Bottling Day Takeaways

I just wanted to record my thoughts on my first-ever bottling day. If anyone wants to comment, feel free to do so!

• Far and away the longest part of the process.
• I can see why Star-San is so popular. I had to postpone bottling twice because I couldn't get all of the equipment sanitized at the same time (in large part because the 'sanitize' cycle on my dishwasher takes so long, and partly because I need hot water to rinse the bleach off bleached items, which means I need to boil hot water...)
• Bottling Day is messy. I'm sure it will get better with practice, but still.
• A recipe with additional flavorings (coriander and bitter orange, in the case of a witbier) make things more difficult. I tried not to get them in the bottling bucket, but it didn't work perfectly. It's a PITA to clean those out of a spigot, especially if you're concerned about infecting the beer.
• Don't forget to completely top off the primary fermenter if you want a full two cases of beer. 4.5 gallons won't cut it.
• A beer or other drink makes the actual bottling process go a lot more quickly. It's tough on the forearms when the siphon tubing doesn't fit quite snugly on the bottling wand and you have to squeeze to keep it tight.

Revvy made a great post for bottling. Check it out <click It cut my bottling time down alot.

Get star-san or idophor for sanitizing. providing everything is clean, it takes 30 seconds to sanitize things, and no need to rinse it off.

Time to invest in new tubing.

You should be able to get it down to 2 hours for 5 gallons, from start to cleaned up.

Calder said:

Get star-san or idophor for sanitizing. providing everything is clean, it takes 30 seconds to sanitize things, and no need to rinse it off.

Time to invest in new tubing.

You should be able to get it down to 2 hours for 5 gallons, from start to cleaned up.

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+1 to all. My bottling day on Saturday was just a hair over two hours and that was only because I was walking a new brewer through the bottling process. One thing that I've found to speed things up is to make your priming solution first, then do all your prep (delabling if necessary, sanitizing bottles and equipment, setting up your bottling station) while the solution is cooling.

I bottle when I brew. I rack to the bottling bucket while my strike water is heating up. Start my mash and bottlle It takes about 30-40 minutes and I am done before the mash is done. Easy.

get a vinator and bottle tree. Easy easy easy.

Yeah, I'm thinking a bottle tree and star-san will definitely be on my purchase list when I get my own equipment. Between bleaching what could be bleached, boiling water for rinsing the bleach off, and the length of the sanitize cycle for my dishwasher, sanitizing everything for bottling was a major PITA. Star-san sounds like it's worth its weight in gold.

I GOTTA do this.... START KEGGING!!! I figured I would before anyone else does lol.. seriously the link posted earlier to revvys bottling thread is extremely helpful. It took bottling for a chore to a breeze. A vinator is a must have IMO. Just fill and lay sanitized caps on a few bottles, then attach the caps and repeat.

Just placed my order for my own equipment yesterday. Unfortunately Northern Brewer was out of the standard bottling tree (the one that fits the vinator), but I'll probably pick up a tree and vinator down the road. One day I may pick up an old fridge and set up a kegorator as well.

It takes me a long time to bottle now that I don't do it on a brew day. I take my time and relax, occassionally cleaning a new set of bottles. Actual bottling takes 10-20 minutes.

I use a jet bottle washer and no bleach or oxyclean. You hook it up to your faucet and put a bottle on it, and it blasts everything out.
I don't use a vinator but I suspect that it would make things go very quickly.
I bottle with a partner.

If you have a 1 1/2 in hole driller, you can MacGuyver a drying rack. No need for a tree.

I don't bottle with a bottling bucket. I use a racking cane and bottling wand.
I also use a stand capper.

If you migrate to swing tops, bombers and American Champagne bottles, you will have fewer bottles to fill. I usually pay $3 - $3.50 for a swing top and up to $8 for the larger bottles.

I don't worry if the priming solution is hot. It won't heat the beer much.

I bottle in less than an hour.

I throw the bottles in the dishwasher and come back 15 mins before it is finished, this gives me time to transfer the beer and add priming sugar. It used to take me a couple hours but after so many times it just got easy.

I will be switching to star-san for bottling next time. I used the dishwasher and mine also took longer than I thought. I also don't have a way to shut off the jet dry, which I think killed my head. But, I still plan on using the dishwasher as a bottle tree and bottling station. I will dip in star-san, and put in the dishwasher racks. Then I can close the door and keep them safe. I will then bottle over the dishwasher as it worked awesome at keeping the spills on the open door. And the bottles are right there. Then when finished I close the door and there is no sticky floor to piss of the wife.

I bottle in less than an hour. I use the Revvy style bottling bucket wand over the "dishwasher door drip tray". I have two bottling wands and spigots on the bottling bucket, and fill two at a time. (thanks Passedpawn!) Vinator with Starsan is a must!
I usually bottle while mashing another brew.

Never thought of the 2nd spigot/wand setup. Interesting. I do my fermentation (well, the one batch I've done) in the basement. Is there any drawback (possible aeration due to sloshing, etc.) with carrying the bottling bucket upstairs to the dishwasher?

Enoch52 said:

Never thought of the 2nd spigot/wand setup. Interesting. I do my fermentation (well, the one batch I've done) in the basement. Is there any drawback (possible aeration due to sloshing, etc.) with carrying the bottling bucket upstairs to the dishwasher?

