Worst part of bottling

[keahunter]

This for me is the worse part of bottling. I have to toss a full beer

 

[keahunter]

hmmm...not sure why the picture is sideways. You get the idea.

 

[Zekk]

That sucks. Luckily its pretty rare, I think I've only done that on maybe 4 beers in as many years. I'd say bottle bombs are the worst though, the feeling you get when you here glass shattering in the beer pantry.. Terrifying

 

[TrustyOlJohnson]

Wing capper?

 

[Travestian]

Only happened to me once in 2 years of brewing. I personally wouldn't say that's the worst part of bottling though. I hate the setup and cleanup aspects of it. Only thing that's nice is I see a numerical volume of beer for my work as opposed to just a heavy keg of beer.

 

[JLeuck64]

Ya! Every once in a while when I open up a bottle it breaks apart just like that too! Reminds me that even though those glass bottles feel tough and can take some abuse they are still fragile. I think about that possibility every time I crimp on a new cap these days! ( ;

 

[estricklin]

Same here, I've had a couple break putting the caps on, but I've had more break when I'm opening them. Oh well wadda ya do??

 

[Paradingbull]

To me it is just part of the hobby. I will get skewered for saying this, but kegging is not all that much easier, still many things to clean/sanitize, plus getting to chase the occasional weird leak in the delivery system. I am thinking of going back to my 22oz bottles with a good quality bench capper.

 

[Jeffinn]

To me it is just part of the hobby. I will get skewered for saying this, but kegging is not all that much easier, still many things to clean/sanitize, plus getting to chase the occasional weird leak in the delivery system. I am thinking of going back to my 22oz bottles with a good quality bench capper.

Nah, we wont skewer ya! But For me kegging is so much easier (and faster).
For what its worth, I did like my 22 oz. bottles! Never used anything other a wing capper and always had good luck.

 

[paperairplane]

To me it is just part of the hobby. I will get skewered for saying this, but kegging is not all that much easier, ....

If I had to bottle every beer I made, I might quit brewing.

 

[MEPNew2Brew]

Worst part - Waiting for the beer to properly carbonate.

 

[ChemEng]

I hate bottling because my wife can keep track of how many I've had... much easier to sneak a draft undetected.

 

[fastengine]

I've had it happen once. No problem because I bottle on a large bath towel. I have broken bottles opening them using other means than a bottle opener.

I'd much rather bottle because it is too hard to carry a keg around as say, camping, fishing, and countless beer drinking activities away from the comfort of home.

 

[GenIke]

Sometimes I bottle from my keg.

 

[HB_in_Subic]

Aside from the wait during bottle conditioning, the worst part is the cleaning. I also have about 70% Grolsch flip tops for my beer and only cap about 8 or so 1L local beer bottles per batch.

 

[BigDog007]

I agree that the cleaning and sanitizing is the worst part of bottling for me so far.

The bottle tree and sanitize sprayer for the bottles makes things a whole lot better. Just racked 26-12 oz bottles and 15-22 oz bottles of Irish Red Ale tonight and my little production line was easy as can be. From setup to cleanup only took about an hour by myself. Now I wait...

 

[beersk]

To me it is just part of the hobby. I will get skewered for saying this, but kegging is not all that much easier, still many things to clean/sanitize, plus getting to chase the occasional weird leak in the delivery system. I am thinking of going back to my 22oz bottles with a good quality bench capper.

If you're someone who doesn't drink much, bottling makes perfect sense.

Me, I like to brew lagers and when I throw down on a helles, I love having it on tap.
But bottling is sweet too...and kegging really isn't all people make it out to be. It's a similar amount of work, just at different times.

But you definitely need to make sure to use good quality bottles...I stopped using New Belgium bottles after one broke at the neck while opening and gave me 3 nasty scars on my fingers.

 

[Stehag]

I have had the same experience, so I built a custom capping machines.

So now I can put caps on almost any sorts of beerbottles without struggle

 

[unionrdr]

I broke stubbies with the Red Baron wing capper. Switched to a bench capper & no more problems. But scrubbing bottles is tiresome. I do like bottling though.

 

[jbb3]

Aside from the wait during bottle conditioning, the worst part is the cleaning. I also have about 70% Grolsch flip tops for my beer and only cap about 8 or so 1L local beer bottles per batch.

I'm just about to finish a keezer build and start kegging. Up to now, I brew 6.5 gal batches. I'm trying to decide whether to reduce my batch size to 5 gal so it all fits in a keg or maybe use flip-tops for the extra 1.5 gal???

 

[HB_in_Subic]

I'm just about to finish a keezer build and start kegging. Up to now, I brew 6.5 gal batches. I'm trying to decide whether to reduce my batch size to 5 gal so it all fits in a keg or maybe use flip-tops for the extra 1.5 gal???

Do the 6.5 gallons. Flip tops are easy, at 1.5 gallons you are talking almost 6 L of bottles. So do it and use them to gauge your carbonation if anything else.

If anything, you give those flip tops to your friends...

 

[ArizonaGoalie]

The time it takes is the worst part for me....

Sanitizing bottles
Boiling and cooling corn sugar
Racking to a bottling bucket
Capping
Labeling
Waiting for carbonation

Kegging is so much quicker and easier. HOWEVER, if I kegged I would hit my tap non-stop and end up weighing 300lbs. (I'm currently at 190). It would just be too easy to drink and drink and drink.

Bottling allows me some moderation AND aging AND sharing. I'll never stop bottling, even if I started kegging (which is a BIG if).

 

[schematix]

i had that happen one time when i opened a bottle off of a piece of furniture in a hotel room. worst part was i didn't notice until i taste the blood from my lip.