Bottling Tips for the Homebrewer

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I have nothing new to add, except you guys ROCK! Thanks for all the sharing of info.
 
So how can my beer go from barely no carbonation from 3 days ago to practically shooting out of the bottle after cracking one open?
 
So how can my beer go from barely no carbonation from 3 days ago to practically shooting out of the bottle after cracking one open?
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Depending on the position in the bottle carb timeline, this could be normal.

Did you chill both bottles for a day or two each before opening them?

It's possible your bottle carb process is working as it should and the second bottle you opened is just getting ready to start working the CO2 back in to the beer to make the real magic happen.

Wait another week or two before opening your next beer and see if your results are the same.
 
I think I finally found the one step you are all missing...right at that magic moment before you fill the first bottle but after you've staged a perfectly poured glass of HB...walk across the room and put on some great music. I recommend Neil Young Unplugged...keep it soothing so as not to stress the yeasties on their way to their new, albeit temporary, home!
 
i just read everything here also. Still have about 3 more weeks in primary tho. 1 week down 3 to go. glad i read all this. helpful for first time brewers.
 
hey - you guys ever experience this?: tried a beer less than a week in the bottle (in this case, a fairly typical hoppy pale ale), tastes delicious and damn near ready...but a week later, it's not nearly as good, definitely has a lot of "offness" and bite that needs to be cleaned up

...is there some sort of curve of progression in the bottle conditioning process?
 
DoctorDuvel said:
hey - you guys ever experience this?: tried a beer less than a week in the bottle (in this case, a fairly typical hoppy pale ale), tastes delicious and damn near ready...but a week later, it's not nearly as good, definitely has a lot of "offness" and bite that needs to be cleaned up

...is there some sort of curve of progression in the bottle conditioning process?
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how was the carbonation on the first beer, and what method did you use to add primming sugar at bottling?
 
carbonation on the first beer was good but a little low - not much head retention; the method i used was the usual, dissolving priming sugar in hot water then pouring it into the bottling bucket (after it cools) - and of course giving it a good gentle stir...

they're gradually tasting better, i'm expecting by next week they'll "arrive"
 
At two weeks in the bottle of my first brew, the beer was terrible. no carb and flavor was terrible. at three weeks it was changing. at four weeks it was great, lots of head and wonderful taste.

it was told to me to store it at around 70 degrees, and that seems to be working.
 
yeah, i had one last night and it was way better - this thursday marks 3 weeks - so the "3 weeks at 70" rule is a good one - so many times i've cracked one open prematurely and thought "what did i do wrong?" only for it to end up a good beer...i'll learn someday
 
DocD - maybe the second bottle you tried had some residual soap or something in it. I cannot imagine a brew tasting good one week, bad a week later, and then good again. I would bet something else is going on
 
i'm not sure about that - because i actually had 2 beers each time, and they didn't disagree with each other...i'm thinking that i caught the beer before the conditioning process really took off, and then in the middle, where it's kind of like walking into a house that's being remodeled
 
I just wanted to comment on the method that Revvy walks us through. I gave this method a try on my second batch ever and it was WAAAAYYYYY faster and went much smoother than my first attempt.

Thanks again Revvy and other who have contributed for helping us n00bs make our processes and therefore brewing experience SO MUCH BETTER.
 
I bottled my first batch today. I went so smooth thanks to this thread. A BIG shout out to Revvy and others for their tips, tricks and advice.:mug: Now the 3 week minimum waiting begins.
 
I'm not reading through 500+ posts so I'll just add one more thing I do when bottling.

After the bottle is filled I place a cap on it and continue the bottling process.

IMO, this little bit of time allows beer off-gassing the opportunity to displace any oxygen from under the cap before sealing.
 
Great thread. Thanks Revvy & Co for all the great advice.

Have returned to HB after a 5 year break during which I was a client of a local UBrew4U microbrewery which has now closed down due to being unprofitable in a regional location.

A couple of questions:

1. I have been bottling directly from my primary fermenter. Is this Kosher? Have only racked from primary once and experienced an infected brew.

2. This approaching Aussie winter I plan to use lager yeasts. Will I still need to carb at 70degF for 3 weeks, or can I successfully carb by storing my bottles at the lower fermentation temperature range that lagers utilise?

Cheers
PC
 
Revvy said:
Don't you use a bottling wand to fill your beer? It's made to set the proper amount of head space in bottles, no matter what sized bottles. You fill the bottle til it starts to over flow and pull the wand out, the displacement from the wand sets the headspace. Which is around 1.25 inches iirc.
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Hey Revvy,
Not to add to your workload around here, but would you mind adding this to the OP? This is something I didn't know, and my first bottling is right around the corner. I would have been stopping the flow an inch below the neck every time if not for you!

Back to my main point: Not everyone will read 46 pages in to find that gem, and I feel like it would be an excellent addition to your (otherwise) Complete Bottling Guide.
 
