Bottling Tips for the Homebrewer

AugustDerleth · Mar 15, 2011

MTB said:
I made a dip-tube and I have no idea why it isn't working...

I had a similar problem. When you are testing the flow, how much water is in the bucket? What was happening with mine was basically that when there was a lot of water in the bucket the flow would work, but once it got down to where the dip tube would actually be doing work (aka the water level was below the actual spigot level) it would stop working. I asked and never received an answer as to why this may be, and I tried many MANY different things. What I would suggest doing is going to Lowe's and getting a 3/4" pvc elbow joint and screwing that onto the inside of your spigot. I did that and it began to flow properly.
The only problem is that I placed the spigot before getting the elbow, so I still have to tilt the bucket a bit, and if you don't do that while bottling and you start pulling air (aka the beer level is below the elbows end) and you try to tilt and restart, it will not happen, I'm assuming due to a lack of pressure.
Idk if this is confusing, I just brewed so I've been drinking double bock for hours. :mug:

Point is: Buy a .39c 3/4" pvc elbow. Good luck!

TheSeether · Mar 15, 2011

I use a pvc elbow as well and I can't imagine anything working better. Disassembly and cleaning are a snap. I did have to cut the elbow to match the height required by the pre-drilled hole in my bucket. It works so well that there is literally no moving liquid left once done, just whatever trub siphoned over. It was easiest to cut it to exact fit and make the cut at a slight angle so that the longer edge actually sits on the bottom and the shorter edge is where the liquid can enter. I can just get a fingernail under the edge where liquid enters. The pvc elbow provides the same ID as the spigot fitting so flow rate is consistent meaning no aeration occurs moving off the bottom of the bucket and into the wand. I don't see the advantage a stopper and puny tube have over the pvc elbow but then, I haven't tried that method either.

MTB · Mar 16, 2011

AugustDerleth said:
Point is: Buy a .39c 3/4" pvc elbow. Good luck!

Bought one today and it works like a charm!

rack04 · Mar 28, 2011

So 3/4" threaded 90 degree elbow is the right size to screw onto the threaded spigot?

TheSeether · Mar 28, 2011

rack04 said:
So 3/4" threaded 90 degree elbow is the right size to screw onto the threaded spigot?

Depends, how long is a string?
Seriously, take your spigot with you the location you are going to get the elbow and check for fit before purchasing. 3/4" was the correct fit for my spigot but we very well may have different spigots.

AugustDerleth · Mar 28, 2011

rack04 said:
So 3/4" threaded 90 degree elbow is the right size to screw onto the threaded spigot?

If you got your spigot from LHBS, the answer is yes, 99% of the time.

Zokfend · Apr 9, 2011

do the last couple bottles you fill from the bottling bucket taste a little differently than all the bottles filled prior? i've drank over half my batch now, and i've enjoyed every one of them, . . . but last night i had one that tasted more bitter, seemed a little thicker, and i swear just a little stronger. smell was fine, just a little 'different'. it's hard to describe.

i don't pour that thin layer of trub into my glass, and i didn't notice anything else (like a bug or booger) come pouring into my glass either. so i don't know whether to consider it "bottom of the barrel" . . . or whether i just didn't clean/sanitize that one bottle good enough. i've never had an infected beer before, so i wouldn't know what to look for (obviously it didn't taste like piss or anything).

Revvy · Apr 9, 2011

Zokfend said:
do the last couple bottles you fill from the bottling bucket taste a little differently than all the bottles filled prior? i've drank over half my batch now, and i've enjoyed every one of them, . . . but last night i had one that tasted more bitter, seemed a little thicker, and i swear just a little stronger. smell was fine, just a little 'different'. it's hard to describe.

i don't pour that thin layer of trub into my glass, and i didn't notice anything else (like a bug or booger) come pouring into my glass either. so i don't know whether to consider it "bottom of the barrel" . . . or whether i just didn't clean/sanitize that one bottle good enough. i've never had an infected beer before, so i wouldn't know what to look for (obviously it didn't taste like piss or anything).

How do you know they were the last bottles from the bucket? By the time I've capped them, moved them to my milks crates and put them in the closet I don't know which is the first crate and which is the second, which is the first bottle filled, or the last, which is the front of a crate or the back.

