Critique My Bottling Process

Hey guys...Bottling for the first time tomorrow! Here's my plan...Please critique it if need be:

Tonight before bed:
-Fill 3 gallon bucket up with 3 gallons of tap water and 3 tablespoons of B-Brite and stir to combine.

-Add my bottles (recently purchased from the LHBS) to the bucket and let soak overnight.

Tomorrow, an hour or so before bottling:
-Remove bottles from B-Brite solution and rinse with tap water.

-Add some StarSan and distilled water solution to each bottle.

At bottling time
-Using this calculator: http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/priming.html determine the amount of corn sugar to use.
Example: Brown Ale- Northern English Brown Ale

-Boil amount of priming sugar calculated in a little bit of water (enough to dissolve the sugar).

-Pour into cleaned, sanitized bottling jug.

-Rack from primary to the cleaned/sanitized "bottling jug."

-Take each bottle and dump StarSan solution...Don't let it dry out.

-Start auto-siphon and siphon from primary to bottling jug, over the priming sugar solution. Once filled, swirl very gently.

-Fill bottles with bottling wand. Fill to the top. When I remove bottling wand, head space will be adequate due to the displacement from the wand.

-Cap with caps soaking in StarSan.

Am I good?

Star san must be wet to work

That sounds ok EXCEPT you didn't mention priming sugar/tabs. You will need that or your beer will not carbonate.

I suggest getting a bottling bucket with a spigot. Put the sugar solution in the bottom add the beer (swirling). I put the bottling wand on the spigot with a 1 1/2" piece of tubing. Then raise the bottle until filled then put on the table for capping. No need for a siphon and easier than having a long hose on the wand.

How big is the batch to be bottled? 3 gallon bucket will not hold 50- 60 bottles.

Get a bottling bucket. It's about 12 bucks and makes it sooooo easy. However, as long as you are sanitizing everything you'll be fine.

I just throw 55 bottles in the dishwasher, run it on sanitize, pull them out and bottle.

And to be helpful, you left out a primer. Don't forget that

Make a 5 gallon bucket of star-san, dunk each bottle, turn it over and drain. The bubbles left behind are what you want.

Ok guys, hold on. It's a 1-Gallon batch, so I only need about 11 bottles max.

And yes, I forgot about the priming sugar...I have a 5oz bag of Brewer's Best priming sugar.

Can you all advise how much to use, how to use it, and what to do with it?

I do NOT have a bottling bucket, and I won't be getting one anytime soon. Based on the info I gave in my original post, can someone please give me the best way to use the priming sugar, how much, and what I need to do?

Couple quick things...

I've found the easiest thing to do with bottles is to make up some starsan and then soak the bottles in it while I'm setting up. I've got a big bucket, so I'll put 6 22 oz bottles or ?? 12 oz bottles in it, fill the bottles, and when I pull the last one out of the sanitizing bucket, I'll put more bottles in the sanitizing bucket, then cap the batch I just filled. I figure then they'll be in the starsan long enough.

When you fill your bottles with a bottling wand, you don't really need to worry about the headspace. I fill them right up to the top, and when I remove the wand, I'm left with roughly 1 inch headspace on 12 oz bottles and 1.5 inches on 22 oz bottles.

You didn't mention your priming sugar...I've found it best to add the boiled priming solution to the bottling bucket before racking in the beer.

Lastly, a bottling bucket is worth the couple bucks it costs...I've got a tiny bit of tubing on the spigot, so that the bottling wand is basically attached to the spigot, and then I usually put the bucket up on top of something so that the end of the bottling wand is at counter height (so I don't have to bend down as much).

Ultrazord said:

I just throw 55 bottles in the dishwasher, run it on sanitize, pull them out and bottle.

And to be helpful, you left out a primer. Don't forget that

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Hopefully you aren't using the rinse cycle with jet dry in dishwasher. Jet Dry will ruin the head on your beer.

JeffoC6 said:

Ok guys, hold on. It's a 1-Gallon batch, so I only need about 11 bottles max.