Getzinator said:
Hey Revvy,
Not to add to your workload around here, but would you mind adding this to the OP? This is something I didn't know, and my first bottling is right around the corner. I would have been stopping the flow an inch below the neck every time if not for you!

Back to my main point: Not everyone will read 46 pages in to find that gem, and I feel like it would be an excellent addition to your (otherwise) Complete Bottling Guide.
Click to expand...

Who knows how long it would have taken me to discover the bottling wand- but when I started I bought the Intermediate kit from Midwest Supplies, and it included not only the bottling wand but an autosiphon, another item I wouldn't be without.
 
I'm with you there! The kit I bought had both, otherwise I would have probably just said "Eh I don't need them."

But more specifically I didn't know the displacement caused by the wand would give you perfect headspace every time. Neat!
 
Just build the dip tube from earlier posts. My autosiphon got a crack in it and wasn't able to create a vacuum. So I picked up a rubber stopper from my LHBS for a couple of bucks and chopped the end off my old autosiphon. Really made bottling simpler. Thanks!
 
pacman said:
Great thread. Thanks Revvy & Co for all the great advice.

Have returned to HB after a 5 year break during which I was a client of a local UBrew4U microbrewery which has now closed down due to being unprofitable in a regional location.

A couple of questions:

1. I have been bottling directly from my primary fermenter. Is this Kosher? Have only racked from primary once and experienced an infected brew.

2. This approaching Aussie winter I plan to use lager yeasts. Will I still need to carb at 70degF for 3 weeks, or can I successfully carb by storing my bottles at the lower fermentation temperature range that lagers utilise?

Cheers
PC
Click to expand...

i would highly recommend transferring to a bottling bucket or spare fermenter for bottling, that way the trub doesn't end up in the bottles, also you'll know exactly how much you're bottling and how much priming sugar to use

that's a good question about the lager - i don't have experience in that area...my question would be, would it be bad for the lager to store the bottles at 70f?
 
BrianP said:
Yes, I made a dip tube for my bottling bucket out of a 3/4" PVC 90deg elbow. I think it cost $0.39 at Lowe's and threads right onto the tail piece of the bottling spigot. It couldn't be simpler. Check out my gallery for a poorly done schematic and/or PM me and I'll verify the part number. Or do what I did and bring the spigot with you to Lowe's and see what threads onto it. When I fill bottles with this I am usually left with about 2 or 3 oz. of beer in the bucket.
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This is exactly what I did... Was left with a pretty dry bucket!

706ff1d5.jpg
 
TBaGZ said:
This is exactly what I did... Was left with a pretty dry bucket!

706ff1d5.jpg
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Thanks to whomever made this suggestion. I picked up the 3/4" PVC elbow at Lowe's for peanuts. Like less than a dollar. It works great. It's amazing how it is exactly the right size. Just apply and tighten the spigot like normal and put this on the end.

A note for those looking at Lowe's. I didn't think they had a threaded one at first, I could only find a non-threaded 3/4" elbow. The threaded 3/4" is in a totally separate section from the non-threaded; in my store it was in a different aisle, so be sure to look around.
 
For some reason my bottling wand doesn't fit directly on to my bottling bucket's spigot like i see it does for most of you guys. Would it be ok to cut a 6" or so section of vinyl tubing off of my siphon hose and use that to connect the wand to the spigot, or would that create oxidation when filling my bottles?
 
RiffMagnum said:
For some reason my bottling wand doesn't fit directly on to my bottling bucket's spigot like i see it does for most of you guys. Would it be ok to cut a 6" or so section of vinyl tubing off of my siphon hose and use that to connect the wand to the spigot, or would that create oxidation when filling my bottles?
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I don't think it fits on anybody's...If you read my instructions, that's exactly what I and most everyone else does. :mug:
 
Revvy said:
I don't think it fits on anybody's...If you read my instructions, that's exactly what I and most everyone else does. :mug:
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Cool. I thought i read through all your post, but i missed that part. I'm assuming that's what you're using the little plastic clamps for? Do you use two total? One on the spigot and one on the wand side?
 
RiffMagnum said:
Cool. I thought i read through all your post, but i missed that part. I'm assuming that's what you're using the little plastic clamps for? Do you use two total? One on the spigot and one on the wand side?
Click to expand...

I don't know what Revy does, but my piece of tubing fits snugly over the spigot and wand, so I don't use any clamps.
 
If you can't fit the tubing over the spigot, run it under some hot water for a few seconds and it might become pliable enough to fit nice and snug - no clamp required. :)
 
progmac said:
Thanks to whomever made this suggestion. I picked up the 3/4" PVC elbow at Lowe's for peanuts. Like less than a dollar. It works great. It's amazing how it is exactly the right size. Just apply and tighten the spigot like normal and put this on the end.

A note for those looking at Lowe's. I didn't think they had a threaded one at first, I could only find a non-threaded 3/4" elbow. The threaded 3/4" is in a totally separate section from the non-threaded; in my store it was in a different aisle, so be sure to look around.
Click to expand...

