No Bottle Tree. Any ideas?

Will be bottling next week and I have no bottle tree. Any ideas besides buying one? Wouldn't get here in time if I ordered it.

 

I've never used one. I just dunk the bottles in star San right before bottling.

 

I just use my dishwasher. I stick them in upsidedown on the posts and run them at high temp with no detergent. Then when I bottle I put the bucket right to the side of the washer. Has worked well for me. I would have no use for a tree.

 

+1 on starsan.

 

http://www.northernbrewer.com/brewing/vinator-bottle-rinser.html sped up my bottling time alot. I suppose there is a convenience factor to a bottle tree, but with starsan/iodophor you don't have to rinse or drip dry for that matter.

 

I was planning to go this route until I got lucky and found a great deal on craigslist for bottle tree and serious number of swing top bottles.

http://www.campfirebrewery.com/?p=24

If you have some plywood, some wood planks, etc. You could drill a hole big enough to fit the nose of the bottles, but would hold the rest of the bottle. It would drip dry and nothing to infect the inside. When not in use, shouldn't take up much space, just lay it flat somewhere or against the wall.

Otherwise, if you live anywhere near a populated area, there is always craigslist. But it can take awhile to find the right deal.

 

Check out this http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/bottling-tips-homebrewer-94812/

It has some great bottling tips. I bottle over the dishwasher like in post #2. I just use a turkey baster to squirt star san in the bottle and then put them in the dishwasher. I do 12 at a time, cap and then move on to the next 12. The best thing about this method is to clean up the drips all you have to do is close the dishwasher door. Brilliant.

 

I prefer using beer cases with the bottles upside down(need to rig some kind of lid so the bottles dont fall out)
Using a bit more starsan is a small price for rinsing 24 bottles at once

 

+1 for the dishwasher, run sanitize mode, then a quick dunk in starsan and put em back on the rack to dry, bottle over the door, no mess=happy swmbo

 

I did 2 batches using the dishwasher method, worked well. The bottle tree made it even easier. I usually bottle over the dishwasher door, I didn't on the last batch, will go back to it next time.

 

+1 storage in dishwasher

B

 

Hmm I'm going to have to try the dishwasher method. I guess with the prongs to hold cup it'd be perfect to set a bottle over. Learn something new everyday.

 

drathbone,

Revvy put out a post a long time ago about bottling over the open dishwasher door. You set the bottling bucket on top of the dishwasher, cut your bottling wand tube short, so it dangles above the open door and bottle there. I have a bad back and bad knees, this allows me to bottle in a chair. Once your done close the door and the drippings go inside. Of course remove clean dishes first.

 

Used to use my wife's dishwasher rack for a bottle tree before I had one. Worked very well.

 

This is pretty much what I do, except I get all of the bottles cleaned/sanitized and on the racks, then I take a break. Not because I want them to dry, but because scrubbing 60 some bottles is enough reason to sit back and have a beer before I start filling/capping.

 

Not to take this off course, I think my thoughts are related. I have yet to bottle anything so far, but have concern over beer being exposed to light when bottling. I like the idea bottling right over the dishwasher door. But if your kitchen is like mine, it gets lots of sunlight during the day. So I thought of doing it after the sun has gone down. (I suppose this problem exists anywhere there is sunlight.)

But.. we have CFLs everywhere. Anyone worry about exposure to them for time it takes to bottle? I was thinking of shutting all the lights off and pulling out two work lights to bottle under that have old school 100 watt incandescent bulbs. Would someone need to be worried about this? Or just bottle away, short term CFL isn't a problem?

 

You know, bottling beer is not like developing pictures, you really don't need a dark room.

Billions of gallons of beer are bottled yearly, both commercially and hobby way, in all manner of lighting conditions, and you never see an "OHMYGODMYBEERSRUINEDBECAUSEIDIDNTBOTTLEINTHEDARK" threads. You're really over stressing/overthinking this.

Relax.

