Hah! Don't start bottling after dinner!

[callmebruce]

I wanted to bottle up my most recent batch of beer. Didn't want to do it on a work day, as after work, dinner, cleaning up - I'm not into starting all over again. Decided to do it Saturday. After shopping for Easter candy for the kids. And Easter dinner. And making dinner. And cleaning the kitchen. ANd waiting for the dishwasher to finish up.

Decided not to wait for the dishwasher, so just used sanitizer and soaked the bottles and bottling bucket. Got a LATE start! Wrapped up bottling at 1:30ish. Got the kitchen back in shape around 2:00. Relaxed with a brew watching late night TV until just before 3:00AM.

I think I'm going to go real slow making the lamb and fixin's for Easter dinner, lol. But hey - I got 50 bottles of a nice tasting beer conditioning and carbing up. It's worth it!

(anybody got some extra coffee?)

Moral of the story? Don't start soaking your bottles at 10:30 at night, and don't start bottling around midnight.

 

[drunkwookiee]

I've kinda got into a situation like this lol

But once you start bottling or brewing you can't stop till your done! Lol

 

[unionrdr]

...not to mention,taking all day to boil labels off 70 some bottles,then scrub & clean all of'em the same day you're going to bottle. I was dog tired after all that...

 

[Ziggybrew]

Always recruit some help on bottling day and make it a mini party. It is fun and goes faster.

Soaking bottles in a Clorox solution overnight eliminates all that boiling and elbow grease. Most labels just fall off. then rub the bottles with your hands to get rid of any leftover adhesive as you rinse them. If you use a hot water and Oxyclean soak for just a few hours for the same effect. But not overnight or you may get a funky film on the glass that won't come off easily.

Those bottle trees that have a sanitizing pump on the top come in very handy too.

One thing I learned was -- never fight with a bottle. If you have difficulty getting a label off (or you see mold inside); just toss it. Show it that it can be replaced by one of the other trillion bottles on the planet. Don't take any crap from a bottle!

Also, when sharing beer with friends and family be firm. "Please return bottles rinsed and clean or you'll never get another homebrew!" That way you never have to keep preparing new bottles every batch.

 

[duckmanco]

I've been there, to the wee hours in the morning and during the actual bottle filling, didn't care how late I was up. It was about the time I realized I still had to clean the primary fermentor that I wanted it to end, but still, it was and is all about the beer.

Others have stressed it, and because it made sense to me, I never bottled a single batch (and won't) without it, the Vinator bottle rinser has to be worth its weight in gold for ease of sanitation. No dunking, no massive bucket of sanitizer with bits of label in it, etc. I used that, and my lower dish rack of the dishwasher as a bottle tree and it worked really well as a system. My .02 anyhow, enjoy that brew in 2-3 weeks.