high-output bottling wand?

I noticed that the delay in filling bottles is a significant opportunity for improving efficiency in my bottling process. I have a 3/8" spigot/wand and even with no obstructions, it fills bottles a lot slower than I can move. Is there a 1/2" option for filling bottles to allow me to move faster?

I think 1/2" would possibly aerate it a bit too much = bad for the beer

http://www.austinhomebrew.com/product_info.php?cPath=178_356_321&products_id=972

One thing that occurs to me is that the larger wand will occupy more volume in the bottle, so when you pull it out there will be less beer in the bottle and more headspace. Just taking the ratio of (0.5)^2/(0.375)^2 = 1.78 gives 78 % more headspace with the large wand (ballpark figure - I don't know if the dimensions listed are ID or OD). Is there something I'm not seeing here?

Yes, there is a larger ID bottling wand, but you have to consider that your valve is only 3/8". That's going to be your choke point unless you can find a larger diameter valve.

As far as the headspace go, you can depress the tip of the wand on the side of the bottle at the top to get it up the the level that you want.

the headspace difference makes sense, but I don't see any reason why a larger tube would aerate the beer more? Guess I'll just have to be patient filling all those bottles....

Another way to increase the filling speed would be to increase the pressure head by raising the bucket farther above the bottling wand. I've been using Revvy's technique of turning my brew kettle upside down on my table top, setting my bottling bucket on top of that and attaching the wand directly to the bottling bucket spigot with a 1 inch piece of tubing. This makes bottling easy at a convenient height, but doesn't give a lot of pressure. I think using a longer tube and sitting on the floor to fill bottles would be faster, but more uncomfortable - or else find a way to raise the bottling bucket much higher than the table top. Might be worth experimenting with water to see how much difference it really makes.

yeah, I use the same technique with my bottling bucket on top of another bucket. No way I'm sitting on the floor!

I think I found a guy on eBay selling a 1/2" spigot and wand for filling wine bottles. For $10 it's worth a try

In every apartment I've been in (5 in the last 8 months, long story...) the fridge has worked well to get the bottling bucket up to a comfortable level with plenty of head.

Not sure if you have a keg set-up but I've bottled using a corney under pressure to "force feed" the beer into the bottles. Worked like a charm.

Depending on your set-up (using a "t" with nozzle), you could also hit each bottle with a small dose of CO2 before filling for added piece of mind.

Cheers!

I actually partially close the spigot to reduce the flow through my standard bottle filler to reduce agitation/aeration. I'd rather it take a few more minutes than risk aeration at this critical point.

I place the bottling bucket on a small table (about dinner table height) and place the bottles on a step stool (about 10" height I believe) with a towel on it... I get enough gravity flow that way to fill the 500ml bottles (Grolsch) at a good speed, as well as the 750ml bottles (Belgian). The 3/8" bottling wand leaves the perfect amount of head space in the bottles too.

I don't half close the valve, so that the flow is completely steady inside the tubing, into the bottles. The only time there's any risk of any oxygenation is when you first start bottling and the tip is not yet submerged... That's for a fraction of a second, so the risk (as I see it) is so small it's not even worth thinking about... Look at it this way, IF you were risking oxidation by using the standard bottling wands, it would be all over the place here, as well as have it's own sticky... I've not seen any postings/stickies saying to NOT use the bottling wand included in the majority of the starter hardware kits.

I suppose, if you want closer to zero chance of oxidation in your brew, you could just remove the wand tip and use a hose clamp to stop the flow into the bottle... Of course, you'll need to be fast so that you don't spill the brew after the clamp. It will also take some getting used to as a method, so that you can get the right head space in the bottles... In my opinion, more risk, without any real benefit...

No, unfortunately I don;t have a kegging system (hence the bottling efficiency questions!) so I can't pressurize.

I'm actually somewhat cavalier about aeration - I think it is largely a homebrew bogeyman (like yeast autolysis) and I consume most of my beers within 3 months so oxidation doesn't have time to get me.