Your beers are continuously conditioning during the time they are in the bottles, so USUALLY the last beers you get to are the better tasting of the batch, unless you have a late onset infection, or oxydation, and the flaws begin developing.

But normally we notice how much better the later beers taste.

Zokfend · Apr 9, 2011

Revvy said:
How do you know they were the last bottles from the bucket?

that's just it . . . i don't know. but judging from your post, there should be no difference in taste or smell if you were to do a side-by-side comparison between the very first bottle i filled versus the very last bottle i filled. so i can atleast scratch the "bottom of the barrel" theory, which i guess would rule out any theories of coagulation happening . . . i did stir pretty thoroughly.

i'll just chalk it up to a late infection or something. it was just that one bottle that i encountered so far.

agenthucky · Apr 9, 2011

Zokfend said:
that's just it . . . i don't know. but judging from your post, there should be no difference in taste or smell if you were to do a side-by-side comparison between the very first bottle i filled versus the very last bottle i filled. so i can atleast scratch the "bottom of the barrel" theory, which i guess would rule out any theories of coagulation happening . . . i did stir pretty thoroughly.

i'll just chalk it up to a late infection or something. it was just that one bottle that i encountered so far.

I always mark my last two or three bottles with an X, XX, and XXX because of the amount of yeast that ends up being in them, 3-10 times as much as normal. This doesn't make the beer taste any different, but it definitely conditions differently.

TheSeether · Apr 11, 2011

Sometimes the last bottle or 2 gets more yeast/trub from the bottom of the bottling bucket.

MaltMonster · Apr 11, 2011

My setup is very similar to Revvy's: I put my fermenting bucket on the kitchen counter and then place my bottling bucket on top of it. This gives me plently of height so that I can stand while bottling. I also slide the buckets right up to the edge of the sink and align the spigot over the sink with my bottling wand attached to my spigot with a short piece of tubing, thus allowing me to fill bottles over the sink. It is a lot more comfortable than filling bottles on the floor and it makes for very easy clean-up.

The only real difference from Revvy's description is that I put the buckets on the kitchen counter so that I can bottle over my sink.

camiller · Apr 12, 2011

MaltMonster said:
My setup is very similar to Revvy's: I put my fermenting bucket on the kitchen counter and then place my bottling bucket on top of it. This gives me plently of height so that I can stand while bottling. I also slide the buckets right up to the edge of the sink and align the spigot over the sink with my bottling wand attached to my spigot with a short piece of tubing, thus allowing me to fill bottles over the sink. It is a lot more comfortable than filling bottles on the floor and it makes for very easy clean-up.

The only real difference from Revvy's description is that I put the buckets on the kitchen counter so that I can bottle over my sink.

I put the bottling bucket on the counter over the dishwasher with the dishwasher door open, I sit in a chair and fill then hand off full bottles to the wife who caps.

KilhavenBrew · Apr 19, 2011

I do find this post helpful. I wonder how many people sanitize and leave the sulfite solution or whatever in the bottle and then put beer in the bottle with the sanitizer. That is gross. I did not know what the vinator was, but when I you tubed it, it came up where you squirt solution in there and then beer in it without rinsing the bottle with water to clean out the sanitizer.

agodfrey11 · Apr 19, 2011

KilhavenBrew said:
I do find this post helpful. I wonder how many people sanitize and leave the sulfite solution or whatever in the bottle and then put beer in the bottle with the sanitizer. That is gross. I did not know what the vinator was, but when I you tubed it, it came up where you squirt solution in there and then beer in it without rinsing the bottle with water to clean out the sanitizer.

With no rinse solutions like iodophor or starsan you can put the beer in the bottle after rinsing without worry. I leave the bottles to drain in the dish washer rack before I fill them and have never had a problem.

Revvy · Apr 19, 2011

KilhavenBrew said:
I do find this post helpful. I wonder how many people sanitize and leave the sulfite solution or whatever in the bottle and then put beer in the bottle with the sanitizer. That is gross. I did not know what the vinator was, but when I you tubed it, it came up where you squirt solution in there and then beer in it without rinsing the bottle with water to clean out the sanitizer.

Very few BEER brewers use sulfite solution as a sanitizer.....Especially not with so many great no rinse wet contact sanitizers like Iodophor, Starsan, and even the onestep that comes with many starter kits. Those don't need rinsing, and don't affect the flavor of the beer, when at the proper dillution. And in fact one of them, starsan actually breaks down into compounds that act as yeast food, and actually help both fermentation and carbonation.

