First bottling experience

I am going to be bottling my first brew tonight. Need some advise. I bought new bottles, do i rinse just with sanitizer or put in dishwasher first. Also should i taste brew before adding sugar solution or just wait till bottles have carbonated?

Always clean and sanitize everything IMO. As for tasting, I do, to get an idea of what I finished up like. It will be different with carbonating, aging etc though. Good luck!

londonboy said:

Also should i taste brew before adding sugar solution or just wait till bottles have carbonated?

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I like to get everything set up and then fill a pint glass with my bottling wand as I bottle. Maybe that's weird.

I like to wash new bottles real quickly before sanitizing but I think the dishwasher steam cycle would do it.

I put mine in my dishwasher on sanitize first. I then sanitize them and all the equipment I'll be using with one-step.

Sanatizing cycle should be adequate but I still hit mine with the vinator before putting them on the bottling tree. This step let's me see that all the bottles are clean as well as giving them one last rinse.

As for the bottling proceedure you'll find there's a bit of a learning curve. I've bottled 32 batches so far and have the entire process down to an hour and ten minutes. A really good trick is to cut a 1 inch piece of siphon hose and attach the bottling wand directly to the bottling bucket spout. This allows you to fill a bottle with one hand while loading the capper with the other. I can usually fill and cap 50 bottles in less than twenty minutes.

matt2778 said:

Sanatizing cycle should be adequate but I still hit mine with the vinator before putting them on the bottling tree. This step let's me see that all the bottles are clean as well as giving them one last rinse.

As for the bottling proceedure you'll find there's a bit of a learning curve. I've bottled 32 batches so far and have the entire process down to an hour and ten minutes. A really good trick is to cut a 1 inch piece of siphon hose and attach the bottling wand directly to the bottling bucket spout. This allows you to fill a bottle with one hand while loading the capper with the other. I can usually fill and cap 50 bottles in less than twenty minutes.

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Great idea with the hose piece. Gonna give that a try on Sunday.

I did hear that the steam cycle works. I would still sanitize them as well. Just a suggestion but purchase a nice big container of starsan. Not only will it only take a minute to sanitize, but it also keeps for months as long as there's not a bunch of floaty crap and the ph stays within its range. Best stuff you can get.

And in terms of tasting your beer, GO FOR IT! In fact, when I bottle, I usually have around a half a glass or more from the leftover that I can't get into bottles. I encourage it so you can see how you did before carbing it up. If it tastes like crap, it will probably still taste like crap. If it tastes great, on the other hand, it makes it that much more exciting to open your first after 2 weeks or so.

Get a Vinator and Starsan.



I set up on the counter and use the lower rack on my dishwasher. A couple of squirts of Starsan in clean bottles then put them upside down on the pegs on the dishwasher rack to drain.

Sit down comfortably, with the previously mentioned wand on the spigot, reach to the rack for a bottle with my right hand, start filling change to left hand, right hand grabs the next bottle, bottle is filled, left hand puts the bottle on the table and lays a sanitized cap on the bottle as the right hand starts filling the next bottle transfer to left hand....... repeat 50 - 55 times....

I have a wing handled capper so after all the bottles are full I then crimp the caps. It takes me about 1:15 to 1:30 to bottle a batch.