this just in, bottling sucks

just bottled my maple porter yesterday, damn i hate bottling, its so damn tedious and annoying. anyways, a couple hours later everything was said and done, 50 bottles await me.

as i was sitting there sanitizing the bottles i started thinking to myself how i was going to go and buy the soda kegging system the local brew supply store sells and be done with bottling. only problem is, you can just buy the complete system, you need multiple kegs for multiple beers, and then you some place to keep them cool, hmmm problem. better start saving my $$ for a beer fridge.

that is, unless anyone wants to donate ? .... j/k, okay, i'm done ranting now, damn bottles.

heh, yeah bottling is a LOT more work than kegging.

that said, i still bottle some of my batches, and keg others. bottles are a little more portable although I do have all that I need to take a carb'd keg to a remote dispensing site.

Kegging is the best way to go. I haven't made the switch yet. A bottling tree with the vinator on top makes bottling more tolerable. I bought the bench capper and that helps speed things up a bit too.

I kegged my last batch...first keg. It was sooo easy compared to bottling. However, I like having bottles becuase I can have more variety(Only have one tap) and the portability.

I'm definitely scheming on kegging myself. I've bottled 25 gallons in the past 3 wks, and 5 more goes in tonight...it gets old after awhile. I just have these bastard ER bills to pay off before I can invest a cent in kegging. I have 4 cornies and a cobra/picnic tap that were kinda donated to me indefinitely...but I need the tank and the disconnects and the regulators and the fridge/freezer. Not cheap. So I'm sticking with bottling for now. Eventually I'd like to have an operation where I have 2-4 beers on tap at all times, and bottle the rest.

There's a lot to be said in moving from this:



to this:

I went the other way round. I kegged first because I had the equipment. Seemed like I had beer for longer too. I since moved to bottling and although the tap is really really really nice, there is much to be said when someone else opens up one of your bottles and empties it into a pilsner glass. Don't get me wrong I get the same feeling from a keg tap but for me it is all about portability and being able to bring my beer to the masses.

- WW

bottling sucks so much I haven't bottled my steam beer....just sitting there waiting, I should just bite the bullet and do it

I come over and do it for ya. Love anything to do with brewing beer.

- WW

While it certainly isn't my favourite part of brewing, I actually enjoy bottling. It's that little bit of effort that makes the final product all the more enjoyable. I recently got into kegging but I can only have 2 taps. Being someone who craves variety I know I will still be bottling way more brews than I keg. Plus as others have mentioned, the portability is a great benefit to bottling.

wilsonwj said:

I come over and do it for ya. Love anything to do with brewing beer.

- WW

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hop in the car...I'm down in MD

Yeah, I'm not looking forward to bottling. But right now I'm going to have to deal with it. I'm not sure if I can do a corny keg setup while I'm living on a second floor apartment.

Gentlemen,

To bottle or not to bottle,
If or when I get affluent enough to afford a kegging setup,
and room to store all the stuff, ie: 'another room on my house',
I would love to not spend 2-3 nights a week working in the brewery.
And yes, bottling gets old and if it were not for the ale,
it would be intolerable.

Freezers, kegs, and all I just don't have the room.

When I was in the lawn sprinkler business,
digging ditches was like bottling.
It got old fast.
But with the aquisition of a trencher, rather than dig ditches with a bill dukey all day, I spent all day hauling, loading and unloading and messing with the machine.
A Mexican dude,
Savino, dug up yards for irrigation systems with his crew and shovels,
in the same length of time it took for a crew with a trencher, faster.
As the ditches were lots easier to cover up and make look good without running a machine over all the dirt.
A shovel is a lot lighter than trencher.
And I learned a shovel is lots cheaper too!
Really!

After 15 years of bottling, I will bottle again this year.
It takes much of the winter season up however,
time I would rather spend on the trail and the trapline,
or in the knife shop.
But a man has got to have some ale!


jacksknifeshop.tripod.com
{Knife}

My problem right now is that I've been drinking more HB than commercial now that I am brewing more than I have bottles for. Can't fit my Stout in since I'll have another hard limeade to bottle whenever I feel like. Don't want to buy bottles, either. Suxxorz.

looks like you need to go buy some Sam Adams or something and lay off the HB or something....you need bottles!

