bottling 10 gallons of beer

[MHBT]

Unfortunately i can no longer keg my beers cause i cannot get co2 refills in my area..I have not bottled a batch of more then 1-2 gallons in years..So my question is how long should it take to bottle 10 gallons of beer? The idea is already daunting..i might have to sell some equipment and down grade thank you

 

[jschein]

That sucks, about 2 hours first time. I did the same thing for my daughter 's wedding. By the 30th gallon it took about an hour.

 

[flars]

I screw around during the bottling set up to clean and put away stuff. Bottling 5 gallons takes about 45 minutes once I get started. The bench capper saves quite a bit of time compared to a wing capper.

 

[day_trippr]

You're looking at around 100 bottles.
Not including sanitizing them, if you cap-on-foam I guesstimate it'll take an hour to fill and cap them all.

I bottled 40 gallons of beer on the hottest day of the year many years ago.
Traumatizing. That evening I started ordering the parts for my first keezer.
Aside from filling road beers from a tap I haven't bottled since...

Cheers!

 

[MHBT]

i have been too spoiled keging beer so 100 bottles seems like a nightmare and just takes all the enjoyment out so im just gonna down grade..thank you and everyone keep an eye on the for sale section gonna have some cool stuff to sell..cheers

 

[flars]

i have been too spoiled keging beer so 100 bottles seems like a nightmare and just takes all the enjoyment out so im just gonna down grade..thank you and everyone keep an eye on the for sale section gonna have some cool stuff to sell..cheers

Good music makes bottling easier. My favorite is Dvorak's Grand Canyon Suite, at a fairly decent volume.

 

[day_trippr]

Unfortunately i can no longer keg my beers cause i cannot get co2 refills in my area.[...]

So, where is this forsaken location?

 

[Totally]

Bigger bottles?

I keg now but when I bottle I can only be bothered to fill 500ml or 1L flip tops. Takes WAY too long otherwise.

 

[MHBT]

So, where is this forsaken location?

its in long beach long island..closest place from here is freeport i have a condition which prevents me from driving..Get this, i used to get my tank filled at monarch beverage down the street..so i dropped my tank off 2-3 weeks ago waiting for the call..no call so i went there a week ago the dude said we will call you when its filled and some bs about having trouble with the co2 guy blah blah.. i went there today and told them i need my tank back the guy said its over there, so i picked up my tank guess what? they scratched my name off the tank and wrote monarch on the tank..they tried to steal my tank hahaha so i will not be giving them any business its cool i'm just gonna bottle from now on

 

[chickypad]

Ugh sorry man, that does sound like a nightmare. I know some folks don't mind bottling, I'm not one of them. Maybe you can get a 20 lb tank and start naturally carbing your kegs. I force carb and my 20lb still lasts about a year and a half I think. Looks like dispensing only is supposed to be about 75-80 corny kegs. Unless you're a prolific brewer that should get you 2-3 yrs until you could bribe a friend/driver

 

[MHBT]

Ugh sorry man, that does sound like a nightmare. I know some folks don't mind bottling, I'm not one of them. Maybe you can get a 20 lb tank and start naturally carbing your kegs. I force carb and my 20lb still lasts about a year and a half I think. Looks like dispensing only is supposed to be about 75-80 corny kegs. Unless you're a prolific brewer that should get you 2-3 yrs until you could bribe a friend/driver

That is a great idea ..i think thats my ticket.

 

[Transamguy77]

You could get some friends to help, when I would get asked if someone could come over for a brew day I would get them to help me bottle too! They could see the whole process in one session.

Eventually my kids helped me and we could do 10 gallons in an hour. I eventually started kegging.

 

[Gravity]

Bottling isn't the issue, its actually quite peaceful, its all the damn cleaning of the bottles thats time consuming. I would get a couple of friends and family members and make an assembly line out of it, everybody cleans 20 bottles or so, then you start to cap, which doesn't take long.

You can also try carbing beer in kegs without CO2, meaning rack the beer as normal to the keg, mix in your priming sugar, hit it with a little CO2 to close the lid and wait as usual. I've done this once, worked out fine.

 

[Joewalla88]

Bigger bottles?

I keg now but when I bottle I can only be bothered to fill 500ml or 1L flip tops. Takes WAY too long otherwise.

This helps out a lot. My bottling days went a lot quicker when I switched to 22oz bottles.

 

[MHBT]

Well im a happy camper cause i found out i can get mt tanks refilled at the fire command right down the road..thank you everyone for the ideas but i can stay kegging thank god

 

[BrewZer]

Good deal you found another CO2 source.

I was going to suggest that if you start with clean bottles, it makes life a lot easier. I always rinse my bottles immediately after pouring a beer. Then store them covered and all I really need to do when I'm ready to bottle again is sanitize (and, since I use bleach, rinse in hot water).

 

[Epos7]

I've been bottling quite a few 10 gallons batches, and assuming the bottles are clean but not sanitized, it takes me about 2.5 hours. I have a bench capper and use the bottling setup described on HBT with the bottling bucket sitting on top of another bucket with the bottling wand connected directly to the spigot. It's a good setup, and about the most efficient way I can envision doing it, but it still takes a really long time. Most of the time is in gathering all the required equipment, sanitizing, and transferring. Then cleaning and putting it all away. The actual bottle filling and capping only takes 20-30 minutes.

 

[Lefou]

This helps out a lot. My bottling days went a lot quicker when I switched to 22oz bottles.

My stash of glass includes five dozen 22oz and a bunch of 11.2oz bottles. The small brown ones can be useful to give away or use when you just don't feel like drinking larger portions.

 

[BrianGee]

Well im a happy camper cause i found out i can get mt tanks refilled at the fire command right down the road..thank you everyone for the ideas but i can stay kegging thank god

I get my fills at a fire extinguisher place as well. The best part is that they do it while you wait and you get your own tank right back - no swap and 5 minutes. That bugger is COLD when they hand it back, though!