Bottled the first batch!

[arover]

Brewed 3/6, bottled 3/22! 3 more weeks to go

I must say, bottling was by far the hardest process for me...simply because I kept getting a huge air gap after removing my auto siphon and connecting my bottle filler (and we can't have that, now can we!?)! I eventually just gave up and did the fill with water trick...****ty way to do it, I know, but I was making such a mess...I'm going to have to refine and figure out how to do it properly next time....

Anyways, I leave you all with a picture (Ignore my inability to fill the bottles up all the way, it's a work in progress):

http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/9622/img1225p.jpg

 

[llazy_llama]

Well, hey, a beer in the bottle is worth two in the bush, whatever the hell that means. If you haven't already, check out https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/revvys-tips-bottler-first-time-otherwise-94812/

That post contains tons of neat tips and tricks to both speed up your bottling day, and make it less of a PITA.

Anyway, enjoy your beer in a few weeks!

 

[HotbreakHotel]

The bottles looked ok to me. You need some head space.

I keep my bottle filler attached to my auto siphon throughout the whole bottling process. With my left hand I press the bottle filler against the bottom of the bottle, and with my right hand, I just do a few short auto siphon pumps (as little as 2 inches at a time) until it's going. In between bottle batches I just lay the bottle filller on a sanitized surface.

It'll get easier. You'll get your process down.

 

[Beau815]

You dont want them all the way filled up, that space looks normal. I love the red caps where'd ya get em?

 

[arover]

HotbreakHotel, sounds to me like your autosiphon is a two way valve. Now that I think about it, that'd actually be really nice. I'm using something more like a syringe to get the siphon going, so once it's flowing I have to swap it out with my filler. I'm going to go out and get a spigot today at my LHBS (or home depot, haven't decided how I want to make it yet) to put in my bottling bucket. That SHOULD make things much easier.

Anyways, Beau, got em at my LHBS (link). Kinda pricey with some things, but you asked where I got the caps

 

[llazy_llama]

arover: that link's not working for me.

Beau815: Midwest has them for 3.25/144 here.

 

[arover]

Try it now, I updated it a few minutes ago when it wasn't working. The site is thebeveragepeople.com if ya wanna check em out anyways. But for the purposes of the original question, the caps are cheaper as posted on MW.

 

[llazy_llama]

Yeah, link works fine now.

 

[Beau815]

Hmm 3.50 isnt bad just the 9.90 shipping is