Bottling is what you make of it!

Im getting ready to bottle my 5th batch.yes I know, not the most by any standards but enough to know my way around my bottling set up. I keep reading all these "bottling sucks" threads, but it doesn't have to be that way. Make it enjoyable for you. When I bottle, I grab the iPod and headphones and just get to it. Some good tunes and nothing to bother me, I find it quite relaxing actually. I'm not here to bag legging by any means, my best friend and also home brewer strictly kegs some have seen both worlds. My preference is bottling. guess I'm just venting, but like my title says, bottling is what you make of it. If you make it a painful, not organized pain in your ass, well chances are you won't like it. But customize and make your set up efficient, and you can bottle like a beast. Rant over, thanks for listening

good on you for enjoying it. i strictly keg, so i can say i like hearing someone has fun bottling

I may in the future definitely pick up a kegging set up. Both have their advantages and disadvantages agreed. But when people all the time curse bottling, I'm like, well you just didn't take the time to fine tune your set up to what works best. Like I said, I'll probably pick up a kegging set up when cash flow/SWMBO allows lol

I'm with you. I like bottling sometimes because it's therapeutic for me; but I like the consistency kegging offers (carbonation, taste, etc...)

raptorkeeper89 said:

But when people all the time curse bottling, I'm like, well you just didn't take the time to fine tune your set up to what works best.

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That's exactly the impetus for my bottling tips sticky refining the system til it's fast and easy.

I enjoy bottling. I understand kegging can give me beer quicker but the process is nice and relaxing. Normally I can do the entire process in about an hour of work. Normally I wake up boil up my priming sugar, grab a shower while it cools then start bottling. I am done as everyone is waking up in my house.

@Revvy, much thanks to you!!! The first time I bottled was less than superb. I eventually read your thread, and while not an exact copy of your process, I took some tips and tricks an applied it to my set up. Now, as you can see by this thread, bottling for me is a relaxing, enjoyable process.

I wouldn't say I enjoy bottling. It's not my favorite part of the hobby, especially considering I brew quite a lot. I don't hate it, though, either. I have managed to streamline the process, so I can do it pretty quickly these days. I do hope to start kegging this year, but I will still bottle as well.

I too don't find bottling a pain. I put on a ball game, get set up and bottle all in less than an hour, not counting sanitizing which I do the day before. After reading revvy's thread I have used a lot of his tips that have made it much easier. Plus I guess learning from experience and getting a bench capper have made it pretty easy. I know a lot of folks would fault santizing early but I completely dry the bottles, cover them with clingwrap and tape the boxes shut. No problems on the 5 brews I've done this way as far as biological contamination goes. I guess if it works for soft drink bottling it should for beer and I worked in a soft drink plant bottling, sanitation, and syrup batching for almost 30 years.

I am with RaptorKeeper. I enjoy bottling, probably because it is the last step in brewing. Sure kegging is easier and I use kegging for my session beers that go quickly. Everything else gets bottled for proper aging.

I do both, depending on the desired outcome just as LansingX mentioned. But no matter how fine tuned and efficient I make my bottling process, it will never be faster than kegging and therefore, less appealing to me in the end.

I never got the bottling hate, but I never seem to have enough bottles around. It goes pretty quick if you know how everything works.

Let me think about this; if I spend hundreds of dollars on kegging stuff I can get beer almost as good with slightly less effort? I haven’t done it, but it seems that with cleaning corneys hoses and lines the time thing would be a wash. Then let’s add the time of refilling the CO2 bottle and jacking with the pressure. We probably shouldn’t count the time pouring and waiting for the foam to subside.

Maybe it’s cleaning the bottles. If you wait ‘til the last minute and your bottles are all gross, it would be a pain to wash them all at once.

I guess we'll never know why people hate bottling. The "bottling sucks" crowd would never post in a thread with "bottling" in the title.

Wynne-R said:

Let me think about this; if I spend hundreds of dollars on kegging stuff I can get beer almost as good with slightly less effort? I haven’t done it, but it seems that with cleaning corneys hoses and lines the time thing would be a wash. Then let’s add the time of refilling the CO2 bottle and jacking with the pressure. We probably shouldn’t count the time pouring and waiting for the foam to subside.

Maybe it’s cleaning the bottles. If you wait ‘til the last minute and your bottles are all gross, it would be a pain to wash them all at once.

I guess we'll never know why people hate bottling. The "bottling sucks" crowd would never post in a thread with "bottling" in the title.

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I've done both (a lot of both, actually). I still bottle, but from the kegs.

Don't bother commenting on something you haven't done. I really do understand your points, but you've exaggerated greatly on things that I won't go into. I tell my kids that an exaggeration is the beginning of a failed debate.

Kegging is superior in almost every way. I just bottled a Belgian quad yesterday from the keg, so I'm here to tell you that you can have your cake and eat it too.

I won't say that "bottling sucks" though. I did it a LOT, and never minded. For me, kegging is better.

I still do both. I like being able to grab a few bottles to take to a friends house, and I love pulling a draft off the tap. They both rock, and I don't mind bottling either. I also prep everything, then have a simple routine, fill, cap, set in rack, fill, cap, set in rack, etc, etc, etc, etc, etc.... you get the point.

I used to really enjoy bottling myself, then I got into kegging. I started off by filling a keg then bottling the remainder, now I just make my brews so that fit into kegs without the need for for bottling

I think I may be the king of bottling around here. I've bottled 127 batches now. My system is quick and easy. I often bottle a batch as I brew another batch. Bottled homebrew ages so nicely and it's a real treat to drink some bottles that have aged for months in the back of my refrigerators.

Wynne-R said:

Let me think about this; if I spend hundreds of dollars on kegging stuff I can get beer almost as good with slightly less effort? I haven’t done it, but it seems that with cleaning corneys hoses and lines the time thing would be a wash. Then let’s add the time of refilling the CO2 bottle and jacking with the pressure. We probably shouldn’t count the time pouring and waiting for the foam to subside.

Maybe it’s cleaning the bottles. If you wait ‘til the last minute and your bottles are all gross, it would be a pain to wash them all at once.

I guess we'll never know why people hate bottling. The "bottling sucks" crowd would never post in a thread with "bottling" in the title.

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It seems as though you haven't thought about it. Shame.

Yesterday I made up a batch of ginger beer for Mrs Wolf snr (the even grumpier) and put it in bottles. After doing that I am even more in love with kegging