Bottling Lessons Learned!

[Nate5700]

So I bottled my dunkelweizen today, and here's how it went:

After soaking "everything" (I'll explain the quotes momentarily) in sanitizer, I poured my priming solution into my bottling bucket and racked the beer into it. I set the bottling bucket up on the counter and was about to start to fill bottles, when I realized that I hadn't sanitized my two big Tap-a-Draft bottles that I was going to be filling. So, I put the lid from my primary onto my bottling bucket, and then used my hose to siphon sanitizer into my two TAD bottles.

While I'm doing that, I pull my bottling wand out of the sanitizer bucket and look at it. There is some discoloration inside the tip. I guess I didn't get it rinsed out well enough last time. So, I take it apart, throw the spring and the push-rod into the sanitizer, and start trying to find something to scrape out the ickies in the tip. I end up using a meat thermometer because it was thin and pointy. So, get that cleaned out, throw it back in the sanitizer. By this time my two bottles are full, so I put the lids on them and let them soak for 10 minutes or so. I'm using One-Step for a sanitizer so I want to make sure they get plenty of contact time to kill everything.

So, when I'm ready to bottle I start to put the bottling wand back together, and I drop the push-rod. It skips across the floor and ends up hiding under the oven. I reach under there and pull it out, and it's covered with dust and dog hair. So, rinse it off good, throw it back in the sanitizer. Except, while I'm rinsing it off, I drop it into the sink. There's a little pile of dishes in the sink, and I dig through them trying to find this small plastic piece and can't find it. So, bottling wand is basically unusable. I decide that I'll just close the spigot on the bottling bucket to move from one bottle to another, and move ahead.

So, stick the hose on the spigot and start filling a bottle. The bottle fills VERY slowly, and stops about a 3rd of the way through. I don't know what's going on. I tilt the bucket to try to get beer flowing again, and instead it actually sucks air back up through the hose and into the bucket! Great, now I've got a bunch of air mixed in with my beer, you know, that exact thing that you take great pains to avoid when bottling. Oh well.

So, I struggled with that while filling my two TAD bottles, and then while filling 12 oz bottles to finish off the batch, it finally occurs to me that things are going so slow because the lid is still on the bottling bucket! Why this didn't occur to me before I have no idea. I take the lid off and finish bottling with no problems, but I fear the damage has been done.

So, in short, the things I learned today were: Those plastic bottling wands are little pieces of crap; And, don't put a lid on your bottling bucket. Bad news.

I say these things in the hope that someone will avoid the mistakes I made today. But on the bright side, I did get some beer bottled! And now I've got two empty fermenters. I need to correct this, soon. I bought a 5 gallon cooler at Wal-Mart for about 20 bucks, too, so it might be time to attempt my first all-grain batch...

 

[northernlad]

I like how you blame the bottling wand for your butterfingers
You have damaged nothing. You have already made beer.

 

[xoltri]

I love the bottling wand! It works great for me. Just keep tryin.

 

[Redpiper]

For what it's worth, I throw a piece of foil over the bottling bucket - not airtight but can keep out random floating things (like dog hair).

I think everyone can relate to something not going as planned somewhere in this process!

 

[nanofreak]

I take 4 pieces of paper towel, in segments of two sheets each, I wet then in sanitizer, wring them out, and cover my bottling bucket.

The bottling wand is needed when doing so many small bottles, but with a TAD bottle not as much.

 

[Token]

I like how you blame the bottling wand for your butterfingers

heh, heh. Ditto.

 

[scrambledegg81]

I always keep a lid on the bucket just to prevent any airborne gunk from taking refuge in my love's labor. I drilled a hole in the lid (some come pre-drilled), and fit the bung from my airlock in the hole (giggady). The bung allows for air pressure to compensate while bottling, so my brew stays nice & clean and bottling is that much simpler.

 

[Newton]

Try bottling without the wand and then post back with your results.

 

[Nate5700]

Bottling without the wand was more or less what I did today after I lost the "push-rod" piece. I did still use the wand without the tip since it was better for getting down into the bottles with.

The first time I bottled I used the wand and it worked great! That thing is a total pain to clean though. And now I don't know if I'll find that other piece, so I'll either have to get another wand or move forward without it. I think I can make do just using the wand without the tip.

Thanks to everyone for the suggestions though. I think I'll definitely go with foil over the bucket while bottling to keep the nasties out next time. Oh, and one more thing that I learned today: I should definitely get an auto-siphon. I got down to the last gallon or so while racking and the siphon stopped and I couldn't get it restarted, and while I was trying to get it going again I got a bunch of the trub mixed in, so it ended up being pretty much unusable anyway. Still, it broke my heart to pour all that beer down the drain.

 

[joebagodonuts]

I put the lid on the bucket - but I don't snap it into place. That way floaties and junk don't land in my beer.
Nice post. It's great when people share their experiences so the rest of us can learn.

 

[Paramecium]

I love my bottling wand, it is definite necessity on bottling day.

 

[buzzkill]

hey, if it was easy everyone would want to be a part time brewer. and the harder you work for it,the better the beer will be when done.

 

[Banjoman76]

My .02 worth... Get another bottling wand and make yourself a Biermunchers Beer Gun (if you have some kegs) with the old wand.

 

[Daybis]

I love my spring loaded bottling want. I hate my non-spring loaded one. I always run warm water through the want the second I'm finish bottling.

 

[northernlad]

Seems like this would be a very helpful thread for you:
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/bottling-tips-homebrewer-94812/

 

[Wiezer]

That's what happens when you've been drinking and bottling at the same time.

 

[Token]

I love my spring loaded bottling want. I hate my non-spring loaded one. I always run warm water through the want the second I'm finish bottling.

Same here. Run One-Step or generic OxyClean through it a few times, rinse that out, then let it sit in StarSan for a bit while I do more clean-up. I've never taken mine apart.

 

[Nate5700]

Well I found the missing piece of my bottling wand today, so I can use it again. From now on I'll just make sure to take it apart and let it soak in OxyClean/OneStep before I use it. And probably put it back together over the sanitizer bucket so it will fall into the sanitizer if I drop it.

I really do like it for bottling, I've just had incredibly bad luck cleaning it.

 

[rico567]

I couldn't get by without the bottling wand......but I use the other kind, not spring-loaded. It just closes by pressure. Much simpler, doesn't require disassembly. I just rinse thoroughly right after use, then sanitize before using it again. Came with my original kit from Midwest.

As far as your bottling technique....it's impossible to criticize anybody's techniques in a global way, because it's always different. Someone in a studio apartment is pretty much always going to have a different approach than someone like me, who has a basement to spread out in.

As far as the individual parts of your bottling approach, I suggest looking up a thread that is a "sticky" at the top of the Bottling/Kegging thread, authored by "Revvy." Great thread, I learned a lot and greatly increased the efficiency of my bottling technique. Just think it through, and don't let anyone tell you you need to keg......chances are, you don't.