Is bottling always a pain in the arshe?

Bottled for the first time Saturday. Is bottling always this dang difficult? I didn't really think about it at first, but I definently will be going to kegging after I bottle for a while and get my techniques down better. For those that use a dishwasher for the bottles, do you pre-clean the bottles and use the dishwasher for a final rinse? How difficult is it to keg? I know, I need to read up on kegging, just have a basic question. We're talking 5 gallon kegs, not the big 30 plus ones that we see at bars?

Kegging is about as easy as life gets. I leave most of my ales in the primary for two weeks & go straight to the keg. I doubt I'd still be brewing if I hadn't kegged from the start. And, yes, the cornies we talk about are the 5 gallon soda cans.

Bottling will get easier, but will always be more work & mess than kegging.

5 gallon cornies. I'd probably start kegging, just don't really have room in the fridge nor room to buy a second fridge. Bottling's a PITA, but there are things that make it easier. Bottle on top of the dishwasher door, so the inevitable spill is contained. Use bigger bottles, I buy all my commercial stuff in bombers (half as many bottles to fill). Swing-tops make life a lot easier, as well. You don't really NEED to rinse the bottles in the dishwasher if you've sanitized them already, but you can; the dishwasher makes a great bottling rack in any case.

I've NEVER bottled - not once. When I started reading up on this hobby, that was one thing that struck me as a total PITA. Kegging is perfect - nice and easy and you have total control over carbonation.

yeah bottling can be a PITA but it does have it's advantages. Flexability . . .

• Try lugging a 12 pack of kegs to a party.
• Try sending a six pack of kegs home with a friend and not have him return the emptys.
• Try mailing a keg to a friend across the country.
• Try fitting 13 different beers in your fridge if they are kegged.
• Try tossing a keg of your wheet to your buddy as he walks in.
• Try taking your keg and tap the top of your buddies keg and watch him try to suck down the foam so he dont waste beer.

I have such a plentiful and cheep source of bottles here in Milwaukee I dont think I will ever go to kegging exclusivly. Maybe some day I'll start kegging and keeping a beer or 2 on tap, but only if I can fit 2 cases worth of other stuff in my keg fridge as well.

Yes it is. I want to get to kegging, but I view bottling as a necessary evil, for the same reasons listed above. Poker games, Football, cookouts, etc etc, make bottling necessary for me.

Long-term plan is to go in Pumbaa's direction; couple of house brews on tap, others in bottles. But, lots needs to happen in the interim.

I just kegged my porter and IPA in an less than an hour last night . When I have to take beer somewhere I use these:



I never ship beer to people, they should come to me if they want a brew. Pumbaa is right on not having a lot of variety waiting in the fridge, I do miss that. I need a four tap fridge (got two now) and I'd be a happy brewer.

desertBrew said:

I need a four tap fridge (got two now) and I'd be a happy brewer.

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I've got 2 as well. I was happy to hear my wife complain that we need another fridge in the basement because I've taken all the room in the one there now.



Now I just need to figure out if I should move out of the one we have or get the "new" one around my needs.

I think I'd have a tough time keeping 4 beers on tap unless I start brewing bigger batches.

need a four tap fridge (got two now) and I'd be a happy brewer.

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Human nature says that as soon as you get 4 taps, it wont take long b4 you want 6 taps . . . soon as you get 6 taps, it wont take long until you want 8 taps, soon as you get 8 taps . . . . it's never enuff

Hell in my perfect basment set up I'll have the "brewery" going on the unfinished side with my yeast farm next to it and a walk in fridge on the opposit wall. Behind the wall, on the finished side, I'll have my bar and as many taps as I can keep brew for . . . I have 10 batches somewhere along in the process anywhere between brewing and consuming, and 2 more that are going to be started if not this week then befor I get off vacation.

LIke David said, it will get better. You'll get your system down. If you could get someone to help you during bottling, it would go a lot easier. I fill one side of the sink up with bleach water and the other side up with a weak iodophor solution. Then just cycle them through and put the cleaned ones in the dishwasher. This is assuming you start with relatively clean bottles. i.e. rinse them as soon as you finish drinking out of them and don't let junk grow in them.


Also like bird said the dishwasher makes a great drying rack. a lot of people open the door and use it to bottle. that will cut down clean up.

I did figure out that using the dishwasher for drying is a good thing. I don't know why, but I had a hell of a time getting the siphon on the bottling wand up and going. It wasn't that hard racking from the primary to the secondary. And for some reason, the only way to get a good flow was to put the secondary on the counter and rack the bottles while sitting on the floor. Then when you get about a 12 pack racked, I had to stop and move them out of the way and put on the counter above me...talk about doing some cussing. I hope I didn't allow too much oxidation with the brew while I was bottling. Capping, boy that was another learning experience. Had one slide off and brew everywhere all over the kitchen counter. Here in the next two weeks, we're having our kitchen remodeled and going to use large granite tiles for the counter tops as opposed to the formica top now. I don't want to spill some brew on that. Got to get a better production assembly lined formed.
One thing I did notice, brew didn't exactly smell like brew. I tasted some of it and was not impressed. But, maybe the priming solution will rectify that. I hope so, because I did get a little, just a little, discouraged. But I will rock on. And the GOOD THING: While at the LHBS, my wife was with me and the brew master also told me that bottling is a PITA. He said you need to go kegging. He explained some more and my wife said that I should jump over to kegging, complete with keg cooler and everything.......I told her......"have I told you that I loved you lately?" But, I'm going to stay the course for a while with bottling. Need to master my techniques better and see how the beer comes out.

