Bottling sucks!

[FallsDamBrewery]

My wife and I just bottled our first batch of beer tonight...and...bottling........sucks hairy berries! It was a smooth process, other than when I cracked the first bottle I capped when I capped it too hard.

It is messy, wasteful (I only bottled 49 twelve oz. bottles), and just too much work. Kegging...here we come!:rockin:

 

[annasdadhockey]

hairy berrie

She's a great actress, I loved her in "Monster's Ball"

 

[quickerNu]

I have bottled 50+ batches- just about to finally start kegging. Sometimes bottling induces a relaxing, zen-like state. Usually it just induces a pain in my a$%.

 

[jigidyjim]

49 bottles is pretty good by my standards. Usually I get 46-48. Today I only got 44 because I used a secondary and lost too much because of it. I know some people routinely get more.

 

[DaveO]

I bottle in 22 oz bottles, it cuts the time in half and you have some to share with your wife every time you pour.


Dave

 

[setag9]

Damn, I was worried about crimping the caps too hard when I bottled my first batch, but I didn't think you could actually crack a bottle!

 

[Beezer94]

It definitely gets easier and easier each time. It now takes me 40-45 minutes to rinse, sanitize, and bottle 48-55 12oz'ers when I have a helper and 55-60 if by myself.

 

[EO74]

Love my kegs id never go back; i even have a carb cap to fill sods bottles w/beer to take to the beach! Kegs are well worth the investment. Used kegs anyway i dont have new ones.Kegging was the point where i crossed the line to being totally adicted to this hobby/passion so proceed with caution and good luck my friend!!!! and ohh yea bottling totally sucks

 

[Mikethepoolguy]

The first time does suck, and the second, third. When you figure out a good rythm and get the right bottling partner ( it turned out to be my 10 year old daughter, NOT my wife) it goes smooth and is fun. I too, look forward to the day that I can easily keg and do 5 gal myself in a few minutes. But, like everything else in life it is a give and take thing. With kegging I gain speed and convenience, but I lose portability and an oppertunity to share my hobby and time with others.

Even after I start kegging, I will bottle also, for portability. After all, it takes weeks to ferment and condition the stuff. The whole hobby seems to be about learning patience. So bottling doesnt bother me anymore.

I think it depends on why you started brewing and what your goals are. If you find a basic recipe that you like and can drink regularly,brew it, keg it, drink it, repeat.

I, on the other hand will probably not duplicate the same recipe until after maybe 50 or 100 batches, maybe ever.

 

[ecojack]

I have bottling down to an art. Once I get in the groove it takes <30 minutes!

 

[brewagentjay]

Hardest part is getting bottles....I drink and drink but damn if I don't have to buy them still and they are costly..

 

[Beernik]

Cork 5 gallons of wine in 750ml bottles sometime. That's a pain in the ass.

Bottling is easy. Switch to 16oz swing tops or 22oz bottles. Mix in the odd 1 or 2 liter swing top and and that really cuts down the number you need to bottle.

 

[iShadrak]

Just upgraded my capper to one of the Super Agata models. Have a whole new outlook on bottling. Cruised through a couple of cases last weekend. Not a single break, chip or difficult cap. The old Red Baron was just stressing me out.

 

[Bacchus]

I actually find it quite relaxing! Besides, beer brewing is such a passive hobby. You work on it a few hours one day and then you don't touch it again for weeks. Then if you secondary, you get another thirty minutes of activity. Then you're out of business another couple of weeks. Bottling gives me more "hands on" time with my beer making hobby.

But that's me!! LOL!!!!

 

[Mikethepoolguy]

I actually find it quite relaxing! Besides, beer brewing is such a passive hobby. You work on it a few hours one day and then you don't touch it again for weeks. Then if you secondary, you get another thirty minutes of activity. Then you're out of business another couple of weeks. Bottling gives me more "hands on" time with my beer making hobby.

But that's me!! LOL!!!!

