bottling 1st batch--- Any good tips?

FINALLY!!!! I am going to bottle my belgian wit on Saturday. I have a two friends coming over to help and we are pretty excited.

Any tips to make the "joys of bottling" any easier? I do have a bottling wand, so that will make things smoother. I have read posts about filling all bottles and setting the caps on top to allow O2 to be purged by CO2, then crimp the caps once all bottles are filled. I am hoping for a smooth process but I am sure there will be some hic-cups!!

I plan to practice with water in the bottling bucket to get the hang of it. Any tips or advice is greatly appreciated.

open your dishwasher door and do it over that so any mess you make will go right into the dishwasher

GREAT tip!!! One down, I am sure many more to come!! Thanks Mot.

I just bottled an IPA and it took me about 30 mins. Sanitize the bottles in advance. With 3 people it should take you about 10 mins! One guy can pass bottles to the filler, filler passes bottle to capper....should be done in no time.

It takes me ages to bottle on my own. I sanitize by filling my bath, adding my sanitizer to the water and submerging all the bottles. It's great that you have a bottling wand, I couldn't imagine bottling without one.

It's great that you've got help. With 2-3 people helping me it all takes around half an hour. Just me, takes an hour. Humph.

Have a good session

Here's what I do, takes about an hour with one person.

1) Boil water and priming sugar for 10 minutes, then let sit to cool while preparing bottles, ect...

2) Sanitize bottles in bottling bucket. I use 2.5 gallons of water with iodophor and can sanitize 8-10 bottles at a time. After the 2 minutes of contact, I drain the bottles and place them upside down in paper towel lined dish trays (see gallery for pics, can't seem to link).

2) Sanitize bottling bucket, siphon tube, autosiphon, bottle caps, and turkey baster used to take hydrometer sample, then drain bottling bucket.

3) Add priming solution to bottling bucket.

4) Rack beer.

5) Bottle away. I like to fill 6 beers, then cap and repeat when bottling alone. When I have a friend to help, they do the capping, cuts the time down by about 15 minutes or so. Be prepared for leaks, spills, ect... bottling can be quite a mess.

Take your time, eventually you'll get a system down that works for you.

This helps in cutting down on time quite a bit. I was at about an hour prior to getting this. Soaking and draining bottles takes up a lot of time.

http://morebeer.com/product.html?product_id=15682

In a weird way, I find a nice zen-ness to bottling. The attention to your activity but repetitive nature, and the inherently constructive nature of what you're doing, kind of unstresses me.

As does beer.

Is zen-ness a word?

zen-ness is certainly a word. And it works too!
Your right, bottling is like quality time with your beer. You keggers need to learn to slow down!

I dont Know if it helps, but i heard a interview with one of the people who works or created Idophor on basic brewing radio and he said , basically, you dont have to soak for 2 min. Its 2 min wet time. In other words dip your bottles and put on the tree. thats what i got, might double check me though. Still a noob.

If you use a 2 handed capper I think a towel on the table where you are bottling helps keep the bottle from sliding and possibly tipping over and spilling. Once you cap a couple of bottles there is a nice little divot there to keep the bottle in place.

I found making the tubing between the bucket and the wand shorter makes my process much smoother. NOt as much to deal with when you try to put it down somewhere.

My .02 on the dishwasher. I tried it once and didint like it because i had to sit on the tile floor to get down there. I Bring my coffe table into the kitchen and set it under the counter. That way i can sit in a chair when bottling much easier on my back and knees. I put as many bottles that will fit on the coffe table and fill them so i dont have to switch back and forth capping and filling. I eventually want to figure something out to bottle while standing that would be optimal or....filling kegs.

tbulger said:

I eventually want to figure something out to bottle while standing that would be optimal or....filling kegs.

Click to expand...

You could get a plastic crate or build a wood step sort of thing to put on your counter. Put the bottling bucket on top of it and fill away.

I put my bottling tree on the island, and then put the bottles on the dishwasher door. I bring a chair from my dining room and sit and fill. My back was killing me after the first time, without the chair. When I fill 12 or 14, I stand up, cap those and start again. If I have a helper, they cap and I just fill. Piece of cake!

attitude said:

I dont Know if it helps, but i heard a interview with one of the people who works or created Idophor on basic brewing radio and he said , basically, you dont have to soak for 2 min. Its 2 min wet time. In other words dip your bottles and put on the tree. thats what i got, might double check me though. Still a noob.

Click to expand...

lol, you in a hurry?

You guys rock!!!!! More than enough info to help me bottle my first batch. I am sure it will be a "learning curve" but I am ready for what the bottling bucket throws at me (I hope)....... Will fill you in after Saturday. Once bottling is done, the next batch starts cooking. A nice heffe. YUMMY!!!

pa,

A bottling tree is the handiest thing I have ever used.
I read you have a wand but do you have a tree?


Von Knife

no bottling tree. My LHBS wanted WAY TOO much for one. I am going to order one online next time I place an order.

I plan to sanitize all bottles and turn them upside down on paper towels on the counter. Not the best method, but it will work.

I practiced with the bottling wand last night. OH BOY!!!! What a mess. The nipple on the end got stuck open and I had water everywhere. Will practice again tonight or tomorrow before "doing the deed".... I am sure things will be fine.

One thing I found during my first attempt is to not have your secondary/bottling bucket up too high. My first couple of bottles filled way too fast and foamed up a lot.
About 1-1.5 feet between the bottom of your bucket and your counter/floor seems to work well for me.

I bottled last night. It was just my second time bottling. I filled the bottles with onestep and let soak. After that I put them in the dishwashed and just did the heated dry. I pulled the whole tray of the dishwasher out and sat that on the counter. It kept the bottles about 2 inches of the counter. In a way, I guess it was like a bottle tree.

The best thing I ever did was add a plastic spigot (tap) to my 7 gallon pail to make a 'bottling bucket'. I inserted the bottle filler (wand) right into the tap (it seals remarkably well). Then I put the bottling bucket up on the counter on top of a milk crate. It is the perfect height to stand, fill bottles, then place them on the counter top beside me.

The spigot-wand combination works better than either device alone. To bottle, just insert the wand into the bottle, then gently open the tap. You can precisely adjust the flow of the beer into the bottle to avoid aeration, and the wand shuts off automatically when you pull the bottle out so that you don't spill anything. Even if the little valve at the end gets stuck open, all that you lose is the beer inside the wand because the tap is shut off.

Fly guy---

That is a kick @$$ idea. I will try that out when I am sanitizing tomorrow. Sounds like a great idea that will save the hassle of the hose. I will post afterwards to update everyone.