Are you siphoning when you bottle? Make a small investment in a bottling bucket. I put it on the countertop above the dishwasher and sit on a footstool while I bottle on the dishwasher door. No worries about having to keep the siphon going, just let gravity work.

I kind of wanted to do that, but the LBHS sensei suggested against it. He claimed that if you really, really don't keep the spigot clean, you will get contamination. But, I thought it would be a good thing after this weekend. I could get a spigot and put in my primary fermenter and just keep it off when I use for fermenting. I use the primary for bottling.

the_bird said:

Are you siphoning when you bottle? Make a small investment in a bottling bucket. I put it on the countertop above the dishwasher and sit on a footstool while I bottle on the dishwasher door. No worries about having to keep the siphon going, just let gravity work.

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yep, that or at least an auto siphon.

the_bird said:

Are you siphoning when you bottle? Make a small investment in a bottling bucket. I put it on the countertop above the dishwasher and sit on a footstool while I bottle on the dishwasher door. No worries about having to keep the siphon going, just let gravity work.

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Yeah, you need a bucket with a spigot and you will find that part of it a lot easier. Contrary to the advice given spigots are not hard to clean. I just run hot water through them after each use. I would get a designated one though.

The spigot's easy to remove and sanitize. I'd be inclined to have a separate bucket, just because I so often have something *in* the primary when it's time to bottle (or, I'm trying to brew and bottle at the same time). Cheap enough where I'd just buy a second, dedicated bottling bucket.

Auto-siphon's another good though, though, enough people have spoken glowingly about them that I might give one a shot.

Ol' Grog said:

I kind of wanted to do that, but the LBHS sensei suggested against it. He claimed that if you really, really don't keep the spigot clean, you will get contamination. But, I thought it would be a good thing after this weekend. I could get a spigot and put in my primary fermenter and just keep it off when I use for fermenting. I use the primary for bottling.

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Real easy way to ensure that spigot is clean . . . As soon as I am done I refill my bucket with hat water and drain it out of the spigot. On bottling day I also fill that bucket with Star San and sanatize all my bottles in it . . . I can fit up to 12 at a time. This way it sanatizes my bucket and bottles. Soon as I am done I drain the bucket through the spigot. If I ever get a infection with this method that can be traced back to a dirty spigot in my bottling bucket I will EAT THE BUCKET. . . and you can hold me to that

I know your problem.. Being in an apartment, I'm limited in space for another fridge for a keg. I purchased one of the tap a draft systems and have like 10 jugs... They hold about 2 gallons of beer, (1.8 to be exact) and store really easy... The tapping system is also killer size that fits on a fridge shelf... It's always an option... I normall fill up two gallon jugs then bottle the rests for friends to try and so fourth...



My LHBS sells the starter system's for like $50 or so...

My kit came with a spigot on the fermentor, but not one on the bottling bucket! Sheesh!

Great ideas. The spigot is the way to go. Maybe I'll just buy one and install it on my primary fermenting bucket? Have to think about that one some.

Only problem would be if you got ready to bottle one and you already had another in your primary. I'm assuming you got a secondary with your kit. Just because I know where you shop ;-). Might be worth just buying a bottling bucket. I was thinking that one came with the kit you bought...

No, Chuck advised against it and I gave him the green light to "hook" me up with what an amatuer needed. Everything has worked out pretty good, it's just that now I'm really thinking about a dedicated bottling bucket. I got a 5 gallon bucket here at work that I was going to use for cleaning. Got it home and looked at it more closely and it is a food grade bucket. I may just run down to Ace Hardware or some place similar and put a spigot in. How far from the bottom should I mount the spigot? About one inch???
Oh yeah, I did get a 6 gallon secondary that I am using and doing. Some folks do, some don't. But from what I saw in the bottom of the secondary Friday night before bottling, I think it's a necessary evil.

Put the spigot as close to the bottom as you can get it. Since the beer's only in there for a few minutes, you don't really need to leave any space for stuff to settle out (by the time you bottle, it's all good beer). Mine's probably a half-inch, maybe an inch off the bottom, that's a PITA because I have to tilt the bucket up with one hand, while operating the bottling wand with the other, to get the last couple bottles. It'd be easier if the spigot were just a little lower. Just make sure to leave enough room to attach the spigot, it has a little plastic nut, so you can't cut the hole ALL the way at the bottom. Just locate it as low as you can.

it's a pain if you do it alone. if you have some help, it's a blast to bottle, we end up drinking a few flat beers, and enjoying ourselves.

i've no desire to spend more energy costs on more refrigerators to keg or lager in, so it's bottle conditioned ales for me

I'll ditto the spigot on the bottling bucket.

I bottled last night alone. Not as enjoyable, and I broke the top off a bottle with the capper. That one got drank flat. With help bottling isn't a pain.

I want the best of both worlds..... thinking of getting a Pig and bottling the rest. That way I can give some to friends..... take some to the folks house (they don't drink it, I'll have one or two for dinner) and have a nice small package that fits in the fridge. So far what I've heard of the Pig is pretty positive.