Bottling questions

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.
stricklandia

stricklandia

Active Member
Joined
Feb 23, 2011
Messages
37
Reaction score
0
Location
San Diego
Looking for a ballpark estimate of how long it takes to bottle a 5-gal batch.... I planned to bottle today (Sunday), but house/yard work got the better of me. So I need to bottle on a weeknight after work, and want to make sure I have enough time to do so without staying up till the wee hours. (Not feasible to wait till next weekend, as I'm going out of town.)

Time to sanitize 48 12-oz bottles:
Time to siphon off 5 gal of brew from primary to the bottling bucket:
Time to bottle and cap 48 bottles of beer:

Because this is my first time, I don't have a good sense of how quickly/slowly the beer will siphon off, nor do I know how time-consuming it will be to bottle all of the beer.

Also, how long can sanitized bottles sit around before they need to be sanitized again? e.g., can I sanitize them 24 hrs. before bottling, or do I need to sanitize them right before bottling?

Thanks for any input!
 
It really depends on the person. I bottled my first batch a few weeks ago. I cleaned my bottles in an oxyclean bath, then used starsan right before bottling. I had my SWMBO help me and it took me about 90 minutes to clean, autosiphon to bottling bucket, fill 40 bottles (used some 22 oz), and cap. I also cleaned the carboy and bucket in that time. I just make sure I get anything gross out since you always clean/sanitize again before brewing.
 
If its your first time bottling, and you don't have any help, then I would allow a good 2 hours. With the right equipment and a few batches under your belt, you'll cut that in half. It may take you less than 2 hours but you don't want to rush things your first time. If you plan on keeping with bottling, I would get a bottle tree and a vinator, they make the sanitizing process go so much faster. If you can cover the bottles with some sanitized foil, they would be fine for 24 hours.
 
Kaz said:
If its your first time bottling, and you don't have any help, then I would allow a good 2 hours.
Click to expand...

+1 to that.

If you don't have the money for a bottle tree you can get some cheap milk crates from WalMart, I found some with holes in the bottom just the right size for setting bottles upside down in. They're a lot cheaper and you don't have to worry about something being inside the neck of your bottles.
 
Read this https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/bottling-tips-homebrewer-94812/ It takes me about 45 minutes to bottle 5 gallons of beer with the system I've outlined in the above thread.

you should always sanitize fresh.

If not you are playing Russian Roulette with you beer, eventually it will bite you in the butt.

You should sanitize on bottling day (or brew day if you are brewing.) It only takes a few minutes. If you let a no-rinse, wet contact sanitizer like starsan or iodophor, dry your are reducing it's efficacy by half. If it is dry, any micro organisms that touch the surface render it no longer sanitized. If the walls are wet with sanitizer, that organism would be toast. But dry it would still be alive.

It shouldn't take you more than 10 minutes to sanitize 2 cases of bottles.....
 
Using some 22oz bottle or Growlers is also good if you drink a few at a time or with people. They will save you more time as well.
 
HOPCousin said:
Using some 22oz bottle or Growlers is also good if you drink a few at a time or with people. They will save you more time as well.
Click to expand...

DO NOT USE GROWLERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Growlers are NOT recommended for bottling as the glass can sometimes be thinner than your standard bottles...they are meant for transporting beer, not for carbing-up and conditioning...


Carbed beer and carbonating beer are 2 seperate things.

To carb a beer whether or not is is done naturally or with co2 you are forcing the gas into the solution. The pressure builds up, then there's a point where either the bottle fails or the co2, seeking the path of least resistance, forces itself into solution. You could call it a peak point, where there is a lot of pressure in the bottle, both already in solution and in the headspace trying to go into the solution, eventually it balances out and the beer is carbed.

Beer bottles, champagne bottles and kegs are rated with a higher psi/volume of co2 than wine bottles and growlers.