And yes, I forgot about the priming sugar...I have a 5oz bag of Brewer's Best priming sugar.

Can you all advise how much to use, how to use it, and what to do with it?

I do NOT have a bottling bucket, and I won't be getting one anytime soon. Based on the info I gave in my original post, can someone please give me the best way to use the priming sugar, how much, and what I need to do?

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Anyone?

JeffoC6 said:

Anyone?

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this site should help you calculate your priming sugar. i use it every time i bottle.

1oz priming sugar to .5 cup water
DO IT NOW!

Or else your beer will turn to diesel!

NordeastBrewer77 said:

this site should help you calculate your priming sugar. i use it every time i bottle.

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I checked this out. The kit I used is simply titled "English Chestnut Brown Ale." From the drop down under "style" what one would I even pick?

Is Brewer's Best priming sugar considered Glucose (corn sugar)?

northern english brown. just bottled 5.5 gal of NEB myself tonight.
and yeah, corn sugar is dextrose, tasty brew will give you a list of the amounts you need for any priming sugar.

NordeastBrewer77 said:

northern english brown. just bottled 5.5 gal of NEB myself tonight.
and yeah, corn sugar is dextrose, tasty brew will give you a list of the amounts you need for any priming sugar.

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So let's just say it's .5 oz of corn sugar. Do I take that amount, boil it in water (how much water?) and then pour it into my bottling jug....Then rack from my primary to my bottling jug and stir it all in? Then bottle?

Stir VERY gently. You really don't want to mix oxygen into your beer.

JeffoC6 said:

So let's just say it's .5 oz of corn sugar. Do I take that amount, boil it in water (how much water?) and then pour it into my bottling jug....Then rack from my primary to my bottling jug and stir it all in? Then bottle?

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ad it to as little water as it takes to dissolve, boil, put in bottling bucket and rack on top to mix in. you can stir, but doing it this way decreases the chance of introducing o2 to the process.

NordeastBrewer77 said:

ad it to as little water as it takes to dissolve, boil, put in bottling bucket and rack on top to mix in. you can stir, but doing it this way decreases the chance of introducing o2 to the process.

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So if I just boil it in a minimal amount of water until it dissolves, pour it into my bottling bucket, and rack ontop of it, I don't need to stir, right?

right! it'll mix right in as you rack it. if you wanna be sure it mixed evenly, give it a gentle swirl, but i stress gentle.

NordeastBrewer77 said:

right! it'll mix right in as you rack it. if you wanna be sure it mixed evenly, give it a gentle swirl, but i stress gentle.

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Thanks! I think I'm good!

Since you've been following this thread, would you just mind going back to my original post and reviewing it? Other than the whole priming sugar discussion we just had, does everything else look cool? Remember- 1 gallon batch, no bottling bucket...Just an extra 1 gallon carboy I'm going to use to rack to from my primary.

Thanks man.

process looks solid. two things, starsan should be left wet to be effective, and when the wand is in the bottle, fill all the way to the top. the liquid the wand displaces will leave ideal headspace. and this is pointless for a 1 gal batch, but if you get into bigger batches, i suggest a bottling tree and vinator. makes the bottling process a breeze. again, 1 gal is a breeze anyway, but bigger batches are a hassle, IMO. guess that was three things....

NordeastBrewer77 said:

process looks solid. two things, starsan should be left wet to be effective, and when the wand is in the bottle, fill all the way to the top. the liquid the wand displaces will leave ideal headspace. and this is pointless for a 1 gal batch, but if you get into bigger batches, i suggest a bottling tree and vinator. makes the bottling process a breeze. again, 1 gal is a breeze anyway, but bigger batches are a hassle, IMO. guess that was three things....

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Thank you!

JeffoC6 said:

Thank you!

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NordeastBrewer77 said:

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JeffoC6 said:

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holy hell, man! :rockin:

NordeastBrewer77 said:

holy hell, man! :rockin:

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Look, I'm really good at the internet.