First Bottling Day

[mjperry24]

So, I got the my first batch into bottles yesterday. For those of you who are just starting out, let me assuage your fears and say that no matter what you can possibly F up during your first brew day, I F'd up, and my FG turned out to style and the beer tastes like beer. RDWHAHB. Seriously. Live by it.

Took a few pics to share with you guys of the bottling process. The beer was an IPA. FG out on the low end for an IPA at 1.010, but was close enough to style to suit my ambitions for my first brew.

The biggest pain in the ass as a new brewer is cleaning up bottles. Massively annoying. Fifty of them. Scraping off labels, cleaning, then resanitizing took about two or three hours. Huge pain. My brother looked on in glee, offering no help, too.

Finally got all of them clean. A couple of the bottles had some mold in them that I couldn't clean properly / didn't feel comfortable using, but they were discarded. I wound up with about 48 good bottles, and ended up 45. Lesson learned: CHECK YOUR BOTTLES AND CLEAN THEM THOROUGHLY. Including as soon as you're done drinking their original contents. A little swish of warm water goes a long way towards preventing this garbage from growing inside the bottle.

Finally sanitized and ready to add beer.

My yeast cake and trub after moving from the fermenting vessel to the bottling bucket. Not a whole lot of sediment carried over into bottling, so I was happy with that. This beer sat in primary for about two weeks with no secondary ferm.

The bottling rig worked incredibly well. Spigotted bucket w/ a little piece of rubber tubing from my autosiphon attached to act as a coupler between the plastic spigot and the bottling wand. Worked like a charm and minimized aeration brilliantly.

Several beers filled and ready for cap crimping.

Happily crimping away. Finish product to the left.

Overall it was a great first brewing experience. Thanks to the board for all the help, as well as my brother for his advice and allowing me to borrow The Complete Joy of Homebrewing. Pretty much all the resources you need right there.

My sample tasted the way I had hoped, with a little excess bitterness on the finish. I'm hoping that will settle down as the beer bottle conditions, but still very tasty and very drinkable.

Can't wait to start the pumpkin ale tonight (or tomorrow, depends on a few things..). If anyone wants to see, I'll probably be taking more pictures. Maybe I'll just start a blog.

Thanks again, guys! Cheers.

 

[AnonyBrew]

Looks good. After awhile I stopped taking labels off my bottles.

 

[mjperry24]

Looks good. After awhile I stopped taking labels off my bottles.

It's a real pain. I was ready to start kegging about halfway through.

 

[kh54s10]

Bottling is a PITA but, I wish to spend my money on AG equipment before kegging so it is bottling for the foreseeable future. As for removing the labels, I have a rectangular plastic bin nest to the sink. I wash out the bottles and sink them in the bin for a day then peel the labels about a sixpack at a time, use a scrubbie to remove the rest of the glue then dry, into the sixpack carrier then to the basement. I set up my bottling station similarly and it was not "too" tedious.

 

[mjperry24]

Bottling is a PITA but, I wish to spend my money on AG equipment before kegging so it is bottling for the foreseeable future. As for removing the labels, I have a rectangular plastic bin nest to the sink. I wash out the bottles and sink them in the bin for a day then peel the labels about a sixpack at a time, use a scrubbie to remove the rest of the glue then dry, into the sixpack carrier then to the basement. I set up my bottling station similarly and it was not "too" tedious.

Thanks for the tip. Yeah, since it was my first go-around, I didn't really think to soak the bottles for more than 5-10 minutes. I used steel wool to scrub the glue off. It was a mess. I'll soak them for longer next time.

 

[EddieB428]

Oxyclean + hot water. Soak the bottles and the labels just fall right off.

 

[mjperry24]

Is there anything Oxyclean can't do?

 

[completenewbie]

I don't bother taking labels off - don't see the point.

Good habit to get into is giving all bottles a quick hot water clean right after you pour the beer into a glass, makes cleaning at bottling time much easier. For sanitizing, I have a spray bottle with starsan which I spray liberally into each bottle, shake around with my thumb over the end, and then cover with a small piece of sprayed foil. Takes seconds. When I'm ready to fill, take foil off, tip out any excess liquid in the bottle, leave the foam, and fill.

 

[asidrane]

If you take the label off as you pour the beer it isn't that bad. I just use hot water and the rough side of the sponge. Now, taking off fifty at once is not fun at all.

 

[mjperry24]

No... Fifty at once was my own idea of what hell would be like. Absolutely awful.

 

[AdvGroo]

Oxyclean + hot water. Soak the bottles and the labels just fall right off.

Yes I was so happy to learn this. I scrubbed many bottles and hated every moment. Then oxyclean, what a joy it was to find them all clear of the label and most clear of any glue.

 

[asidrane]

No... Fifty at once was my own idea of what hell would be like. Absolutely awful.

About two weeks ago I scrubbed off about forty bottles worth of labels after I was done bottling. I can still see the blister on my thumb. I have maybe two cases of bottles with labels. After I am done with those, I will never have more than a night's worth with labels left on them. Or better yet, I will only drink homebrew and never need to worry about labels

 

[mjperry24]

about two weeks ago i scrubbed off about forty bottles worth of labels after i was done bottling. I can still see the blister on my thumb. I have maybe two cases of bottles with labels. After i am done with those, i will never have more than a night's worth with labels left on them. Or better yet, i will only drink homebrew and never need to worry about labels

+1

 

[unionrdr]

I used pet bottles for my 1st batch,while I collected a ton of glass pop tops from the 3 of us,enough for 5-6 six gallon batches. That's about 64-67 bottles each. They were boxed up all over the house. With a 5G bucket of PBW,a dobie,& a bottle brush. It took me 5-7 weeks soaking a baker's dozen overnight,then a quick scrub to get the loose stuff off. Then into boxes with flaps to close over them. No foil,no spray bottles.
Then,on bottling day,a 45 bottle tree with a vinator on top half full of star-san.
5 pumps per bottle,& onto the tree. When I get it full,I start filling & capping. All while sitting down. Don't let being cheap get in the way of making things better/easier. Take it from me,I've made that mistake at the wrong times in my life because I'd gotten too used to being cheap with everything. Don't spend too much time on that path...

 

[Lucky137]

Oxyclean + hot water. Soak the bottles and the labels just fall right off.

+1! This method is fool proof. Usually I have a primary not in use, and just keep it consistently full of Oxyclean. When I finish a night of drinking (more or less every night), I just throw them in there for 24 hours, then rinse them out and store them upside down. Come bottling day, just sanitize and good to go!

 

[deadscott]

Oxyclean + hot water. Soak the bottles and the labels just fall right off.

Amen. It is breeze with Oxi-Clean and hot water. They will fall off within an hour depending on the glue used. You still will find a few types of bottles that are a pain. If they don't fall off with the rest I toss the bottles.

 

[doublebogey10]

I'm getting ready to bottle my first homebrew this weekend and have found two simple things to help with the bottle prep.
1. Use 22 ouncers instead. Fewer bottles! Along these lines, I found a beer at Trader Joes called Mission Street Brown or something like that. Perfectly good beer and its $1.99 at the store. My LHBS sells empty 22s at $13 for 12. So two bucks for a 22 of good beer and the re-use of the bottle is win-win in my book.
2. I pay my 8-year-old a quarter per bottle to remove labels. This goes along the lines of my parenting philosophy of: Kids. They have to be worth more than just a tax break.
;-)