Bottling Equipment

[jrtoastyman]

Bought a kit a bit ago, and have our first brew hanging out in the fermenter as we speak. We'll be bottling about a week from now, but having played around with the bottling equipment that came with the kit (which is basically a siphon), I'm pretty sure we're going to want to go in a different direction ASAP. What kind of set up are people using to transfer the beer into the bottles?

 

[unionrdr]

I have spigots on both fermenters as well as my bottling bucket. The FV's sit on my fermenter stand,bottling bucket on the floor beneith it. I atatch a piece of clear tubing to the spout of the FV's spigot,& have it long enough to go half way round the bottom of the bottling bucket. This allows the beer to rack from one to the other with no oxidation. Then the bottling bucket goes on top of the fermenter stand. I atatch a tube with the bottling wand atached to the other end of it to fill bottles with. It has a little pin valve on the end to fill the bottles from the bottom up. Once again to prevent oxidation of the beer. Then dunk an o2 barrier cap in starsan & place on top of bottle. I stop to crimp caps every 10-12 bottles.

 

[DPBISME]

As above I use a bucket with a spigot but I just use a bottling wand, no CO2.

I have never had a problem with oxidation and I figure the little bit of oxygen put in to the environment is consumed by the yeast as it carbonates the beer.

I think (and have no proof) that this is an issue for larger brewers because they are pushing the beer a whole lot faster than I am, potentially disolving mor O2.

I also reduce the amouth of head space in the bottles by half by pouring or using a Straw with my finger over one end.

I leave the bottles in the case and fill them all before moving to the capper. It speeds things up pretty good.

two weeks later BEER!

DPB

 

[Revvy]

Go look at what we do in the bottling sticky.

It's all in there.

 

[unionrdr]

Who said anything thus far about using co2? Oxidation can be a problem at our level as well. A little tiny bit in the bottling wand tube or racking cane won't hurt,but a lot will. And the head space made by volume displacement of the wand (IE removing it from the bottle) automatically leaves the right head space for that bottle.

 

[kh54s10]

What Revvy said. That is the information I went by before my first batch was ready. 35 batches in bottles and now 2 in kegs with no problems.

 

[BlindFaith]

I put my fermenter on the counter above my dishwasher and my bottling bucket on the open door of the dishwasher. I sanitize my bottles in the dishwasher so everything is handy. Once I siphon my beer into my bottling bucket using a racking cane, I just put the bucket where the fermenter used to be and then attach my bottling wand (that has a little piece of 3/8 tubing attached to it) to my bottling bucket spigot and roll with it. I think I got my idea from Revvy's methods. Revvy is the bottling king.

 

[jrtoastyman]

thanks, all!