Bottling Automation

Before I start, let me just say that I'm quite pleased with my current bottling techniques, which is to say that I think I'm doing it as fast as possible, but not as fast as it could be done. (I'd prefer to spend zero time bottling, or as close to it as possible). I'm following Revvy's very handy bottling guide, bottle washer, dishwasher-as-a-drying-rack, and bottling wand attached to the bucket directly.

However, I have an irresistible desire to tinker, and I've been thinking about ways in which to cheaply automate (or psuedo-automate) the bottling process.

There was a good thread on this a while back, and I'd have resurrected it 'cept it was getting a bit off track. https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/bottling-automation-ideas-52840/index3.html


Basically, I want to brainstorm a few things with you guys. First, has anyone tried the multiple wands at the same time thing? How well does it work? My suspicious is that different wands would fill each bottle at different speeds accounting for a bit of pressure difference between wands, and that you couldn't fill 4 bottles (or however many) at the same time because of this. Another problem I would foresee is that the more wands you have filling at the same time, the less pressure you have in each. But maybe someone has tried this and can comment on actual results.

Second, I was thinking about a basic "bottler" that could be constructed super cheap. Here's a crudely drawn picture:



It basically consist of a long, upwards tilting rack of bottles to the right of a hand actuated gate, and an area for full bottles to the left. The user would line up a bunch (20+) bottles on this long gravity-driven "conveyor". Then bottling consist of two steps, one for each hand.

Right Hand: take bottling wand which is on a flexible, long piece of tubing attached to the bucket which is nice and high (more gravity = more flow) and fill the bottle at the bottom

Left Hand: when bottle is full, poke the spring loaded gate pressing against the bottle inwards, allowing the bottle to be pushed through the gate mechanism and thus loading a new bottle where the old one was. The gate springs back automatically (hence the spring) catching the new bottle. Then left hand can place a cap on the bottle while right hand fills the new one. I don't have a bench capper yet, but you could even cap as you go with a bench capper.

This is obviously not a huge improvement over the standard method but I wanted to throw the idea out there. Maybe someone can improve it or think of cheap ways to automate it?

Has anybody tried to automate bottling filling? I'm surprised Yuri hasn't built one with a sensor actuated solenoid or some sort.

Some neat thoughts. I enjoy the other thread to. My take is basically use your ramp / gate approach, then use a lever or foot pedal to raise the bottle to the wand (or lower the wand to the bottle). while the lever or pedal is depressed. When you release it, open the gate and cycle it through. A bench caper could then automatically cap the bottle when leaves the gate. One lever press or pedal press would be a 'cycle'. I'd leave that human controlled in the first version so you get the best fill possible.

i'm not an engineer by any means, but a few problems i see with this:
1. if your tilting rack of bottles doesnt shake/vibrate or actually have a conveyor of sorts, your bottles will most likely just sit where they are, or jam against each other and the walls of the contraption, leaving deadspace at your gates.
2. what's pushing the bottle through the gate? is your hand grabbing the bottle from the gate?

if you have the space for a tilting rack, and you've got your wand on a piece of tubing already, why don't you just setup your bottles on a rack of sorts that will just slide as one piece. If your tubing is long enough, just fill the bottles where they stand and slide the entire rack to the left as you go. Use your left hand to slide it, and to cap off the filled bottles. Incorporating the capper into this would be more difficult though.

filling from a keg might be easier b/c you could control the pressure and hence the timing. If you had multiple wands, perhaps 4 bottles at a time (or more)!

imo, for one batch (either 5 or 10 gallons at a time), not quite worth trying to automate. Good luck though. I'll be following and maybe borrow your idea later on.

You might want to take a look at the Meheen Manufacturing Merlin filler.

http://www.meheen-mfg.com/bottlingequipment.html



Way more than most homebrewers might need, but you may be able to get some ideas from what Dave built.