Last night, I was just going over my bottling game plan for 5 gallons of brown ale and 5 of a 2 Hearted Ale clone and just getting that daunting feeling of how long it's going to take made me start thinking of a way to make it faster. I began brainstorming how to automate some of the process using some aluminum extrusion, pneumatic cylinders, and an air compressor.
Basically, it would be a gravity-fed system with a piece of tubing coming off of the bottling bucket that splits off to 3 tubes (or however many beers you desire to fill and cap at once) with bottle fillers attached to the ends. The bottle fillers would all be attached to a piece of aluminum to keep them all equally spaced. This bar is attached to a pneumatic cylinder that is pedal-operated.
Pressing (and holding) the pedal lowers the bottle fillers into the bottles (which are positioned onto a sliding rail system) and when the fillers hit the inside bottom of the bottle, the bottles are filled with beer with the help of gravity. Fill to desired height, depress the pedal, and the bottle fillers retract to the rest position.
The bottles are then released from position one and manually slid along the rail to position 2: the capping station, and locked into place.
Using some de-sta-co clamps with disc magnets glued to the ends, you position caps onto each magnet, then flip the clamps down (individually or tie them together) so the clamp lowers and holds the cap onto the bottle opening.
Then, you press down pneumatic pedal 2 to activate the cylinders (2 per bottle on opposite sides of the bottle) that have a crimping attachment on the ends that will contact and crimp the cap from 2 sides, just like the manual bottle cappers. Depress the pedal and the cylinders retract into the rest position.
Now you should have 3 filled and capped bottles of beer in less than a minute easily (actual time depending on gravity pushing the beer through 3 tubes). Assuming 3 bottles per minute (I feel it could be much faster than that) you could bottle and cap 5 gallons of beer in under 17 minutes.
I've attached some sketches I drew out this morning. What do you guys think?
Basically, it would be a gravity-fed system with a piece of tubing coming off of the bottling bucket that splits off to 3 tubes (or however many beers you desire to fill and cap at once) with bottle fillers attached to the ends. The bottle fillers would all be attached to a piece of aluminum to keep them all equally spaced. This bar is attached to a pneumatic cylinder that is pedal-operated.
Pressing (and holding) the pedal lowers the bottle fillers into the bottles (which are positioned onto a sliding rail system) and when the fillers hit the inside bottom of the bottle, the bottles are filled with beer with the help of gravity. Fill to desired height, depress the pedal, and the bottle fillers retract to the rest position.
The bottles are then released from position one and manually slid along the rail to position 2: the capping station, and locked into place.
Using some de-sta-co clamps with disc magnets glued to the ends, you position caps onto each magnet, then flip the clamps down (individually or tie them together) so the clamp lowers and holds the cap onto the bottle opening.
Then, you press down pneumatic pedal 2 to activate the cylinders (2 per bottle on opposite sides of the bottle) that have a crimping attachment on the ends that will contact and crimp the cap from 2 sides, just like the manual bottle cappers. Depress the pedal and the cylinders retract into the rest position.
Now you should have 3 filled and capped bottles of beer in less than a minute easily (actual time depending on gravity pushing the beer through 3 tubes). Assuming 3 bottles per minute (I feel it could be much faster than that) you could bottle and cap 5 gallons of beer in under 17 minutes.
I've attached some sketches I drew out this morning. What do you guys think?