Super cool suggestion. I did the same although I had to chop a bit off with a hacksaw to make it fit.

However, with the bucket upright I have to get the liquid down to about 1/4 inch before I hit air!

ForumRunner_20120527_031926.jpg
 
pacman said:
Great thread. Thanks Revvy & Co for all the great advice.
A couple of questions:

1. I have been bottling directly from my primary fermenter. Is this Kosher? Have only racked from primary once and experienced an infected brew.

2. This approaching Aussie winter I plan to use lager yeasts. Will I still need to carb at 70degF for 3 weeks, or can I successfully carb by storing my bottles at the lower fermentation temperature range that lagers utilise?
Click to expand...

I'm a newbie to brewing but just looking at how my mates do theirs and the equipment and kits you see at LHBS around here, I get the impression that we aren't as adverse to a bit of sediment in our brew here in Australia. We even have quite popular commercial beers (ie. Coopers) that embrace it to a degree.

Looking at the website for the store I go to, I don't even see available any of these bottling buckets or glass carboys that I keep spotting in lots of pics on here. There's all sorts of shapes and sizes of plastic fermenters though with taps right at the bottom to bottle from directly. And bottling wands that fit straight onto the taps seem to be the norm.

As for your lager, I just put one on myself (only my 3rd batch ever, still waiting for my 1st batch of pilsner to condition while I get the pipeline cranking) and I sure as hell don't plan on wasting any time before bottling it once it stops bubbling and has hit it's final gravity. I'll want to use the fermenter to start another batch asap, and I don't like the sound of having to get 3 or 4 fermenters just to have them all going at once yet. But perhaps I'm just not that picky or patient yet?
 
Nanreik said:
I'm a newbie to brewing but just looking at how my mates do theirs and the equipment and kits you see at LHBS around here, I get the impression that we aren't as adverse to a bit of sediment in our brew here in Australia. We even have quite popular commercial beers (ie. Coopers) that embrace it to a degree.

Looking at the website for the store I go to, I don't even see available any of these bottling buckets or glass carboys that I keep spotting in lots of pics on here. There's all sorts of shapes and sizes of plastic fermenters though with taps right at the bottom to bottle from directly. And bottling wands that fit straight onto the taps seem to be the norm.

As for your lager, I just put one on myself (only my 3rd batch ever, still waiting for my 1st batch of pilsner to condition while I get the pipeline cranking) and I sure as hell don't plan on wasting any time before bottling it once it stops bubbling and has hit it's final gravity. I'll want to use the fermenter to start another batch asap, and I don't like the sound of having to get 3 or 4 fermenters just to have them all going at once yet. But perhaps I'm just not that picky or patient yet?
Click to expand...

I've always bottled from a bottling bucket, but I admit to looking more seriously at bottling straight from the fermenter, particularly since I've gone to primary-only for almost all of my beers. I appear to share with many Aussies an indifference to a bit of sediment at the bottom of my glass- it's rather like the concern with a completely crystal-clear beer. Some folks want to compete with those pretty pictures, commercial stuff that is whirlpooled and then run through .5 µ filters. If the beer tastes and has the aroma I'm looking for, the look of it doesn't matter so much.

I have 3 fermenters, so developing a pipeline isn't a big trick, but from the standpoint of efficiency, it would be nice to just leave it in the primary for a month (which I currently do) and then just check the gravity and bottle directly. The sticky bit, which I haven't figured out yet, is how to prime the beer without using a bottling bucket. I could keg and force carbonate, of course, but I have no intention of going down that road.
 
rico567 said:
The sticky bit, which I haven't figured out yet, is how to prime the beer without using a bottling bucket. I could keg and force carbonate, of course, but I have no intention of going down that road.
Click to expand...

My beginners kit came with a bunch of little candy looking droplets of some type of sugar/starch, already the right size to drop one in small or two in large bottles prior to capping them. For my current batch I'm going to try just scooping the correctly measured/weighed amount of normal sugar in myself. I figure if I line all the bottles up prior to filling them and measure the sugar into all of them one after the other it shouldn't take too much longer than it would to drop the carbonation drops in.

But if it ends up interrupting the process too much I might just buy more pre-made drops, since they work out to just under 6 cents per small bottle.
 
Nanreik said:
My beginners kit came with a bunch of little candy looking droplets of some type of sugar/starch, already the right size to drop one in small or two in large bottles prior to capping them. For my current batch I'm going to try just scooping the correctly measured/weighed amount of normal sugar in myself. I figure if I line all the bottles up prior to filling them and measure the sugar into all of them one after the other it shouldn't take too much longer than it would to drop the carbonation drops in.

But if it ends up interrupting the process too much I might just buy more pre-made drops, since they work out to just under 6 cents per small bottle.
Click to expand...

I have some of the Cooper's carb tabs, and have used them to prime a few small batches. But I don't think they're much of an improvement on the regular big batches. So it's still the bottling bucket for me until something better comes along.
 

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