bottling - too dark to see!

my dark brown bottles hard to see when get full during bottling
leads to overfilling
any quick/cheap/easy lighting tips?

aside from a led lit bottling wand not sure

 

You need to bottle in a better lit area. More light.

 

Get a bottling wand. As soon as the beer comes to overflow release the pressure on the wand and remove from the bottle. This will give you the perfect headspace. This method will also push the excess Starsan foam from the bottle.

 

I set up my sit down bottling rig in the man cave,so I train my desk lamp towards the bottle to see when it's getting to the top. And I def use a bottling wand.

 

The lighting is bad in basement so i even used a flood light right in front of area and it was still too dark

i use the wand already, it fills so fast, and drinking while bottling so reaction time slower lol

I think i need a flat light of sorts to set the bottle on top of maybe?

 

I set my 5 gallon kettle under my bottling rig, any over flow just drips in it.
Also check out Revvy's bottling sticky in the bottling forum.

 

Yeah, I agree with grem. If you can't see well in that area and you can't bottle elsewhere then just place a sanitized container underneath the bottles and the overflow won't be wasted.

 

Doing it with a light (white) background helps (open dishwasher door)

 

We use a wand and a desk lamp turned sideways just behind the bottle being filled, you should be able to easily see through it that way. Trying to light from the bottom is actually harder to see since the beer makes the bottle even more opaque than it is to start out.

Also, thumbs up for the dishwasher door, that's what we bottle onto. We clean the bottles as their emptied and then store them. Run them through the dishwasher upside down on high heat with no soap immediately before bottling. Bottling bucket sits on the counter, and we fill bottles right onto the open door with the desk lamp behind the bottle. easy to see so you don't spill much but if you do dribble a little it is drained right through the dishwasher and cleaned next time it's run. We've never had a bottle infection this way either.

 

What he said. Or bottle with a window behind the bottle, or set a lamp behind the bottle. I set a restaurant style busing tray filled with empty bottles on a bucket, and set a lamp behind the bottles.

 

With various worklights, LED lights, and fore thought, just don't have any brews while you bottle.
Sorry had to say that because the answer is obvious.