Exactly, thats my point. I cant wait till the day that I have a kegerator ,kegs, etc. But to think this is to just to save me time on my hobby is contrary to the meaning of a hobby (syn.: PASTIME. get it?).

If you are just trying to save money, then start kegging ASAP. But I see a time when I'll have 20 of my creations on hand. I cant imagine that being realistic by kegging.

 

[brewdogskip]

Kegging is nice for my session beers like pales, ambers, bitters, etc. But I still love to bottle my big beers, it only takes about 40 minutes for a 5 gallon batch. Plus, you get to drink beer!!!

 

[wyzazz]

I like to bottle it's relaxing, I got 53 out of my batch of American Wheat today. However, I keg as well

 

[IceFisherChris]

Bottling isn't really that bad once you get a process down. This is what I do and I can do it in around an hour:

Make enough sanitizer (no rinse is required for saving time) for about 20 bottles. Using a funnel, fill as many bottles as you can. Wait a couple minutes then dump them back into the bucket of sanitizer. Fill ~20 more bottles with sanitizer. Fill the first ~20 bottles and cap them. Repeat.

Filling and capping each bottle one at a time is a waste of time. I have never had any problems letting my beer bottles sit out while i am waiting to cap.

 

[bbbrew]

I'd never go back to bottling my entire batch of beer. For the cost of making a kegerator, a CO2 tank and regulator and a couple of cornies, it sure is a whole lot easier. Cleaning is a one shot deal and not multiple times. And there is nothing like going down and pouring a draft.

My 2 cents,
BB

 

[MrInternet]

I love bottling! I bottle half and half 12oz and 22oz... usually right around a case of each in a normal batch. I get started when everyone's asleep and I can bottle at a lazy pace for two hours, including cleanup, and still be in bed by 1. Great way to kill a late night... get relaxed... sleep like a baby. You people letting bottling stress you out are missing the point of this whole hobby.

 

[OHIOSTEVE]

I enjoy bottling about as much as brewing...maybe more. To see those 12 ozers all lined up and capped gives me a feeling of accomplishment. PLUS I read REVVY's bottling thread and follow it to a "T"...makes it a breeze for me.

 

[jigidyjim]

The one thing I changed about how I bottle is that I stopped stressing about trying to scrounge up every bottle i could find, then spend tons of time trying to scrape off the labels. Now I try to peel some of the label off, but if I don't get it all, I don't worry about it. I also no longer stick labels on my bottles, I use string-tags and stick labels on the tags. Furthermore, I realized that spending the money on new bottles once in awhile made me a lot happier than standing over a sink scrubbing labels.

Once I changed this, it's a lot less tedious. It's about 20 minutes bottle brushing and sticking everything in the dishwasher, wait a few hours for that to run, then about an hour of bottling and cleanup time.

I've also never used a wing-capper, I started off with a kit that had a bench capper, so capping is pretty easy once I learned how.

 

[Prime]

I don't mind bottling. I hate washing bottles though. It's a messy process. I will probably start kegging once I have a couple recipes that I really like.

I also don't fill/cap one at a time. I will fill then place a cap on the top and cap after I am done or run out of space on the counter.

 

[excaptn]

It's a lot like a fat girl, you do it cause it needs to be done, but you don't tell your friends how long it took.

 

[FallsDamBrewery]

It's a lot like a fat girl, you do it cause it needs to be done, but you don't tell your friends how long it took.

:rockin::rockin::rockin:

 

[waldoar15]

I still bottle about 1/2 of my beer for reasons of portability.

 

[boydak]

I read Revy's thread which makes things a lot easier. I also bottle while I am waiting for water to boil for another batch. I wash each bottle after I empty it and sanatize with no rinse just prior to botteling

 

[kjjohns5]

You got 49 bottles? Not bad at all! My yield has slowly gone down. First batch got me 48 bottles, second batch got me 44 bottles, and my third got my only 36. I don't know what I'm doing, but I need to stop it, lol.

