Bottling Bummer

Greetings all. after two weeks in primary and two weeks in secondary, my IPA was bottled today. i tasted a sample and it actually tastes like ....um...BEER. so that is a good sign. the bummer is i only got 39 bottles out of the batch. too much spilling between transitions. oh well i suppose not bad for my first batch, just wish i was able to yield more. 3 weeks till taste day. i'm looking forward to it.

Congrats. I can't wait to make it to that phase.

spilled 9 bottles worth of beer? must have been a little

i kid i kid. its a very long three weeks. make sure you don't start to early...nothing is worse than starting early and only REALLY enjoying those last 12 beers after some aging...:cross:

Losing 9 beers really means you need to tweak your process til it works for you AND you get a minimum of 2 cases of beer from 5 gallons (sometimes I get even another 6 pack.)

Practice siphoning and racking using plain water for one thing...also take a read of this post. I discussed how I got my process down to where it takes about an hour and is really comfortable for me.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/1008824-post8.html

You'll do better next time.

did you start with 5 gal to begin with or did you have less?

I've found that a bottle filler helped with my spills. I tried using the bottle spigot and made a mess.

chrisewalk said:

I've found that a bottle filler helped with my spills. I tried using the bottle spigot and made a mess.

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It's really not a good idea to fill straight from the sigot...You run the risk of over oxygenating your beer from it falling into the bottle, as opposed to using a want and filling from the bottom up, which pushes the O2 out the top as the beer (and co2) is moving upward...

Plus there's that whole mess making thing.

HIT_MAN said:

Congrats. I can't wait to make it to that phase.

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+1 n00b. Man, I came THIS CLOSE to buying all my starter crap at the LHBS today, but... well... it didn't happen, that's all. Soon, tho'... soon.

Revvy said:

Practice siphoning and racking using plain water...

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Brilliant! ...Except that it makes me feel exceedingly foolish not to have thought of it on me own. Ah well, that's why I'm here, I s'ppose. Thanks!!!

Cheers -- Be joining you (for real) soon!

well it depends on how many "samples" you took to check the FG hehe

Hopsalong said:

+1 n00b. Man, I came THIS CLOSE to buying all my starter crap at the LHBS today, but... well... it didn't happen, that's all. Soon, tho'... soon.




Brilliant! ...Except that it makes me feel exceedingly foolish not to have thought of it on me own. Ah well, that's why I'm here, I s'ppose. Thanks!!!

Cheers -- Be joining you (for real) soon!

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Stop procrastinating! When you're waiting four to six weeks before your beer is ready to drink you're going to regret not getting started sooner.

I don't even like to take hydro samples and loose 4oz. Most like to start with 5.5 gallons.

Thanks for the advice revvy. im sure practice will help. ow i have to figure out what to brew next. i was thinking a maple porter

Conroe said:

I don't even like to take hydro samples and loose 4oz. Most like to start with 5.5 gallons.

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Same here. I broke the cardinal rule about throwing away a sample. I didn't want to lose any beer at all.

Well I usually drink it anyway it's just sad when I don't fill two cases.

A $2 bottling wand made my bottling much cleaner.

It seems like most of my high-bang-for-the-bug items are centered around bottling: autosiphon, bottling wand, vinator, bench capper. None are necessary but this cheap bastid is happy with every one of them.

+1 on the bottling wand. Just get it!

Also, unless you have a spigot, I'd also pick up the autosiphon. I loved mine until I warped it in some hot wort. Don't do that.