dfhussey
Member
10. Try out the siphon in the sink before you stick it in the beer. I figured it out, but I wound up spilling a bit because I didn't keep it consistent.
9. Buy an extra hose, one for the siphon, one for the bottling bucket. I broke my siphon trying to get it off when I was bottling.
8. Go ahead and buy the bottling rack, it's not fun sanitizing and setting the bottles upside-down on the counter, I swear it's worse than playing Jenga.
7. Keep plenty of towels around. You may need fewer as you bottle more, but it will never hurt to have it.
6. Have your caps out of the package before you start filling the bottles. If you open the package with your teeth, they will fly everywhere.
5. Put a towel under the bottles if your doing it on the floor.
4. Do 12 bottles at a time if you don't have a rack. More gets cumbersome, less wastes time.
3. Fill the bottles with the wand to the top just to the point of overflowing. When you pull the wand out, you have the perfect freeboard above the bottle. It may be easier to let SWMBO do the filling, next time I'll invite her to join.
2. The easiest way for me to clean out the wood chips is to dump the fermenter in the garbage disposal, let it clog, then strain them out with a collander.
1. Simple Green seems to work really well to clean up the spilled beer.
It was a lot of fun. I'll let you know how the IPA turns out.
--Dennis
9. Buy an extra hose, one for the siphon, one for the bottling bucket. I broke my siphon trying to get it off when I was bottling.
8. Go ahead and buy the bottling rack, it's not fun sanitizing and setting the bottles upside-down on the counter, I swear it's worse than playing Jenga.
7. Keep plenty of towels around. You may need fewer as you bottle more, but it will never hurt to have it.
6. Have your caps out of the package before you start filling the bottles. If you open the package with your teeth, they will fly everywhere.
5. Put a towel under the bottles if your doing it on the floor.
4. Do 12 bottles at a time if you don't have a rack. More gets cumbersome, less wastes time.
3. Fill the bottles with the wand to the top just to the point of overflowing. When you pull the wand out, you have the perfect freeboard above the bottle. It may be easier to let SWMBO do the filling, next time I'll invite her to join.
2. The easiest way for me to clean out the wood chips is to dump the fermenter in the garbage disposal, let it clog, then strain them out with a collander.
1. Simple Green seems to work really well to clean up the spilled beer.
It was a lot of fun. I'll let you know how the IPA turns out.
--Dennis