Bottling

Well, I just bottled my first batch (5 gallons) and got 50 bottles out of the bucket.

mixed up the priming sugar in water (5 oz) brought it to a boil, removed from heat, mixed in the beer from my fermenter with an auto siphon (highly recommended), sanitized my caps and bottles, and filled the bottles.

All the caps went on secure, even had a few from the kit left over as I didn't have any that I fudged up. Remembered to lable the first beer I bottled with a sharpie on the cap and they went into the milk crates (25 beers per case fit perfectly) and down to the basement they went to sit for a few weeks before chilling and drinking.

We will see how it all turns out, but I wanted to note that I was a bit nervous as a lot of people comment on the pain that is bottling beer. I didn't find it too rough or tedious. I can't wait to try another brewing session!

 

Sounds good. Try to keep the temp around 70F if you can. Also, a garbage bag around the milk crates will protect you from the effects of bottle bombs, (unlikely, but always possible). Try to be patient, and good luck. Brew your next batch.

 

cleanliness and sanitation of the bottles and/or anything that will come in contact with the beer (siphons/hoses/caps/buckets, etc) is the key. I just did one the other day and the worst part was delabeling and cleaning the bottles. Still, I now have a case and a half of spotless bottles (including 5 bombers courtesy of my local recycling drop-off place).

 

Not to mention,keeping them covered or away from the light.

 

I've found bottling to be way less daunting than its made out to be. The guys at the home brew shop assume I'm bottling my first batch every time I pick up priming sugar and more caps because "once you've bottled once you'll go straight to kegging" - I don't buy that at all, i find it fun every time and love being able to pass off a bottle here and there to people.

FYI - i soak my bottles in a sink of hot water and oxyclean for 10-15 minutes - by the time you pull the bottle out of the water most the labels will fall right off naturally. Some you'll have to peel off but they'll come off so easy after soaking in that oxyclean.

 

fortunately for me my basement sits at a perfect 70 degrees during the winter. No exterior light finds its way to the bottles from their location in the basement either. Covered them with a couple aprons that I think will prevent potential explosion particles from going anywhere.

Sanitizing wasn't too bad with the kitchen sink that I have (2 deep stainless steel basins and a 3rd smaller one). using the dishwasher to hold the bottles was key in my mind.

 

I found that some brands' labels came off easily after overnight soak in pbw water, others did not. Sierra nevada leaves lots of paper behind but after another soak they easily scrub off with an old bottle brush. New Belgium work well, as do Abita. There are some that required a putty knife even after two soaks. Do you think oxyclean works much better than pbw?

 

Also, I like shorter bottles because the bottling wand seems to displace too much beer on long necks, making filling them to 1" more difficult.

 

I did use oxyclean to remove the labels as well. I think all of the tips that I picked up from this site have been spot on so far.

 

I remove all glue left behind, too. I'm not the only one, right?

 

IMHO - Oxyclean gets it all off easily

 

I soak'em overnight in PBW. Labels slid off,glue is dissolved or really soft. A bottle brush & dobie make quick work of them.

 

This. I did 43 bottles yesterday afternoon, along with the help of my girls. With the exception of the Silver Gulch Pickaxe Porter they came off with little to no effort.

 

That's what I did but as I said, a few brands like Sierra Nevada leave half the label and a lot of glue, even after an overnight soak in PBW/Hot water. Still, it took me just a few hours of scrubbing to get 50 bottles completely spotless, no glue, nothing.

Now that I'm done with about 74 bottles, and since I do enjoy drinking my beer at a more-than-occasionally rate...I hope to not have to convert many more bottles. Of course, I'm always keeping my eye out for kegs, too.

 

Sierra Nevada's are some of the easiest for me. I use 3TBSP's of PBW in 4-4.5 gallons of water in a homer cheapo bucket. Labels slide off & glue is dissolved or mushy. And at room temp too. Maybe you have hard water?

 

Try an SOS pad to remove any left behind glue or paper after the overnight soak...that really works for me.

 

actually everything in the house runs thru the softener. In fact, I need to tap into the unsoftened water and put an inline filter for chloramine in there for brewing. I've been using the softened water but don't want any salts making their way into my beer.

I may not have used enough PBW. I just sprinkled it in there sans measurement. The SN bottles scrub just fine, but I get like a delaminated effect from labels when peeling them off. The colorful stuff comes off, and some paper residue and glue is left behind. After a tad more soaking the glue/paper scrubs off pretty easily. Easier than the Guiness bomber anyways

 

Maybe it's the lack of measurement. Try my way once & see if that helps. I get that kind of effect with soaking the ink off with bottles like Great Lakes & thirsty dog. I think they use comp labels.

 

I started off getting bottles from coworkers and had a bunch of Sam Adams. Their labels SUCK! Even after soaking I had to scrape them all off with an old credit card and scrub with a green pad.

Now I get all my bottles from a Sushi place down the street, about 100 bottles each weekend. Nearly all of those are Sapporo and at least half are the 20oz bottles. I LOVE Sapporo labels! An hour in OxyClean and most of the labels are floating.

 

I enjoy bottling. It's relaxing. It's also the signal that my creation is close to enjoying.

I've used oxyclean in warm water with good success. I soak them overnight in a cooler and most labels fall right off. The ones that are the worst for me are Big Sky's. They need the soak, a thumbnail and a good scrubbing with a green scotchbrite pad to get all the junk off. New Belgium, Schlafly, and many others come off with little effort.

 

My Sam Adams (and New Belgium) bottles were a cinch after soaked in Oxiclean.

 

I use tsp and chlorine (1tbs per gallon of water) and let it soak for a couple of days and the labels slide right of as well as most of the glue. Of course I,m a real newbie so I,m sure there are better ways. This also cleans out gunk from old bottles nicely.

 

Umm I do Sam Adams labels no problem with Oxy and warm water in about an hour. I mix it to the strength to clean grout.. So that might help.

 

Same here, to me bottling is just part of the experience. I kind of enjoy it.

 

Blue Point bottles are near impossible. The paper seems to be more of an adamantium exoskeleton - nothing short of a sawzaw will work. I just farted around with two this weekend. Oxy first, then a few other toxic things I had laying around. Ended up giving them to the recycling bin. Some of the southern tier labels are difficult as well, but then some of them come off very easy. Good beer so it's worth the gamble...

Not that I only buy bombers anymore, but the place where I buy my brewing supplies (and I'm a total noob brewer - don't get me wrong) sells a lot of microbrews in bomber size bottles. Wonder why folks seek out the 12-ouncers such as Sam Adams when there are so many fantastic beers to explore in the bigger bottles, which cut over 1/3 of the bottling work? I still buy many of my favorites in 12 ouncers, but I don't keep any of those bottles anymore. Bombers or bust, baby. Plus, if you DO have the explosion, it is a much grander affair, I would think. Double bonus.

I DO bottle (one per batch) in my stash of 11.5 Westvleteren bottles tho - ticks the snobs off when I pop it and they see an IPA pour out!