Hello all,
I'll be bottling my first batch ever this coming Sunday after a two week fermentation process. The brewing and fermintation process seemed straight-forward enough with the instructions in my kit but the bottling day instructions are a little less detailed, so it left me wondering: What are 3 things you wish you knew before bottling that you knew after?
I'd also love to hear any other tips and tricks you might suggest.
THANKS!
bottling is easy but tedious, all the cleaning ,label peeling of the reused bottles. After almost 4 yrs ,I still bottle, while others switch to kegging early on. I dont have room or the funding to have kegs for the number of beers I like to keep handy and the tap setups,regulators and CO2 to keep them pressured up. not to mention the electric and chilling set up Id need to keep them all cold. I digress.
Make sure the fermentation is done !!
Bottling- make sure you have enough std longneck 12 oz bottles and caps ,
bottling bucket with spigot. racking cane, bottling wand, clear tubing to fit both(should be 3/8" I.D.), a capping device, star san in a spray bottle and your choice of priming agent. I save sterilized unfermented wort (Spiess)to prime with at bottling.
I will soak reused bottles in Oxyclean and hot water as I can stand in an insulated cooler .I'll fill it up and soak it all day and when I come back in the afternoon , its still pretty hot and most labels fall off , others take a little effort. Ok , pour out the oxyclean and drain while you woork on the next one. 2 cases does 4 1/2 gallons nearly perfectly. 5 gallons is 2 cases plus a 6-pack.
I place my bottling bucket on a counter top (36 inches high) and the cases of bottles sit on a 13 inch harbor freight aluminum step platform. I sit on a bucket to fill them.
I have a system of habits thats worked well all this time.
Take the racking cane and from a gallon jug that I keep the diluted star san in, I use the racking cane with 4 ft of tubing on to fill a trigger spray bottle.
I use the trigger type spray bottle and on spray not stream, spray the bottles inside about 4 pumps each and 1 on the top. I spray all of them and then when all have been treated I take each one and shake it with my thumb over the top (the star san will be foamy)and then pour it out into the bottling bucket ,swirl that around and run it out the tubing through the bottling wand into a small cup that holds enough bottle caps . Spray the capper. By this time everything I will use has been treated. I keep a clean rag handy dampened in star san , every now and then I make sure I wipe my hands with it.
Rack your finished beer to the bottling bucket ,keeping trub out and not splashing .Have enough hose to lay on the bottom of the bucket to avoid aeration. I have by this time rough calculated the amount of Spiess to prime my batch , I add half at the beginning of transfer to the bucket. When I'm done transferring I make sure that the end volume hasnt changed, I'll add the remaining amount of spiess and give it a gentle but thorough stir with my star san treated stainless steel spoon. I leave the bottles in the case while I fill. With the tubing attached to the spigot and the bottling wand on the end ,its already been treated with a tiny amount of star san foam inside. Open the spigot and allow the beer to flow ,the wand has a spring valve in the end and once it hits the first bottle bottom its flowing .
I fill about half the first bottle and set aside because it has a lot of star san in it.
For the rest,
If you slow fill until the beer comes to the lip of the bottle ,when you pull the wand out , its has the perfect amount of headspace to carb the beer during conditioning ,about 1 1/2 inches . Take a soaked cap ,place in my wing capper and cap. If you have yet to use one, its more wrist than arm action. A few people have broken bottles with too much arm pressure. Once you get the feel of it , you'll know. Onto the next one until finished. Usually by day 10 or 11 conditioning at 70-75 * F ,its ready to put in the fridge .
