Automated Bottle Filling and Capping Station

[Apple_Jacker]

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?

 

[Apple_Jacker]

Pictures below

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View attachment 1425665369940.jpg

 

[kombat]

What do you guys think?

I think it's time to start buying kegs.

 

[Apple_Jacker]

I have a keg and some accessories for it (it was given to me) but no way to keep it cold. I like the convenience and portability of a bottled beer. I've seen bottle fillers that can attach to a keg but I don't have that capability yet. For those who don't want to fool with kegs and prefer bottling, something like this would speed up the process significantly.

 

[kombat]

Alright, alright, I'll give you a serious answer.

I think it'd be a fun project to tinker with, if you've got some extra time and money and enjoy working with such mechanical things. However, I don't think it will ever be practical. I think it would be impossible to get it to work smoothly and consistently. I see it dropping caps, overfilling bottles, failing to properly cap bottles, oxidizing the beer, and so on and so on. I think it's more trouble than it's worth, and you'll waste a couple batches of beer trying to make it work. I think your time/money would be better served finishing outfitting your kegging setup.

As for taking bottles, I do that all the time. I use kegs at home, but if I'm going to a party, I can easily and quickly fill anything from a small, regular beer bottle, to a flip-top bomber, to a 64 oz growler, to (as of later this year) my 128 oz uKeg. I use BierMuncher's "We no need no sinkin' beer gun" bottle filler, which is literally nothing more than a rigid racking cane with the "hook" cut off, one end tapered, and a simple rubber stopper. It fits perfectly inside a picnic tap and lets me easily fill all the bottles I want with perfectly-carbonated beer.

If you're going to enjoy playing with that device, then by all means go for it (and post pictures!) But as a practical solution to eliminate the tediousness of bottling, I don't see it working, sorry.

 

[Apple_Jacker]

Well I wrote a long reply two times now but the app keeps crashing.

Short version - I do like to tinker.
I get to design custom machines for my line of work and just thought of this as an idea last night and drew it when I woke up.
Something like this is not meant to be a cheap alternative, and not user-friendly to people not mechanically inclined.
My biggest issue with something like this is not breaking bottles while crimping the caps.
Oxidation doesn't concern me with this kind of setup anymore than me bottling beer the way i do now.
Overfilling bottles is a very real possibility if you don't pay attention as this is a manual and pneumatic process.
If I ever get some free time and spare cash, I'll make a real design of this thing and build a prototype.... and test and trial it with water so I don't needlessly waste any beer...

But I have a patio, backyard fence, bar, and keezer to worry about before I can ever think of putting money and time towards this. 🍺🍺

 

[TheHappyHopper]

I have always liked the idea of something like this and if you could figure out a way to make it work for you, that would be awesome. However, it doesn't sound like you will be getting much time savings on 5 gallon batches (if you were doing 10+ gallons, it would definitely speed things up), your 17 minute estimate is after everything is set up, priming sugar dissolved, beer siphoned to bottling bucket, etc. My bottling for 5 gallon batches from start to finish is about an hour (and that includes all the setup and clean up afterwards - I wash bottles and then sanitize in the dishwasher beforehand) - the amount of time that I am actually filling and capping bottles is about half an hour.

I have seen some neat things people have done where they fill 3 bottles at a time with something similar to what you describe, but they still end up manually capping - I think the multi-bottle-capper would be the hardest part - making sure that the bottles are in there perfectly straight and in line with the capper mechanism.

 

[dcbw]

[ame]https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XZiiDPr5XV0[/ame]

This one actually seems doable. Were I to make one (and I've thought about it) this is the direction I'd go.

 

[ModestBrewhouse]

Have a look at my concept:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f51/automatic-beer-bottling-system-diy-509887/
This might help you in yours!!!

 

[KartRacer54]

Here is my pneumatic capper. Have zero issues with bottle breaking. This may provide better solution for the capping process x 3 of course.
Link to video
http://youtu.be/J3_8qYSxgYY

 

[JKoravos]

I keep entertaining the idea of building an automated bottling/capping line, as well. As much as I love DIY and automation, I always come back to the fact that I still have to clean all the bottles and clean up the machine at the end of it all. In the end I don't know if it would save much time or effort, if that's what you're going for.

 

[fivepointslow]

I actually enjoy bottling beer. Usually takes me about 45mins to bottle a 5gal batch using 12oz bottles. I blast each bottle with co2 before filling and set them all to the side. After all the bottles are filled I then cap them after blasting with some co2 again. If you are filling and then capping each one it takes a while.

Here's the issue with mechanical stuff (I'm a mechanic) it will always break down or have some type of flaw. Be a shame to have destroyed bottles with beer all over the place. Either way it's cool to see you think outside the norm. Wish you the best of luck!

 

[JKoravos]

I actually enjoy bottling beer. Usually takes me about 45mins to bottle a 5gal batch using 12oz bottles. I blast each bottle with co2 before filling and set them all to the side. After all the bottles are filled I then cap them after blasting with some co2 again. If you are filling and then capping each one it takes a while.

Here's the issue with mechanical stuff (I'm a mechanic) it will always break down or have some type of flaw. Be a shame to have destroyed bottles with beer all over the place. Either way it's cool to see you think outside the norm. Wish you the best of luck!

It only takes you 45 minutes to clean all of your bottles, sanitize your bottling bucket and equipment, transfer your beer, prime it, get your equipment ready, fill all the bottles, cap all the bottles and clean up afterwards? You must be a magician, that takes me like 3 hours.

 

[eelpout]

I actually enjoy bottling beer. Usually takes me about 45mins to bottle a 5gal batch using 12oz bottles. !

Yep. Bottling more and more again. 45 sounds about right once you get your system down.

 

[JKoravos]

It takes me nearly 45 minutes to find everything I need to start bottling.

 

[fivepointslow]

It takes me nearly 45 minutes to find everything I need to start bottling.

well if you factor that in....

 

[rockydog101]

Best answer is use 22 oz bottles!!

 

[JKoravos]

Best answer is use 22 oz bottles!!

I use 640 oz bottles.

 

[rockydog101]

I use 640 oz bottles.

I tried but my arms got too tired!

 

[passedpawn]

To the OP, if you actually build that thing, it will make my idea look kinda dumb. But maybe doubling your bottling speed is enough?

 

[Onkel_Udo]

For some folks bottling beer can be a Zen-like experience much as washing the dishes or mowing the lawn are for others. I find all three a chore so I keg.

That being said, making an assembly line using what you have plus junk found around the house can significantly speed the process. Back when I was in OK and had a brew buddy that preferred bottles but did 10 gallon batches we did just that. With a bench capper, a bottle tree on a lazy susan and bottling wand in between all we had to add was a foot pedal to raise the bottle to wand. The only thing we never could get right is an automated cap dispenser...this ended up the bottle-neck (pun intended) in the process.

 

[30Bones]

I have been brewing since 07 and started off kegging. Never bottled until late 2014 and absolutely enjoy the process and think it carbs better than C02, but that might just be because of the hours spent bottling.

If you can make an automated setup I applaud you sir.

 

[mattd2]

I have seen a 3 or 4 bottle setup that they manually cap. Basically each position can be loaded separately so that you swap the bottles out one at a time and between that you have plenty of time to place a cap on the last bottle filled and manually cap it.