustrated. There's a reason the bottling bucket was invented (and yes, it's SIMPLE to clean/sanitize).

**brewguyver** · 12-03-2012, 07:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by yourhuckleberry

My problem is still the priming sugar. I have a 23L (6 Gallon) carboy. Should I just guess the amount of beer in my carboy to be 2.4 Gallons? Or is the risk of over/under carbonation too high?

Alternatively I could guess conservatively (say 2 gallons) add the appropriate priming sugar to the bottling bucket then add the beer, take a measurement of the beer. Then add more priming sugar if necessary? Would be about a Tbsp if there was 2.4 Gallons of beer instead of 2 Gallons. I don't imagine a tbsp of priming sugar would aerate the beer too much would it?

I know I'll get flack for this, but I say just estimate. If you're within 10-15% it's not going to matter much for home consumption. Most kits use way too much by default. I'd aim a little high rather than a little low, but that's just my paranoid preference.

jsv1204 · 12-03-2012, 07:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Revvy

Go make your own bottling bucket....forget what he said. You'll find if you follow his methods, you'll be frustrated.

Ditto. Can only assume anybody who gave you that advice has never actually done it. Bottling with a racking cane is a PITA. I have always primed in bulk in the bottling bucket.

**GrogNerd** · 12-03-2012, 08:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brewguyver

I know I'll get flack for this, but I say just estimate. If you're within 10-15% it's not going to matter much for home consumption. Most kits use way too much by default. I'd aim a little high rather than a little low, but that's just my paranoid preference.

no flack

first reply was me saying it looked like around 2 gallons; if you use 3/4 of a cup for 5 gallons, 1/4 cup would be about right for 2.

aim high would be good, so make that a heaping 1/4 cup