Rinsing out sanitizer actaully could INCREASE the risk of infection, so that's why we recommend no rinse sanitizers.

meisterbrewer · Apr 26, 2011

Lot's of great advice on here. I suppose I need to wait 3 full weeks to get more consistence from bottle to bottle. My only question is, does anybody notice a difference in head from what you use to prime with? I've used pre-packaged "heading" powder and I almost always brew with carapils, but I got an INSANE amount of head one brew, and the only thing I did different on that batch was use brown sugar to prime. It could have been something else, I haven't used brown sugar again (yet). I've never heard anyone mention that brown sugar had that effect, what are your experiences?

agenthucky · Apr 26, 2011

meisterbrewer said:
Lot's of great advice on here. I suppose I need to wait 3 full weeks to get more consistence from bottle to bottle. My only question is, does anybody notice a difference in head from what you use to prime with? I've used pre-packaged "heading" powder and I almost always brew with carapils, but I got an INSANE amount of head one brew, and the only thing I did different on that batch was use brown sugar to prime. It could have been something else, I haven't used brown sugar again (yet). I've never heard anyone mention that brown sugar had that effect, what are your experiences?

you over carbonated. You need to go by weight and not volume for sugars because they have different densities. I've used brown sugar with normal results, along with honey.

meisterbrewer · Apr 27, 2011

agenthucky said:
you over carbonated. You need to go by weight and not volume for sugars because they have different densities. I've used brown sugar with normal results, along with honey.

Well, If all that great head on my brew is over-carbonation, I'll stick with it. I doubt if over-carbonation was the cause, I'm told using more than 4 1/2 ounces of sugar is just pointless, so if using more gave more head it would be a part of someones advice, somewhere.

:rockin:

agenthucky · Apr 27, 2011

meisterbrewer said:
Well, If all that great head on my brew is over-carbonation, I'll stick with it. I doubt if over-carbonation was the cause, I'm told using more than 4 1/2 ounces of sugar is just pointless, so if using more gave more head it would be a part of someones advice, somewhere.

:rockin:

well the actual head is comprised of proteins and CO2. An over-carbonated beer doesn't necessarily mean big head and vice versa. Head and foam stability have more to do with the proteins. If it is over carbonated, the carbonation should escape fast, leaving the beer and going into the head space. If you have a lot of proteins, they will capture the CO2 and not let it escape, resulting in a foam that lasts longer. Using carapils or a little wheat accomplished this task. I also find that finer CO2 from kegging is easier to trap, stays in the foam, and makes for a more stable head.

meisterbrewer · Apr 28, 2011

agenthucky said:
well the actual head is comprised of proteins and CO2. An over-carbonated beer doesn't necessarily mean big head and vice versa. Head and foam stability have more to do with the proteins. If it is over carbonated, the carbonation should escape fast, leaving the beer and going into the head space. If you have a lot of proteins, they will capture the CO2 and not let it escape, resulting in a foam that lasts longer. Using carapils or a little wheat accomplished this task. I also find that finer CO2 from kegging is easier to trap, stays in the foam, and makes for a more stable head.

Thanks for clarifying that. The brew I was speaking of, was just great, great tasting, good fizz, and tons of head(it lasted a while, too). I wouldn't change a thing.

brettclutch · May 26, 2011

The key is to rotate the spigot so it points up, leaving the outlet from the spigot higher than the air pocket and giving it some place to go, then opening the spigot up to let it escape, then closing everything up once it is primed so air can't get back in.

When I was reading this a LOL'ed as this is almost like Beerfest the movie with the German Boot. The secret is to rotate the boot to get rid of the bubble

.

If you havnt seen Beerfest it is a great movie. Def more younger type movie but good movie non the less.

BTW this is a great thread. Getting ready to do my first batch here shortly. This website has been instrumental in information gathering. Thank you to HomeBrewTalk!

jsweet · May 27, 2011

This thread is awesome, thanks for it! Just did my 3rd bottling day, and OMG it was so much better than the others.

Never underestimate the power of gadgets. Switched to Starsan, got an auto-siphon, a bottling wand, and a vinator. Sooooo much better...

