Bottling sucks!

I have just bottled 5 gallons of pumpkin ale made on 12/11/08.

Secondary on 12/26/08, and bottled today, into 18 (one) liter ez cap bottles, and it was A PAIN IN THE ASS. Cleaning, sanitizing, rinsing... stirring corn sugar liquid...how do you guys do it? This bottling business is for the birds.

I'm spoiled, from the get-go, I've kegged and omg I have to give credit to bottlers. If I had to do that from the start I'd quit brewing right away. Keggin does make life easier and it well worth the money.

Thank you Cornelius!

Eh I don't mind it much, got the process down pretty good now. Can bust out a 5 gallon batch in like 20 minutes. Minus the cleaning and sanitizing

I just bottled my first batch and it didn't seem that bad.

I don't mind bottling. The process is, strangely, satisfying to me. I just don't have the time to do much at this point.

RedOctober said:

I have just bottled 5 gallons of pumpkin ale made on 12/11/08.

Secondary on 12/26/08, and bottled today, into 18 (one) liter ez cap bottles, and it was A PAIN IN THE ASS. Cleaning, sanitizing, rinsing... stirring corn sugar liquid...how do you guys do it? This bottling business is for the birds.

I'm spoiled, from the get-go, I've kegged and omg I have to give credit to bottlers. If I had to do that from the start I'd quit brewing right away. Keggin does make life easier and it well worth the money.

Thank you Cornelius!

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you need some time/labor saving tips i presume. i hated my first bottling, now it takes about 20 mins, plus about 30 mins of prep.

i sanitize my bottles in one side of my sink, i can fit one case in, 5 gals of water, and 1oz of star san.
take those out, set em into my clean, empty dishwasher to drain, while im doing the next case of bottles.
as i fill the sink, i add 3-4 oz of dextrose to a cup o water, and boil in the micowave, then move it to the freezer to cool.

a bottling buddy is great, my 9 year old does better than SWMBO does btw...

i cap em after the boy fills em, and store them away in 6 packs, or twelves, whatever im using. he is always ahead of me!


another tip, fill the bottling bucket with sanitizer, let sit while preppin other stuff (like a small contaner and 50 bottle caps in star san)
empty it out using the spigot into your plugged sink, and have bottle buddy submerge bottles...

anyhoo, it's not that bad, and a whole lot cheaper than kegging.. i would need a large chest freezer for the kegs,tap handles etc... plus another for fermenting in.
biggest bummer is the bottles are soooo expensive, but, they do come with free beer inside!

good luck!

It's all about the process....I've got mine pretty much dialed it to one of the easiest parts of the brewing experience.

I started this, and other's have added their own tricks as well...

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/revvys-tips-bottler-first-time-otherwise-94812/

My wife and I bottled my first batch, and we had a blast doing it!

Of course, I had read Revvy's thread and used a couple of his tips to make it smoother

Bottling isn't so bad. I'm with Nosmatt.
Use some labor saving methods and relax.
It seems like a lot of this is waiting and cleaning, why is bottling different.

Sort of Zen like. Relax, listen to music and bottle. Takes 90 minutes or less, clean up included.

I really like the ability to share with my friends in a way I couldn't with kegging. ( I like them but gee I don't want them at my house!)

Regards

I like bottling. I agree that it is about the process. that is actually something I enjoy. stepping back and thinking about what i'm doing and how I can cut waste and save time. it's like a puzzle.

Madman said:

My wife and I bottled my first batch, and we had a blast doing it!

Of course, I had read Revvy's thread and used a couple of his tips to make it smoother

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And then didja get nekkid and roll around in the trub??? Kinda like beer related jello twister?

Sorry being swmbo-less I often imagine how much fun it would be to have someone to share this hobby with...and other things...

*depressed sigh*

Meh. It's all part of the fun of brewing.

RedOctober said:

it was A PAIN IN THE ASS. Cleaning, sanitizing, rinsing... stirring corn sugar liquid...how do you guys do it?

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Bottling is easy waith a few labor saving tricks:
Get into the habit of Rinsing every bottle you open with hot water, then you won't need to wash them before your next bottling session. At bottling time I have a 32 ounce spray bottle full of StarSan solution. All I do to sterilize is give each bottle a couple squirts of sanitizer, shake them out and stick 'em on a bottle tree to dry. That's it.

Tom

Revvy said:

And then didja get nekkid and roll around in the trub??? Kinda like beer related jello twister?

Sorry being swmbo-less I often imagine how much fun it would be to have someone to share this hobby with...and other things...

*depressed sigh*

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... and I envy the alone time you have... feast or famine.

hopdog said:

... and I envy the alone time you have... feast or famine.

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And the freedom.

