Any tips for first time bottling??

Just took a sample and measure the SG and its currently 1.011, Im going to bottle it tomorrow. I previously had concerns about its colour being to dark but the sample was a nice golden yellow. Anyway Any Tips for a first bottling to go smoothly and efficiently as possible?

I normally do it like this...

Boil priming solution and set aside to cool.

Clean and sanitize bottles and caps (often done earlier in the day).

Clean and sanitize bottling bucket.

Clean and sanitize racking cane, autosiphon, tube, and bottling wand.

Pour priming solution into bottling bucket.

Siphon beer into bottling bucket, carefully. Gently swirl to ensure good mixing.

Replace racking cane with bottling wand (sanitized).

Line up some bottles on the floor.

Wife sits down on floor and fills bottles.

I take bottles and cap them.

Put them away in a warm spot to carb up.

I think that pretty much sums it up.

If you have a dishwasher then the top rack is a nice spot to drip dry the bottles from the sanitizer. I use the door to do the bottling and the spillage is contained. I have a 7.5 gallon container filled with sanitizer and sanitize about 18 at time, put them on the rack, fill, cap and then do 18 more.

I like to sanitize my caps in some cheap vodka. Some samitizing solutions can leave the leftovers a nasty color(I alway sanitize an extra 10 or 12 because I am clumsy and drinking during the process and tend to drop things on the floor).

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Now, it sounds like you're bottling what, a week after pitching the yeast? If you're not going to secondary, I'd recommend waiting 3 weeks.

Its been two and a half weeks, 6 days in the primary, and 10 in the secondary

Ok, good enough.

The woman at the brew shop I got my caps at suggested I boil them before capping. I use a no rinse oxysan for sanitation, should I sanitize first then boil, or is boiling enough to kill the germs

Don't boil them at all. sanitizer is all you need for the caps.

some even say that boiling can damage the seal by making it too soft and breaking it down.

a couple tips: you bottling bucket doesn't need to be extremely high...if it gets too high it might try to fill too quickly. if it seems like you're aerating the first couple seconds of each bottle fill, close the valve on the bucket. it doesn't need to be wide open really.
have someone help you. its rough to bottle solo, cuz its not a great idea to fill 2 cases and then cap them afterwards.

ever knock over a line of dominoes?

-Start with clean bottles
-Sanitize the already cleaned bottles just prior to bottling- I use the vinator with either sanstar or Iodifer(less foam)
http://pivo.northernbrewer.com/nbstore/action/search-do?searchTerm=vinator
View attachment 3574
-I throw the bottle caps in the bottom of this while I am doing the bottles. I think 4.5 oz of bottle caps is close to 50 caps.
-weigh out 4-5 oz of the corn sugar with a cup or two of water
start water to a boil add the sugar and boil until the water is again clear
-Start to rack the beer from the fermenter to the bottling vessel and at 1/4 into it add the simple syrup, keep racking until it is finished. if you are not sure that the sugar is distributed evenly give it a light swish around(carful now, keep it to a minimum)
-use a bottling wand and fill up the bottles to a 1/2 from the top.
-One by one attach the caps.
I find that it is mostly a one man operation. A second set of hands is sometimes useful but more often than not they just get in the way.
Once my 5 year old wanted to help bottling. He did not understand the fine art of how much pressure to put down on the benchtop capper. Talk about a bottle bomb. They really spread out glass that way. Thankfully nobody was physicly hurt. Today he still won't come in the room if I am bottling.

I read somewhere that you should fill your bottles, set the caps on the bottle,and then wait like an hour or two before youi crimp down the caps so the yeast can get to work, produce some CO2 and push the oxygen out from under the caps so the beer doesn't oxidize as fast.

For a session ber that you are going to drink right away I wouldn't sweat this.

Considering it takes 1-3 weeks for a bottle conditioned beer to carbonate, I think this is worth a try for anything you intend to age more than six months or so.

M2c,

I wish I read some of these posts a few days ago. I bottled my 2nd batch Monday and probably should have done a couple of things differently.

In hindsight I should have closed the spigot halfway on my bottling bucket. I have one of those bottling tubes and the brew was coming out too fast in my opinion and making bubbles in the bottles.

I probably should not have capped right away. This would have also reduced some of the oxygen buildup.

The more I learn about home brew the more I think its like making good bbq. The more times you do it, the more you learn, and the better your final product will be.

meatman

So after 2 weeks, my carbonation is there but seems weak. I put the amount of priming sugar in a pyrex, cover with enough water (to about a cup), boil, cool, then add to bottling bucket.

Anything I'm doing wrong here?

owentp said:

So after 2 weeks, my carbonation is there but seems weak. I put the amount of priming sugar in a pyrex, cover with enough water (to about a cup), boil, cool, then add to bottling bucket.

Anything I'm doing wrong here?

Click to expand...

Being impatient. I see Revvy and other pros state time and time again that you should be prepared to wait at least three weeks, with the beer at 70 degrees, for carbonation.

Sure, some beers carb faster, but this is the baseline.