 

[danorocks17]

i've never had any problems with my wing capper. I think the key is to not push down on it while you are capping. I don't mind bottling, but it's not my favorite thing in the world.

 

[BellTap]

I keg and bottle. Bottling can be fun if you have a good process. A vinator, drying tree and bench capper make it soo much easier. And like others have said, go with 22 oz bottles. I also have a box full of mixed size plastic, mostly 2 liters.

 

[jmkratt]

It's a lot like a fat girl, you do it cause it needs to be done, but you don't tell your friends how long it took.

Good call Captain

 

[BendBrewer]

It's a lot like a fat girl, you do it cause it needs to be done, but you don't tell your friends how long it took.

I still think bottling is wetter.

 

[Bacchus]

And I feel just the opposite. I kegged for about six months and got tired of the nasty keg cleaning and the constant sticky cleanup of all the little squirts and leaks due to the hooking and unhooking of the keg lines. I'll admit that it's very nice to be able to just dump a batch straight into one container but for me, the real work began whenever the keg was emptied. Nasty, sticky beer all over the damned place. I went back to bottling because I'd rather put a tad more work in up front than at the end. Up front I had more motivation. LOL!!!

 

[jmkratt]

And I feel just the opposite. I kegged for about six months and got tired of the nasty keg cleaning and the constant sticky cleanup of all the little squirts and leaks due to the hooking and unhooking of the keg lines. I'll admit that it's very nice to be able to just dump a batch straight into one container but for me, the real work began whenever the keg was emptied. Nasty, sticky beer all over the damned place. I went back to bottling because I'd rather put a tad more work in up front than at the end. Up front I had more motivation. LOL!!!

Interesting.

I built one of these to clean the cornies:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/my-cheap-easy-keg-washer-109684/
It's incredibly simple and effective

Haven't had any issues with connections, though I have accidently spilled some beer into the keezer...total pain to clean

 

[funkapottomous]

I quite enjoy bottling, and I also enjoy hand scrubbing all the labels off the bottles. i guess I'm weird. :/

 

[SumnerH]

And I feel just the opposite. I kegged for about six months and got tired of the nasty keg cleaning and the constant sticky cleanup of all the little squirts and leaks due to the hooking and unhooking of the keg lines. I'll admit that it's very nice to be able to just dump a batch straight into one container but for me, the real work began whenever the keg was emptied. Nasty, sticky beer all over the damned place. I went back to bottling because I'd rather put a tad more work in up front than at the end. Up front I had more motivation. LOL!!!

With picnic taps, I don't have beer anywhere but the sink:

* Unhook gas, carry keg to sink, put top of keg over sink, depressurize, open, and rinse.
* Fill it with hot water + oxyclean; invert a couple of times over the sink, charge it up slightly, and run oxyclean through the tap. Wait 30 minutes, invert the keg again, and run the tap briefly again
* Wait 30 minutes, empty keg, and repeat the last step with a half gallon of starsan instead of a full keg of oxyclean

Now you can take off the picnic tap and put it on the new keg in the keggerator.

Leave the starsan in the slightly pressurized keg until bottling day, when you'll open it up and rinse with fresh starsan before filling.

I'd imagine that with in-place taplines, you'd need some sort of drip trays both under the tap and to drop disconnect in while you take the keg to the sink and back, but you'd still want to clean and sanitize the lines the same way (hooking the keg back up to do so).

 

[uechikid]

I stopped bottling when I started brewing 10 gallon batches. Now I always brew 20 gallons. I can't even imagine bottling 20 gallons.

 

[StAnthonyB]

I can't believe people actually use 12oz girl bottles.

 

[BendBrewer]

I can't believe people actually use 12oz girl bottles.

I take it you don't enter your beer into any competitions?

 

[SumnerH]

I can't believe people actually use 12oz girl bottles.

Kegs for me. Bottles for competitions and to give away to friends. Smaller bottles=more beer for me.