I don't mind bottling and I actually prefer it. I get my bottles ready before bottling day. When it comes close to time for bottling, I clean and sanitize my bottles. This was also a great excuse to scrub the bath tub out! I would clean the bath tub and fill it up with soap and hot water. I would put all the bottles in and let them sit for 15 minutes or so, then use the bottle brush to clean the insides of each bottle. I would rinse them with clean water and then put them in a bucket with sanitizing solution and let them soak for a few minutes. After that, I would empty them out, put a slice of tin foil over the top and put them in a box. At this point, all the bottles are almost ready to go. At bottling time, all you need to do at this point is give the inside of each bottle a quick rinse with something like star san and then fill them up.

The next bottling I do will be my first experience with star san. That product wasn't around the last time I brewed, so I'm looking forward to the no-rinse experience

The first time I bottled, all I had was a hammer capper. Basically, you rest the cap on the bottle, hold this thing over it, and hit it with a hammer. Too soft, and the cap won't seat correctly. Too hard, and you break the bottle. Off center, and the cap gets bent.

Man, that really sucked. I got pretty good at it though, to the point of never breaking bottles after a few batches...

imaguitargod said:

Meh. It's all part of the fun of brewing.

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+1 ...Except, what does 'meh' mean? I've always wondered that.

As for Revvy's SWMBO-less state, I'm there too . . . and have been all of my nearly 50 years. All I'll say is: The grass is always greener on the other side of the fence. Later!

Revvy said:

And then didja get nekkid and roll around in the trub??? Kinda like beer related jello twister?

Sorry being swmbo-less I often imagine how much fun it would be to have someone to share this hobby with...and other things...

*depressed sigh*

Click to expand...

Now that was the funniest thing I have read in a while. I don't think I could get the swmbo to go for that but she does help with bottling. Of course since she is the one who bought my kit for me I guess she is stuck supporting the habbit although sometimes I think she regrest getting me started on the path. After she has the baby I will suggest trub wrestling. Just ned to make suer she has a few homebrews first.

I prefer bottling and I have done both - I just prefer bottle conditioned beer! I'm sure some guys are able to dial in their kegs but the vast majority of force carbonated beer I've sampled has beer sub-par...

KDM said:

+1 ...Except, what does 'meh' mean? I've always wondered that.

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lolz. Meh is basically like saying, "eh" but with an m at the begining. Like, "Meh. Whatever."

Limited Visibility said:

Eh I don't mind it much, got the process down pretty good now. Can bust out a 5 gallon batch in like 20 minutes. Minus the cleaning and sanitizing

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Ditto for this.....it's really not that bad at all. Once you cement a protocol it's just another fun part of homebrewing....

snailsongs said:

Ditto for this.....it's really not that bad at all. Once you cement a protocol it's just another fun part of homebrewing....

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Nice description....Cementing your protocol!



I just did a small batch of my chocolate mole porter, and for 2.5 gallons using my dip tube and having the wand on my bucket and the bucket at eye level, like in my thread, I got 25 bottles and 2 ounces of stuff in the bottom of my bucket. For me using the setup that I tweaked for me, I get very little spillage during filling as well as very little beer in the bucket with no needing to tilt it...

The only sad thing is I don't think I can cement or tweak my protocal any further...damn it

It took me about a half hour including cleanup and sanitizing...

Sheesh Revvy, 30 minutes including clean up is fast.

I enjoy bottling most of the time. Its practically therapy for me I think. I mean after day after day of life's constant stresses and pressures it is nice to be able to relax and do a menotenous activity that takes little thought.

I love bottling. It's the most enjoyable part of the process.

I don't mind bottling, but I do wish I had a couple of taps for my quick quaffers.

Bottling is what killed the hobby for me for about 5 years - after the kids were born. Bottling is an "event". Just like you've gotta have a brew day - with 2-4 hours set aside, you've also gotta have a "bottling day" a few weeks later.

Kegging brought me back from the abyss. Now I have the time to brew again.

madcapstudios said:

Bottling is what killed the hobby for me for about 5 years - after the kids were born. Bottling is an "event". Just like you've gotta have a brew day - with 2-4 hours set aside, you've also gotta have a "bottling day" a few weeks later.

Kegging brought me back from the abyss. Now I have the time to brew again.

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I think bottling day is a good day to brew another batch. It gives you something to do while the mash and/or boil is going...

The first time I bottled took me like...an hour...if not more... The memory is so horad...it's a bit fuzzy

I now keg my beer and only bottle when giving to friends. I use the BMBF...makes bottling fun again. And it's easier to store kegs.

Bottled my first batch today... I didn't find it to be that painful and I'll be able to knock some time off the next batch.

I used my bottle tree and sanitizer sprayer that sits on top of the tree for the first time last night- it cut my bottling time in half. It beats dunking the bottles in a bucket of sanitizer any day. SWMBO helped me with the racking and capping, so things went pretty quick. The only part that stinks is cleanup.
I've never kegged before, so I wouldn't know how much easier it makes it. RDWHAHB and enjoy the process.