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As long as you keep the lid on, the CO2 in the head space will prevent oxidation. The only other drawback might be that you kick up yeast in the process, but I usually don't mind since its going to be there anyway. The amount of yeast kicked up as compared to how much is already in suspension, on a per bottle basis, is negligible.

Siphon to the bottling bucket first. Then things are already stirred up so carrying it up at that point won't hurt. Let it sit on the counter for a while to let some things settle out. Shouldn't be an issue unless you are really shaking it up.

I have been filling a 5 gallon bucket deep enough with Iodophore mixture to submerge my bottles standing upright, it will fit 12 bottles at a time, and let them sit for a couple of minutes while I do something else, then they go on my bottle tree. (I am so getting a vinator or similar)
I have only bottled 2 batches so far but ended up with exactly 48 bottles each time. (49 the first batch but broke a bottle while capping it)

I have a stand up deep freeze in my kitchen so I set my bottling bucket on top of that, and work on the counter with a towel on it, not being all bent over helps A LOT. It's like welding, if you can get comfortable things go way easier.

I ferment in the basement and bottle in the kitchen. On bottling day I carry the fermenter upstairs a couple of hours before racking it to the bottling bucket, it seems to settle out nicely then.

I can do that. No way am I carrying a full 5 gal. carboy around the house. That's just a recipe for disaster.

Enoch52 said:

Yeah, I'm thinking a bottle tree and star-san will definitely be on my purchase list when I get my own equipment. Between bleaching what could be bleached, boiling water for rinsing the bleach off, and the length of the sanitize cycle for my dishwasher, sanitizing everything for bottling was a major PITA. Star-san sounds like it's worth its weight in gold.

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Just plan your dishwasher better lol.

I run my dishwasher in the morning, then by the afternoon its done and the bottles are cooled to room temp.

Open up dish washer, put chair next to it. Sit in chair. Pull bottle from dishwasher, squirt a few times with vinator with starsan, shake it out, put bottle on dishwasher door and fill with bottle wand, simply place a sanitized cap on it and set aside. Repeat. Doesnt matter if you spill , when your done just close the dishwasher and all the beer goes in.

When your all done filling, take the capper and seal every bottle.

tchamber said:

I ferment in the basement and bottle in the kitchen. On bottling day I carry the fermenter upstairs a couple of hours before racking it to the bottling bucket, it seems to settle out nicely then.

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Have u ever racked to the bottling bucket in the basement and then carried upstairs and then waited to let that settle? Im just curious cuz thats what im considering doing now. I have alot of steps and i'd rather keep all the yeast at peace in their burial plot at the bottom of my fermenter.

FuzzeWuzze said:

Just plan your dishwasher better lol.

I run my dishwasher in the morning, then by the afternoon its done and the bottles are cooled to room temp.

Open up dish washer, put chair next to it. Sit in chair. Pull bottle from dishwasher, squirt a few times with vinator with starsan, shake it out, put bottle on dishwasher door and fill with bottle wand, simply place a sanitized cap on it and set aside. Repeat. Doesnt matter if you spill , when your done just close the dishwasher and all the beer goes in.

When your all done filling, take the capper and seal every bottle.

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This is what I did and it worked great. Revvy's post with the idea of the bottling bucket over the dishwasher door was excellent.

I am using EZ-Cap bottles so I dunked the cap assembly in StarSan prior to filling, and then locked each cap down when the bottle was full.

That was last weekend... I am going to go peek at a bottle now.

I use Revvys method in my basement on a workbench I built. Spread out a towel next to the bottling bucket and put my brew kettle under the wand to catch any spill. Works great and easy on the back.

I too am a big follower of Revvy's bottling method. I use a secondary a lot and I cold crash, so there's next to nothing on the bottom to worry over. It's going to depend on how your kitchen is set up as well. I spend about 10 minutes pressure washing the bottles over the sink, let the dishwasher do it's thing. Another five minutes to fill the bottling bucket and prime. Then it's about 30 minutes to bottle and cap. I have set up things so I'm not straining or over reaching so bottling goes smooth. My advice is dry run a bit just to figure out your steps to make bottling easy. I've made a few ajustments doing my thing that have cut extra movements down from when I started bottling. Just looking at how I was doing it and thinking a bit.

tchamber said:

I ferment in the basement and bottle in the kitchen. On bottling day I carry the fermenter upstairs a couple of hours before racking it to the bottling bucket, it seems to settle out nicely then.

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Pratzie said:

Have u ever racked to the bottling bucket in the basement and then carried upstairs and then waited to let that settle? Im just curious cuz thats what im considering doing now. I have alot of steps and i'd rather keep all the yeast at peace in their burial plot at the bottom of my fermenter.

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Why not just bottle in the basement. That's what I do.

Because that way you can use the dishwasher as a bottling rack and the dishwasher door as a spill-catcher.

FuzzeWuzze said:

Just plan your dishwasher better lol.

I run my dishwasher in the morning, then by the afternoon its done and the bottles are cooled to room temp.

Open up dish washer, put chair next to it. Sit in chair. Pull bottle from dishwasher, squirt a few times with vinator with starsan, shake it out, put bottle on dishwasher door and fill with bottle wand, simply place a sanitized cap on it and set aside. Repeat. Doesnt matter if you spill , when your done just close the dishwasher and all the beer goes in.

When your all done filling, take the capper and seal every bottle.

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I do the same, absolutely no mess when it's finished.

spend $35 on a tree and vinator, bottle in the basement in 20 minutes and take the dishwasher out of the loop completely.