 

i just clean the bottles very well right after i empty one and store it upside down til next time ... then I grab enough of them for the amount of beer i have, and put them thru the dishwasher on the highest heat mode .. it says "sanitize" on the dishwasher .. I dont even use sanitizer on the bottles when bottling .. the dishwasher does it for me .. but I think the key to this is cleaning them really well after use ... i put hot tap water in one and shake it .. pour it out and repete .. then even repete again sometimes ... I look in the bottle to be sure there is nothing left in there also .. about 13 batches of beer in and i havent ruined any beer at bottling, to my knowlege, using this method ... good luck ..

 

to be honest ... I have also came up a bottle or two short in my dishwasher a few times .. and I just grabbed one i had stored upside down and filled it and marked it ... those beers have all been fine too ... those bottles I would only serve myself tho .. I'm pretty lax at bottling I guess ...

 

It"s little ghetto but it does the job:



I have it on my left side while I"m bottling, and I put filled bottles on right side.. works just fine for me.

 

Thanks Revvy, you have me LMAO right now. (I am glad I didn't mention the hazmat suit I was wearing on brew day. And I was really hoping for another reason to justify to my wife those night vision goggles I picked up!!!)

 

START KEGGING!!! its fantastic youll never turn back.

 

diS,
What was the plastic part of your rack in it's former life? I like how compact your setup is and would like to copy it..

 

me too .. do tell???

 

I actually saw it on a youtube but same here. I have a piece of tube about 4 inches long and my wand is basically right up to the valve. I don't move it at all. Just slide the bottle under it. I have had zero problems with this method.

 

Grass grid

It can hold 49 (0.33 l) bottles, or ~45 those of 0.5 l.
I dont have problems with stability, eg.- if I have more than 50 bottles I put some of them on the others and it is still stable.

Just be sure to put rings that are wide enough, nuts will keep them tightly on threaded rod.

 

*GROAN* Can we EVER have a BOTTLING question where someone doesn't answer it by mentioning kegging????? You know, some of us may never keg, or will keg and bottle. It's not the be all and end all of brewing...And doesn't need to be brought up every time someone mentions bottling. I mean, we're not idiots...we've HEARD about kegging actually (it's hard not to considering this IS the bottling/kegging section afterall.

It's as tiring and trite a comment to see in every bottling thread as "You're beer is ruined so send it to me for proper disposal."

It's as old as this guy

 

if those posts are so tiring to you .. why dont you just skip past them? ... I mean if we were all actually together and just shooting the **** about brewing and bottling .. those kinds of comments would come up .. old jokes and nudges in the direction of kegging .. it happens when homebrewers get together in person .. so it's only logical for it to happen here IMO ... also this is all about beer .. so it's also logical that many of us are fairly drunk when we post from time to time ... and this is in the beginners section not the bottling and kegging section ...

 

Oh stop it.

 

be sure to take off your shirt and rub starsan on your chest....

(if you don't believe me there is a youtube dude that does this...)

 

Why don't you just skip over his post? Ill give kegging a try if you let me borrow all your stuff. I'll be needing the kegerator as well bottling is cheap and there actually are other advantages.

 

I don't keg either .. no money for the stuff, but I also really kinda like bottling too .. I commented on the post mostly because I just told the "I'll dispose of your ruined beer" joke recently ... and I thought it was pretty funny .. of course I was a little drunk tho ... sorry if I offended anyone .. I'm just mouthy sometimes I guess ...

 

I don't even look at the user names half the time on here. Carry on...

 

Back to the original topic. I got some good ideas from everyone and heres what I came up with. Supplies needed, none.



Its the top of my dishwasher rack. I will spray this with starsan and grab bottles out of the starsan and stick onto this. The bottles fit nicely

 

There ya go. I didn't even use the starsan the last run. Just washed and then ran then in the dishwasher. The heat will sanitize them. I don't blame ya tho. I was going to starsan just forgot.

 

looks great !! .. I hope it's your best beer ever .. sorry I helped this thread get off topic and sassy .. won't happen again

 

Here is my bottle rack. It is a soda carrier with PVC pipe cut to fit. I rinse with star san and then invert until bottling time.