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**unionrdr** · 05-19-2011, 03:13 PM

I forgot about that lil copper elbow you made. Is that The same spigot as BB uses on their ale pale on the inside? My wife has the BB ale pale with the water hose spigot,as they called it. I'd like to make her that mod.

**Ravenshead** · 05-19-2011, 10:49 PM

I just rack to a spare carboy and mix the sugar solution in it. I attach my bottling wand to my auto-siphon and have my daughter start the siphon while I hold the wand valve open. We typically fill a batch worth of bottles in aout 20 min. Of course, then we have to cap them.

***Yooper*** · 05-19-2011, 10:56 PM

I've been making wine for years, so I'm pretty proficient with racking. But I still rack to a bottling bucket.

It's hard enough to rack without sucking up any sediment, even where there is little in the way of lees or trub. But to try to do that while bottling seems silly to me.

Maintaining a siphon, racking off of the trub, filling bottles appropriately, etc, are all jobs that can require two hands. Unless you've grown additional arms and are an expert at siphoning, a bottling bucket is a huge help.

**brewmcq** · 05-19-2011, 11:08 PM

I actually do have extra hands.. three extra, to be exact.. the first extra hand is that cheapy plastic clip that comes with most kits.. I hit it with a few spurts of Star San, clip it onto the bucket, and stick my wand about 2/3 of the way in.

The other two hands belong to the woman. I fill the bottles (while doing the wand/trub/whatever balancing act), she caps and wipes them off and puts them in the boxes. Once we're set up and going, it takes about 20 minutes to fill and cap 12oz bottles.. slightly less if we're doing 22oz bottles.

**JLem** · 05-19-2011, 11:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Revvy

How are you going to fill your bottles without aerating them? You going to do it with an auto siphon and bottling wand? You going to have someone try to hold the bottom of the autosiphon in place and above the trub layer while you attempt to manipulate the bottling wand to fill the bottles?

Besides, contrary to what many impatient noobs who open their bottles too soon and blame their uncarbonation on uneven mixing of the sugar (which is BS, the sugar mixes on it's own when you rack on top of it, and quite evenly as it is filling the bucket) priming solution mixes just fine on it's own.

Your way sounds more difficult than the way I do it, and manage to bottle a batch in 45 minutes.

And with my bottling bucket dip tube, I get nearly all my sediment free (from racking to a bottling bucket) beer.

But as I talk about in my bottling sticky, it's all about figuring out what works for you. If this way works for you, then go for it.

revvy - what is that white triangley thing between your spigot and the bottling wand

**emjay** · 05-19-2011, 11:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JLem

revvy - what is that white triangley thing between your spigot and the bottling wand

It's a kwick clamp, meant to be a convenient substitute for a standard worm-drive hose clamp.

**Ravenshead** · 05-20-2011, 12:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Yooper

I've been making wine for years, so I'm pretty proficient with racking. But I still rack to a bottling bucket.

It's hard enough to rack without sucking up any sediment, even where there is little in the way of lees or trub. But to try to do that while bottling seems silly to me.

Maintaining a siphon, racking off of the trub, filling bottles appropriately, etc, are all jobs that can require two hands. Unless you've grown additional arms and are an expert at siphoning, a bottling bucket is a huge help.

I do have have extra hands for now--I have two daughters.

Seriously though, with a spring driven bottling wand, keeping a siphon going is not an issue. Once you start it, it stays vacuum tight even if you walk away for awhile. Since I'm using a spare carboy, I don't have a problem with sediment. The only reason I don't use a bottling bucket is I don't want to have to store another beer-only container.

Baldy_Beer_Brewery · 05-20-2011, 12:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by comet909

Resulting in less oxygen exposure. Less worry about priming sugar mixing homogenously. Less chance of infection and less dissinfecting and cleanup.

Careful racking avoids too much oxygen and what little oxygen you do expose your beer to should be used by the yeast. Racking on top of the priming solution should mix it jsut fine. A bottling bucket is not that hard to sanitize and you are dealing with beer now, not wort. And the bucket is just as easy to clen as it is to sanitize.

IMHO, the best way to make bottling significantly better is to start kegging. You seem to just be overthinking things perhaps.

**Shaneoco1981** · 05-20-2011, 01:03 AM

Out of the all the mundane, pain in the ass tasks for bottling day, racking to a bottling bucket, is the least of my concerns. You still would have to sanitize every bottle and cap, boil sugar, etc etc etc. And, I am not sure if a siphon would continue to flow with the start and stop of bottling. IMHO

***Yooper*** · 05-20-2011, 01:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ravenshead

I do have have extra hands for now--I have two daughters.

Seriously though, with a spring driven bottling wand, keeping a siphon going is not an issue. Once you start it, it stays vacuum tight even if you walk away for awhile. Since I'm using a spare carboy, I don't have a problem with sediment. The only reason I don't use a bottling bucket is I don't want to have to store another beer-only container.

Well, you're still racking, right? To a spare carboy, and bottling from there? I'm talking about bottling from the fermenter with a bottling wand while siphoning and trying to maintain that. In the new vessel, the end of the racking cane can sit on the bottom, making the siphon easy to maintain. But doing it from the primary wouldn't be so easy! You'd have to keep it above the trub, as well as maintain a siphon, and avoid any sediment. It's easier to to the extra step and rack to a clean/sanitized vessel. My vessel of choice is a bottling bucket but a carboy would work too.

I like to line up my bottles on the dishwasher door, and have the bottling bucket on the counter above, and using a bottling wand on some tubing from the bottling bucket, I just fill them all. Any spills just stay on the grooves on the dishwasher door and don't make a mess at all.

It's a really simple procedure and it doesn't take long at all. Going to extraneous measures (measuring priming sugar individually, trying to siphon and bottle at the same time avoiding trub, etc) just seems silly to me.