Already carbed and kegged beer is at a stable volume of co2 which is below the volume that growlers and winebottles are rated at. The FORCING of the co2 already happened. Why do you think kegs are made of metal and very very strong? To handle the pressure.

Our Buddy Rukus

RukusDM said:
This is because during carbing, the pressure can go above 30 or 40 PSI. I have a thread in the cider forum where I did several tests bottle carbing sweet hard cider. There is allot of data there if your interested.

I have a bottle with a pressure gauge on it. I recorded pressures during the carbing process. This is how the data was generated. I also recorded pressures while pasteurizing the cider.

I recently bottled some lager I made. I also filled my gauge bottle and my lower pressure gauge bottle pegged at 35 PSI as that was the limit of the gauge. It probably ended up in the 40's, but no way to tell for sure.


When we bottle condition beer, we are really simulating force carbing like the keg folks do. We cause a ferment by adding sugar. This creates a high pressure in the bottle. CO2 doesn't like to dissolve in a warm liquid. We then put some bottles in the fridge. The temperature of the liquid drops and the CO2 then begins to dissolve in the liquid.

It seems to take several days at fridge temperatures for the CO2 to fully saturate the liquid for a maximum saturation for that liquid temperature.

While the CO2 is moving into the liquid, the pressure slowly drops. I've monitored this process as well with the pressure gauge.

Pressures go way higher than folks think while bottle conditioning. In the following data, I carbed sweet hard cider and stopped the carbing and then pasteurized the cider when the bottle was at 22 PSI. My Lager went above 35 PSI. The data doesn't show the extremes the pressure rises with beer as I stopped the cider at 22 PSI, but it would have continued if i hadn't stopped it.

The gauge bottle has a nice side effect, it tells you when your bottles are conditioned as the pressure rise stops. I then throw them in the Fridge to cold condition for several days before I open. The gauge also tells you when they are carbed as the pressure drop stops. Pretty basic really.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f32/bottle-carbing-idea-final-data-review-205862/

PressureTest-1.jpg
Click to expand...

RukusDM said:
No, when you bottle condition, the slight fermentation we cause by adding priming sugar just builds pressure up in the bottle. The pressures seem to go up into the 30's and 40's PSI from what I've seen.

The CO2 doesn't really move into the liquid until the temperature drops. Some CO2 may, but not the majority of it. CO2 doesn't dissolve into solution until a lower temperature.

This is really what we do when we force carb in a keg. We raise the pressure up when the beer is cold. The CO2 moves into the solution. The tap pressure is lowered for proper delivery and the beer either sets for cold aging, or it is consumed at that time.

What you would see with the pressure gauge (if you use one bigger than my first bottle had. Should use a 100 PSI Gauge) is that the pressure climbs over time and will level off.

Once the pressure levels off, that means all of the priming sugar has been used up by the yeast. Next, you put them into the fridge. You will see the pressure drop over several days. Eventually, it also will level off. I like to let them sit for a few more days after that, but really if the pressure stops dropping, all of the CO2 that can be dissolved at that temperature has been achieved.
.
Click to expand...

I think it goes down to this.....is it worth playing Russian Roulette with your money and the time you spent bringing your brew along from grain to bottling day???

russian-roulette.jpg
 
I recently bottled for the first time and it took me about an hour.
 
between pouring one-step half gallon between 17 bottles(4-5 at a time) then using it to sanitize the tubes siphon bucket.I guess if i was using a gallon it would be quicker.It takes me 2 hours to rack bottle and clean my mess up, inclulding the carboy and floor.start to finish priming sugar hydrometer. I also like diluting a half bottle of distilled water to rinse between all bottles but sticking the neck in a shallow dish of one-step right before botteling.
 
Revvy said:
DO NOT USE GROWLERS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Growlers are NOT recommended for bottling as the glass can sometimes be thinner than your standard bottles...
Click to expand...

Hey, Revvy's back! Good to see you around these parts, buddy!
 
