Pontiac_Guy
Well-Known Member
I have a big cup of black coffee (it's 9am), Dream Theater playing in the background, and my bottles in Star San sanitizing. This Caribou Slobber is going down!
Bottling day is here!
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Sounds great!
Varmintman
Well-Known Member
And now begins the longest three weeks of your life.
Feels good though huh
Feels good though huh
Pontiac_Guy
Well-Known Member
I learned a valuable lesson today; invest in a longer hose to connect to my auto-siphon. The two foot one that came with my NB kit doesn't suffice if you're siphoning alone. Was only able to pull just over 4 gallons from the carboy before making a mess and stirring up the trub.
While you are investing, I would recommend getting another bucket. This will allow you to siphon off all the way down to trub without trying to balance that with filling bottles. You may also want to get a wedge (of some form) to put under your bucket. I've always used a little piece of 2x4 to lean my buckets (some fancy math dictates that your trubs footprint will be smaller at an angle).
My setup (for bottling) is a bottling bucket (spigot on the bottom) w/ about 2-3 feet of hose and a bottle wand (auto shutoff without having to restart siphon). I've had a lot of positive experience with this, then I switched to mostly kegs.
My setup (for bottling) is a bottling bucket (spigot on the bottom) w/ about 2-3 feet of hose and a bottle wand (auto shutoff without having to restart siphon). I've had a lot of positive experience with this, then I switched to mostly kegs.
That's what I've been doing. I have 3-4 feet of 3/8" tubing connecting my bottling wand to the bottling bucket. No bubbles,or air pockets from shutting off the spigot or siphon. I can sit in a comfortable chair with the bottles on top of an old 12 pack cooler while bottling. A low round table in front of me for capping,the bottle tree & vinator on a dining room chair on my left. Everything in arms reach & bottle away.
Varmintman
Well-Known Member
That is the secret to bottling. Find a way that works for you and run with it. It does not matter what others say as long as you are enjoying YOUR process.
I know some guys can bottle a batch in under a hour and I say more power to them. With clean up it takes me 2 hours and I enjoy the heck out of it
I know some guys can bottle a batch in under a hour and I say more power to them. With clean up it takes me 2 hours and I enjoy the heck out of it
About 2.5 for me with bad back & hips. That's why I designed a way to sit down & reach everything easy while bottling.
Varmintman
Well-Known Member
My wife rolled the computer chair in for me once while I was bottling. Felt so good I did not want to stop bottling that night
And now it is part of my routine.
I just did the same last Saturday. Was using a scoop chair,but the comp chair is def more comfortable! 
I Used Revvy's bottling thread (i know it's stickied around here somewhere) to give me the idea of mounting the bottling wand to the spigot with about 1.5" of hose. That, along with the idea of breaking the curved portion of a racking cane to make a dip tube, probably were the 2 best improvements to the bottling process for me.
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