Qwik Bottling Question

OK guys, I'll be bottling my very first brew this weekend, and was wondering about the correct procedure. I plan to fill a cooler with no-rinse and put all my bottles in and work from there. My question is; Do you cap your bottles as you fill them, or fill them all first,and then cap, or maybe fill some and cap em and so on? What works best for y'all?

I fill a bottle then place a cap on it. After I get them all filled, I go back and press the caps on the bottles. I figure this does 2 things. 1- A bit of CO2 is released and it escapes around the cap removing oxygen from the head space. 2- it keeps the nasties out of the bottle while I am filling the others.

Bottling is the one stage of the process where getting some help is really incredibly...well...helpful.

My procedure:

1. Sanitize bottles and everything else in iodophodor.

2. Place bottles upside down in clean dishwasher.

3. Siphon into bottling bucket and add priming sugar (boiled for ca 10 minutes); gently stir w/ sanitized spoon.

4. Put bottling bucket on counter above dishwasher.

5. Open dishwasher door, which now serves as a shelf for bottling.

Here's where the help usually comes in...

Helper one fills bottles, helper two carries them over to me at the counter where I cap them; also puts capped bottles in cases on the floor.

I have the kids do the filling and carrying because capping is the most critical skill in the process, IMHO.

If I were alone, I'd do it RichBrewer's way.

I fill about 12-18 at a time and use the top rack of the dishwasher for draining and the door to do the bottling. I fill them and put a cap on each one then take the next group from the sanitizer and let them drain while I cap the filled ones.

mary (5) puts the clean bottles in the bucket of iodophor. she hands them to me after draining them out. i fill about twelve of them, she fishes out twelve caps from the bottom of the bucket, i cap and seal them...

repeat untill they're all full...

bottling has gotten a bit easier...

Thanx Guys!
I spect I'll be working alone so Richs' method sounds good to me. I also like the dishwasher idea. Here's to y'all!

Evets said:

OK guys, I'll be bottling my very first brew this weekend, and was wondering about the correct procedure. I plan to fill a cooler with no-rinse and put all my bottles in and work from there. My question is; Do you cap your bottles as you fill them, or fill them all first,and then cap, or maybe fill some and cap em and so on? What works best for y'all?

Click to expand...

I don't have a container large enough to sanitize all my bottles before filling.

I use two six gallon buckets.

I fill bucket 1 (my rinsing bucket) with iodophor, wait a few minutes, and then poor it into bucket 2 (my sanitizing bucket).

I then add as many bottles to bucket 2 as I can, ensuring that the bottles are fully submerged.

After two minutes sanitizing, I start the cycle:

1. Empty all bottles back into bucket 2, and place neck down into bucket 1
2. Refill bucket 2 with bottles to be sanitized. This gives time for the bottles in bucket 1 to drain.
3. Fill all bottles from bucket 1 with beer, and loosely place caps on the bottles.
4. Crimp the caps on all bottles. This gives more than enough time for the bottles in bucket 2 to sanitize.

Now repeat from step 1 until the bottling is completed.

Of course, you could always try kegging. It gets much easier (and faster).

-a.

cweston said:

3. Siphon into bottling bucket and add priming sugar (boiled for ca 10 minutes); gently stir w/ sanitized spoon.

Click to expand...

Boil for 10 minutes? Great, I just bottled tonight, and gave the priming sugar maybe 2 minutes in the boiling water while stirring. Everything was disolved so I figured I was ok. SWMBO will be pissed If they turn into grenades though.

JimmyBeam said:

Boil for 10 minutes? Great, I just bottled tonight, and gave the priming sugar maybe 2 minutes in the boiling water while stirring. Everything was disolved so I figured I was ok. SWMBO will be pissed If they turn into grenades though.

Click to expand...

Ten minutes may be a bit of overkill, though I can't see how it would hurt anything... Some beer kits say just to mix the extract and sugar with a gallon of boiling water in the primary. Stir, and then top up. If that doesn't cause a lot of problems, two minutes of boiling the priming sugar doesn't sound like a recipe for disaster...

JimmyBeam said:

Boil for 10 minutes? Great, I just bottled tonight, and gave the priming sugar maybe 2 minutes in the boiling water while stirring. Everything was disolved so I figured I was ok. SWMBO will be pissed If they turn into grenades though.

Click to expand...

Two minutes is fine. I just pulled 10 minutes off the top of my head. It's not critical.

>pour the priming sugar in the bottling bucket
>i rack to the bottling bucket
>slip the bottling tube with fermtech bottle filler attached - over the bucket spigot nozzle
>fill 24 at a time
>cap 24
>have a home brew
>take a reading
>drink the hydrometer reading sample
>have another home brew
>

Yo brewhead...didn't you mean to insert some gentle stirring in there? Maybe once after racking, and again after bottling half?

El Pistolero said:

Yo brewhead...didn't you mean to insert some gentle stirring in there? Maybe once after racking, and again after bottling half?

Click to expand...

And what's up with taking a hydrometer reading after adding priming sugar?

Lounge Lizard + said:

Ten minutes may be a bit of overkill, though I can't see how it would hurt anything... Some beer kits say just to mix the extract and sugar with a gallon of boiling water in the primary. Stir, and then top up. If that doesn't cause a lot of problems, two minutes of boiling the priming sugar doesn't sound like a recipe for disaster...

Click to expand...

I think you mean 1 cup of water.

Mike's Brew and Brat said:

I think you mean 1 cup of water.

Click to expand...

no, he meant a gallon, but he's not talking about using a gallon for priming... he's referring to the kits where you don't even boil the wort before fermenting -- just boil the water and add it to the extract. his point was that if that's sanitary enough, then boiling the actual priming solution for 2 minutes is certainly not too little time.

Ok Never used that kind of set up before.

Don't think I want to either.

El Pistolero said:

Yo brewhead...didn't you mean to insert some gentle stirring in there? Maybe once after racking, and again after bottling half?

Click to expand...

um i keep the stirring to a min. the action of the siphon stirs enough i've found. i haven't had any that were not carbonated.

And what's up with taking a hydrometer reading after adding priming sugar?

Click to expand...

my bad

i should've been more specific - i usually draw off some to do a reading with before i put the beer in the bucket with primer. i put it on the shelf with the hydro in - to settle and get all the bubbles out and temp adjust so i can make a better reading...my eyes are bad enough without having to squint around small foam bubbles and such...at a scale