Growlers are fine. My LHBS guys have been at it for a long time and sell used growlers and caps. Other Home brewers I know have used them for years and I have done at least 10 batches using them without a single problem. Just make sure the rubber seals inside the caps look good and make sure you sanitize the caps. You can by new ones at your LHBS. It will save you a lot of time if your going to have few at a time.
 
So my first batch is in bottles. Looking back on the whole process, a scene from the movie "Stripes" comes to mind: an empty bedroom, no one on camera, a large wicker hamper in the foreground. Suddenly, the top of the hamper pops open, and Dan Ackroyd and his girlfriend pop out. Ackryod says:

"Well, that was interesting."

Spoken with intentional ambiguity to keep you wondering if he means "interesting" in a good or bad way. That about sums up my experience brewing and bottling my first batch. Don't get me wrong; I'm hooked, and can't wait to brew my next beer. But it was something of an ordeal, a chore -- but there are tons of opportunities throughout the process where I can become more efficient and cut down on the time spent on stuff.

Bottling tonight took me 4+ hours, including sanitizing of equipment and bottles, boiling the primer, siphoning into the bottling bucket, bottling the beer, and cleaning up the carboy and other equipment (and the mess I made on the garage floor). I'm guessing I should be able to cut that time in half next time.

My big rookie move: while siphoning from the carboy to the bottling bucket, I got down near the bottom and lost suction. I tried like 10 times to restart the siphoning, but couldn't get it going and finally gave up, thinking that the longer I tried, the greater the chances I would screw up the beer. In the end, there was about an inch of beer left on top of the yeast cake. I bottled 37 12-oz bottles and 4 bombers, so if there was a full 5 gal in the carboy, that means I lost 3+ quarts. But oh well, the first (and probably the second and third or more) batches are learning experiences, right?

Can't decide if I want to get more practice with siphoning, or just get a Better Bottle with spigot....
 
Additional bottling question: my bottled beers are carbing up, and the temperature in the garage was ranging between 60 and 70+ degrees, which seems like a good range for this process. But the weather has cooled, and overnight temps have been hitting 50 out there in the garage. Is this too low for beer that was bottled a week ago and is supposed to be carbing up? I know that after it's been carbing up for 2-3 weeks, it's good to take it down to a lower temp, but what about before that point?
 
That's why I keep mine in boxes in the house to condition. The garage temp varies too much this time of year. After 3 weeks,maybe 4,I pop some in the fridge for 3-5 days to get'em cleared of initial chill haze. It firms up the lil bit of yeast trub on the bottom,allowing me to pour off more beer into my glass.
 
Thanks for the response. But my question is more about whether or not having the beer get down to 50 degrees for several nights in a row is going to be a problem? (It's only been in the bottle for a week.) Would that have stalled the carbing-up process, since it's yeast-driven? I've since brought the beer into the house (hopefully no bottles will blow up).
 
It will retard the process for the time that the temp is that low, because you put the yeast to sleep. All you then need to do is bring them back to their above 70 temps and they will continue where they left off. But for example if they were three week in the bottle but spent 2 below fifty, they only got about 1 week of carbing, and will need another 2 at least before they are done.....
 

Similar threads

level-one
Setup for blow off and preventing sanitizer in beer
Replies
3
Views
350
hotbeer
hotbeer
J
How do you clean your bottles?
Replies
34
Views
1K
ncbrewer
N
R
For Sale Los Angeles/Pasadena, CA Area - Wine Tabletop/Floor Corker, Bottle Tree, and 144 Bottle Wine Rack
Replies
0
Views
299
rtogio
R
M
Infection after 2weeks in bottles?
2
Replies
67
Views
2K
IslandLizard
IslandLizard
Ali01
All my beers have this overpowering off flavor after bottling
2
Replies
76
Views
4K
WesBrew
WesBrew
wps-hbt2

Latest posts

Back
Top