I've been thinking about the bottling problem for a long time. I believe the key is to look at it as a time and motion study first, and to include the entire process from start (a box of empty bottles) to finish (a box of full bottles). The goal is to reduce the number of times a bottle gets handled to the lowest possible number.
I'm not that interested in commercial class systems that can do thousands of bottles an hour, because "We" don't need that. We just need something that will make bottling 50-100 beers easier.
I haven't gotten this completely thought out yet, but it looks like this:
-transfer bottles to sanitizing rack. Do this a case at a time, so while they are in the box, place a rack on top and flip them (a fastrack type of tray is what I'm thinking). Now they're upside down.
-sanitize by spraying sanitizer up into the bottles for a few minutes. Again, this is done a case at a time, while they are in the rack.
-drain by transferring the rack to a dry tray. As before, this is done a case at a time.
-Fill. This is, of course, the trickiest part. If you have 22oz bottles, the case is 3x4. So you if you could have a three-gang filler, with some kind of auto shutoff valve, that would be great. Then you just need a rig to move the case of bottles underneath this rig, advancing it four times until the case if bottles is completely filled.
-Cap. Would it really be that hard to make a three-up capper? This way you could cap three at a time, and move the case ahead four times, you'd be done (almost).
-Rinse. Bottling beer is a sloppy business. A Fresh water rinse is necessary before you crate the bottles.
-Crate. Rack, flip and place the case over the the bottles. Flip again so they're upright. Close up the box. Label the case. You're done.
That was easy. Am I dreaming?
Of course, labeling isn't included in the above, and I believe we should label our beers if we intend to share them (people are nervous enough trying your wacky homebrew, if it doesn't have a label, that is one additional hurdle to the hive-mind. Perhaps psychological, but powerful).
