Bottled my first batch alone..

Hey guys, Well i bottled my first batch tonight. I'm pretty excited, but i'm beat..
I'm either kegging next time or i'm using bigger bottles with Grolsch tops. Was alot by myself.. I just cracked a Reissdorf Kolsch and watching the redsox. So it ain't all bad

Starting a new batch tomorrow and using the 1-2-3 method..

I have to say cheers to all of you that help me on this first one...:rockin:
I couldn't have done it with out you.....You guys are great!!!

Great Job BB

That's what kids are for. Mine are always handy to help out. When they were in grade school, I would picture my kids telling their friends on the playground "I helped dad bottle beer last night". Never got that call from the principal!!

Loop

Congrats!

Nothing like bottling that first batch. I've done a couple myself and that's why I switched to kegging.

Now that you have a batch in bottle, it'll be easy to 'coax' some friends over to help you bottle next time. Promise them they can sample the last batch while bottling the new one!

I always brew and bottle alone. It's not easy, but I've managed. I'm planning on getting some kegging equipment for Christmas, so maybe the end is in sight!

I know i haven't probably paid my dues, But i just said to my wife i know what to get me for Christmas..I'll be kegging in January..

A great time saver for me when bottling is to place my bottles in my dishwasher. I let 'em rinse at around 150 degrees F for about 20 minutes, then rinse and dry at sanitizing temp. While the end of the drying cycle nears, I start heating my water/priming sugar, getting other bottling supplies ready, etc. I have my bottling times down to about 1 hour total, including clean up time.

So all of you that plan on kegging (and already are) have kegerators? It seems that is the most expensive and toughest part to overcome. Gotta keep that CO2 cold, right?

I'm looking to buy a Kegerator. How many kegs with it hold?

There are a bunch of sizes. Basically they are all just converted fridges. Small ones hold 1-3 5 gallon corny kegs. Up from there.

I'd like to get one that holds 3 corny kegs.

I also use the dishwasher method. I have my bottling buket just to the side of the dishwasher door on the counter. When I'm ready I just set up a chair and pull the rack out with all the clean sanitized bottles on it. I fill one as I reach for another empty, and put it right up onto the counter. When I Finish that, I place a cap on each bottle and then just sweep through with the capper and cap them all. Then they all go back into two 24-pack boxes and into my fermentation closet. Done. About an hours time, with clean up and everything.

bottled 10 gallons last weekend, 62 bottles of scottish export on saturday and 65 bottles of a belhaven clone on sunday.
tomorrow i bottle around 6 gallons of hop rod rye.
in two weekends it will be 5 gallons of orfys hobgoblinII.
then i will have used up all my empties.
need to start trading homebrew for bottles again.