ScottA · Jun 26, 2011

Well, I guess this thread helped make up my mind as well. I have already purchased a 3/4" pvc elbow and the parts to make the DIY bottle tree. I will use them in a couple of weeks. Next on the "to get list" is an auto-siphon and vinator. I might have to add some star-san as well. Thanks for all of the great advice!

Naggs · Jul 13, 2011

Knocked out a batch last night more or less using Revvy's sticky as a checklist. Huge help and thank you!

pola0502ds · Aug 5, 2011

subscribed

mobrewdude · Aug 15, 2011

I did my first bottling day on my first-ever brew today. This was a very helpful thread, although I wore a few ounces at the end of the bottling while tipping the bottling bucket (and catching the bottling bucket after it slipped off my impromptu wedge) for the last few bottles. I think a bottom pick-up is in order but the partially spilled bottle was a perfect excuse to give it a taste. For room-temperature un-carbonated beer it was excellent! I'm going to have to lock up the capped bottles and give away the key for a few weeks!!

Westphalen · Aug 17, 2011

Fantastic thread!

Here is an outline of my bottling process:
1) Star San + H20 in my bottling bucket (about 6g)
2) Soak all parts of 45-bottle drying tree and additional gear required for bottling (wand, tubes, auto-siphon, etc) in the SS bucket
3) Start H20 + priming sugar boil
4) Remove tree parts from SS H20 and assemble
5) Remove remaining bottling gear from bucket with Star San and place in one of those big, grey kitchen tub things along w/ about a gallon of the Star San H20 to keep things sanitized
6) Fully immerse as many bottle as possible in bucket w/ SS H20 for X min
7) Take those bottles out, place on tree
8) Repeat 6 and 7 for as many bottles as you have
9) Pour remaining SS H20 from bottling bucket into the grey bin
9) Cool the priming sugar H20 in ice bath while racking beer w/ auto-siphon to bottling bucket
10) Set up the bottling bucket and wand w/ (3'') length of tubing between spigot and want (as recommended by Revvy) on the counter over my open dish washer door
11) Bottle
12) Cap
13) Win

The nice thing about this is that, since I normally bottle at least 2 batches of beer (hey, I have everything out already!) I can just dump the SS H20 back into the bottling bucket from the grey bin, let sit and dump back into the bin, and I'm ready to rack the next batch.

Also, if you're bottling 2 batches, do all the priming sugar + H20 boiling at once and divide it up between batches.

Another thing I do is have the fermenting buckets sit in the place at which you'll be doing the racking (at least) overnight. That way, you bring the bottling bucket TO the fermenting bucket(s) to do your transfer. No moving fermenting bucket = less crud in the bottling bucket.

I have an old, large coffee table in my basement (The Man Brewery(tm)) on which all 4 fermenting buckets sit which makes this cake.

Again, thanks for the ideas everyone!

The_Fuzz · Sep 7, 2011

Couple questions. . . how much is a good amount of head space, and if I use a bigger bottle(1L) should I have more or less or the same head space?

Also, what is a good temperature for bottle conditioning?

Thanks!

agenthucky · Sep 7, 2011

The_Fuzz said:
Couple questions. . . how much is a good amount of head space, and if I use a bigger bottle(1L) should I have more or less or the same head space?

Also, what is a good temperature for bottle conditioning?

Thanks!

A good temp is about 10 degrees warmer than you fermented. This will not shock the yeast, and shouldn't be warm enough to put the yeast into hyperdrive and explode your bottles. I stick them in a part of my house that doesn't get good circulation, next to the furnace for instance, and it's usually a little warmer.

As for the head space, you want the same ratio, so as the bottles get bigger so should the head space. This isn't as easy to explain. When the bottle pressurizes the co2 the yeast creates comes into equilibrium within the liquid and the headspace. This means that if you take a bottle filled 80% of the way and 50% of the way, pressurize them with the same amount of co2, the beer would actually be at 2 different carbonation levels. Not only does the head space take up more of the co2, but the more space, the weaker the pressure, as it dilutes over space. The lower pressure will allow less absorption by the beer in the bottle. I believe what texts say is 3/4 to 1 inch below the lip for 12 oz bottles. I shoot by eye and its fine, but when I first bottled I gave my grolsch bottles way to much head space and they were flattish.

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