Simple bottling process.
 

First I look through my bottles to see if they need scrubbed out or if a simple rinsing will do. Most of the time all that's needed is a rinse since I rinse out my bottles as soon as I pour out the beer. Today I'm bottling two 5 gallon batches, so I got 4.5 cases of bottles ready.

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I make sure to sanitize both my bottling bucket and the bottling wand and I run the sanitizer through the bottling wand into the bucket I store my Starsan in.

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I use my dishwasher as a drainage rack/filling station. I make sure to sanitize the top rack before I start putting sanitized bottles onto it so they can drain.

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I use a vinator filled with Starsan to sanitize the inside of my bottles. Three quick pumps and the inside of the bottle is thoroughly coated with Starsan.

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Once I sanitize the bottles they go into the top of the dishwasher to drain.

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I make sure to measure out the amount of dextrose I need and bring it to a boil with a few ounces of water.

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I get the bottle caps ready and submerge them in Starsan until they're ready to go onto the bottles.

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I also make sure to sanitize anything that will come in contact with the beer. That includes my mash paddle. I use this to mix the priming sugar with the beer. Some people will tell you there is no need to stir after racking your beer onto the priming sugar. I didn't use to, but I had problems with uneven carbonation. Stirring your beer gently is fine and shouldn't oxidize your beer as long as you don't splash. Once I added this step I no longer had uneven carbonation.

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I place my bottling bucket slightly over the side of the counter so when I get to the last 8-10 beers I can tip it.

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I place 10 sanitized and empty bottles on the open door of my dishwasher. This batch is a Newcastle clone so I wanted to bottle a six pack in Newcastle bottles

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Once the bottles are on my dishwasher lid I fill one at a time and move my bottling wand to the next bottle once the current bottle is filled. When the next bottle is filling I pull a cap from the Starsan and cover the top of the filled bottle.

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Once I get 10 bottles filled I use my capper to seal them.

Repeat until finished and clean up!

Nice Pics. Man how I DON'T miss bottling.

Very.... very... nice! As has been said already, great pictures and cool narration.

I actually enjoy bottling day. But.... I usually fill about 12-15 (32oz) bottles and the rest are 22,24, and 12 oz bottles, so I normally go through about 20 caps only. Beats the heck out of capping 50 of em!

I mean... who really only drinks 1 beer? A 32 oz, basically 2 pints, gets the job done for me :)

I have no idea why it never hit me to use my dishwasher as a drying rack. Lightbulb!

Thanks!

I'm definitely moving into kegging, but I still like bottling. I have two kegs, but only room for one to be chilled at the moment. Therefore I do still have to bottle most of the time. I also like to bottle in 22oz. bottles, but I just used up a few cases on a 9.9% Imperial stout. The bombers just seem appropriate for that beer.

I do like the 12oz. bottles though. I like to mix and match when I have a few beers. If I have 4 different types on hand it won't be uncommon for me to drink 2, 3 or 4 different types some nights.

Thanks for the compliments, guys. Hopefully this helps a few people who are new to bottling.

Uh, you mean you've been on here 4 years and never looked at the bottling stickey?

*gasp*

Lots of good stuff in that thread. I like the short tube to connectthe bottling wand and just bottle over the dishwasher door. To clean up the drips.......just close the door.