First time bottling

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Dunkelman

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Hi All,

I'm about to start bottling my first batch of beer, and was hoping someone could confirm my steps.

1. Clean and sanitize bottles and other equipment
2. Boil 3/4 cup of corn sugar in about 1 pint of water
3. Add this corn sugar water to the racking bucket
4. Rack the beer from the carboy to the racking bucket
5. The corn sugar water is presumably mixed with the beer when step 4 is complete, then rack from the bucket to the bottles, leaving 1 to 1.5 inches of air.
6. Cap bottles and store in a dark place.

Am I missing anything? I'm really nervous about this batch and can't wait to start my next batch. I know I messed some things up with this one so don't have real high hopes for it.

Thanks all!
 
Use a bottling wand with a length of tubing to connect it to the spigot. The bottling wand has a little pin valve on the tip so that when the bottle fills from the bottom up,you pull up an inch or two,& flow stops.
And priming sugar is measured by weight,not volume. But 3/4C for a 5 gallon batch is ok. Dissolving it in 2C of boiled water is plenty.
 
I would add one thing - cool the sugar after boiling down to a room temperature.
 
+1 on the bottling wand. Expect it to take about three weeks (longer if it's a bigger beer), but don't be afraid to sample a bottle at the 1 or 2 week mark - I always do :).

Also, if you have a week or two of free time, check out this thread: Revvy's Bottling Tips. Just kidding about the time, but you'll find lots of good stuff there.

Cheers!
 
Do not forger the tops. I throw my tops in a small jug of starsan solution and pick them out as I go.
Avoid aeration during racking and bottling but make sure the dextrose is mixed evenly when racking.
 
I would add one thing - cool the sugar after boiling down to a room temperature.

I don't think that's necessary. The thermal mass of 5 gallons of room temperature beer isn't even going to notice a few ounces of boiling water, plus by the time it's sat in the bottom of an empty bottling bucket for a few seconds, it's going to be most of the way cool anyway.
 
Keep thee bottles at fermentation temps for at least two weeks before chilling. If your dark place is too cold the yeast will not be able to create any carbonation.
 
Be prepared to make a little bit of a mess. I sure did my first time bottling. Have old towels on hand to mop up spills of beer, starsan, etc. and, if there's a SWMBO in the house, try to distract her for an hour or so, so she won't see anything until it's all cleaned up. :D
 
Thanks all. Your tips were very helpful and much appreciated and the bottling went pretty well. I'm really excited to try the first beer in a few weeks. The basement where I'm keeping the bottles will probably be 66 to 64 degrees. Is that an acceptable tempurature during these first few weeks? the beer is an Imperial Stout LME from Muntons and I tasted the last little bit that didn't end up in a bottle and it tasted pretty good!
 
Be prepared to make a little bit of a mess. I sure did my first time bottling. Have old towels on hand to mop up spills of beer, starsan, etc. and, if there's a SWMBO in the house, try to distract her for an hour or so, so she won't see anything until it's all cleaned up. :D

Don't distract SWMBO, make SWMBO cap while you fill. Makes my bottling days soooo much easier :D

+1 on the bottling wand. And +1 on the not being nervous. Bottling isn't hard. Just tedious.
 
Thanks all. Your tips were very helpful and much appreciated and the bottling went pretty well. I'm really excited to try the first beer in a few weeks. The basement where I'm keeping the bottles will probably be 66 to 64 degrees. Is that an acceptable tempurature during these first few weeks? the beer is an Imperial Stout LME from Muntons and I tasted the last little bit that didn't end up in a bottle and it tasted pretty good!

I don't think you'll have a problem carbing at those temps, but it might take a little longer. If you can get it somewhere around 70 that'd be ideal. And an Imperial Stout will likely take longer to carbonate as it is.
 
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