I don't mind bottling. I have my 4 Yr. old hand me the bottles ..I cap them ..then she puts them in the case. We have fun. The thing I don't like is waiting for the bottles to carb.

A Mexican dude,
Savino, dug up yards for irrigation systems with his crew and shovels,
in the same length of time

After Savino gets done with that irragation system, do you think he might want to bottle a couple batches. Mucho trabajo, pocito dinero? ( I can't spell in Mexican )

*poquito..

Mucho trabajo, pocito dinero? ( I can't spell in Mexican )

Brewing Clamper said:

*poquito..

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thanx ameego

98EXL said:

looks like you need to go buy some Sam Adams or something and lay off the HB or something....you need bottles!

Click to expand...

6er of Sierra Nevada Anniversary just cashed. But still, buying new 12ozers is cheaper than buying beer. Especially when I have HB here.

I have a few of the kegs but still like to bottle so that I have a few of each batch left when the keg is gone.

I've been keggin' for a few years but still bottle the big ones so they can mature somewhere out of the way.

Wild

i agree bottling does have it's benefits, such as portability and i do enjoy giving some of my brews to family and friends so i don't plan on ever getting completely away from it.

my goal, when that money tree i planted 2 years ago starts to bear its fruit, is to get an economy features, full fridge capable of 3 to 4 kegs and go that route, probably start with 2 taps to begin. that would be ideal, that way, on a night like last, i can go pour myself a nice hb draft and watch the sabres/alcs game/mnf game.

I was looking at my kegging options at my local homebrew store and I found a much cheaper kegging system. They have these three bottles that will hold 5 gallons altogether and each acts as a mini keg. When you're ready to use them, you just add the CO2 and they're ready to go. I'm going that route cause I hate sanitizing 50 bottles everytime I brew something.

I'm looking forward to kegging, but I don't mind bottling for now. It just comes with the territory. But cleaning bottles can be overwhelming, especially when you have 6 cases of dirties staring at you every time you step into the garage.

So far I have only bottled 1 brew (53 bottles), but I didn't find it to be that bad. What sucks for me is that I haven't picked up any oxyclean yet, so all my bottles still have labels. I just found a comfy chair, drank while I worked, and it wasn't so bad. Having brew on tap would be awesome, but I couldn't fit a beer fridge into the house or the budget, there is no room in either.

I started with 5L kegs, then went to cornies. I don't think I've bottled an entire case in 7 years. As far as portability goes, the social events I go to are either homebrew meetings when kegs are welcome (and probably necessary) or parties were the people are just too special to drink beer. Two Buck Chuck's, no problem, but beer is just for the lower classes.

Trean72 said:

... They have these three bottles that will hold 5 gallons altogether and each acts as a mini keg.

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Is that the Tap-a-Draft system? http://www.midwestsupplies.com/products/ProdByID.aspx?ProdID=4915

The first brew I kegged was an Irish Dry Stout. It sat in the secondary for four weeks prior to kegging. When I started the process, my son was just starting cleaning the bottles for the Bitter he was bottling that morning. I filled the keg, pressurized, and shook the crap out of the keg for about an hour. When he finally finished bottling I handed him a glass and said "try this".

When he realized it was the stout I'd kegged hours earlier, he called me a bad name and vowed to move to kegs when he could.

It wasn't a fantastic stout that early on, but it was carbinated and very drinkable. It smoothed out a lot over the month.

I don't force the CO2 like that anymore, but it was a great burn at the time...

Yeah, I just can't get into bottling anymore. It has just turned into a chore.
I have an IPA in secondary that has been sitting in the corner for months now because I just can't force myself to clean the bottles. What has made the problem worse is that Stone is now being distributed in Vermont so I promptly bought a case of ruination. Between that and all the fine oktoberfests out it is hard to get motivated to bottle.

Kegging system here I come --- one day hopefuly soon.

I bottled on Saturday. I used the flip tops. It was much easier, but still sucked though...

Bulls Beers said:

I bottled on Saturday. I used the flip tops. It was much easier, but still sucked though...

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yeah i want a case of the 22 oz grolsh bottles, but they're $30+ and i have other things to buy first with that money, like a wort chiller.

Bottling is really getting old to me. After 30+ batches, the novelty of it has worn off and I'm *so* ready to start kegging.