Bottling Procedures

[weyerfan]

So tomorrow is the big day. Bottling up my first ever batch. I've sort of blueprinted the process and I would love some input. Tonight I'm going to soak the bottles in Oxiclean free to remove the labels then as I remove them tomorrow I'm gonna use my bottle brush and give then a good scrub as I take them out. Afterwards I'm going to run them through the dishwasher with no detergent and as that is happening I'm gonna prepare a batch of starsan. After the dishwasher I'm gonna soak them in starsan and pull them out as I fill them. I'm gonna set aside a small bowl of starsan for the caps to soak. After I fill six I'm going to cap them and place them in the case. Then repeat. Thoughts?

 

[PVH]

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

 

[malkore]

dishwashers SUCK at cleaning the inside of the bottle. people use them to heat sanitize the bottles after they're already clean (but you have to remove the Jet Dry from your washer or you'll kill the head and lacing...possibly).

since you are star-san santizing the dishwasher step is kind of pointless except to clean off the exterior of the bottle.

 

[bovineblitz]

I recommend taking the labels off on a different day than actual bottling... that process suuucks.

 

[Kstalder]

I am a foremost expert in all subjects regarding HB, I won't tell you as a fact, but I washout my bottles right after I empty them...use starsan right before I bottle...and like that's it...as long as you get "gunk" ect out, use hot water, then starnsan ( or equivalent), you should be good.

Ohh..forgot to explain me being expert, have brewed 3 times, but all 3 were came out exceptional! Just saying...clean and sanitize...it shouldn't take 15 steps. Good luck, and whatever your hopes are for your beer...using these guys advice will make your beer better than expected!

 

[ThatGuyRyan]

skip the dishwasher just soak, scrub, rinse then soak in sanitizer before bottling. Soap or no soap the dishwasher will leave residue.

 

[dandw12786]

Yeah, don't bother with the dishwasher part... your dishwasher is a lot dirtier than you think, and there will still be some soap and jet dry in there even if you don't put any in. the oxyclean then starsan works great, just make sure you give your bottles a good rinse after the oxyclean! Oh, and for labels, I typically rip off as much as I can after the oxyclean soak, then the rough side of a sponge works great for getting all the gunk off.

And +1 to the link to Revvy's bottling tips (first reply to your message). That's a GREAT sticky, and I stole some of his procedures, they work awesome.

 

[OHIOSTEVE]

Agreed on too many steps...Make sure the bottles are clean.. I despise oxiclean due to the scale it leaves but grit my teeth and use it anyway because it works so well. After the oxi bath, rinse the bottles and give em a short soak in star san to remove the oxi scale...fill em and cap em.....from this point forward have your bottles ready to go well before bottling day. Get em clean and store em away. That way on bottling day a quick shot of sanitizer and fill em up.... As for revvys bottling tip thread I follow it to the T and actually enjoy bottling days. I sanitize and fill em....my son runs the bench capper. We can crank out a batch in a matter of minutes now.

 

[brewdude25]

If you haven't heard this already, Keep a spray bottle on hand that is full of sanitizer. Makes for quick sanitizing, in all situations.

 

[bovineblitz]

Yeah, don't bother with the dishwasher part... your dishwasher is a lot dirtier than you think, and there will still be some soap and jet dry in there even if you don't put any in. the oxyclean then starsan works great, just make sure you give your bottles a good rinse after the oxyclean! Oh, and for labels, I typically rip off as much as I can after the oxyclean soak, then the rough side of a sponge works great for getting all the gunk off.

And +1 to the link to Revvy's bottling tips (first reply to your message). That's a GREAT sticky, and I stole some of his procedures, they work awesome.

I do something similar for the labels, I use the blunt side of a butter knife. Works well. I have enough bottles now that I only bother to remove the labels from 22ozers and 12ozers where I know the label is easy to remove (Sierra Nevada, Sam Adams, Troegs, and ESPECIALLY Wagner Valley which is a small brewery in the Finger Lakes region of NY... incredibly easy to remove and very nice bottles). It's so great when you finally have enough bottles that you can just start recycling again.

Also, a vinator is awesome for bottling, that plus a bottle tree makes for quick and easy sanitizing. IMO it's the worst part of homebrewing so if you can't do kegs, invest in products to make your bottling experience less crappy.

 

[superjunior]

Also, a vinator is awesome for bottling, that plus a bottle tree makes for quick and easy sanitizing. IMO it's the worst part of homebrewing so if you can't do kegs, invest in products to make your bottling experience less crappy.

+1 a vinator and bottling tree make life so much easier

 

[RM-MN]

I have a double sink and a dishwasher. I arrange it so there is a just emptied dishwasher availble, put some warm water and oxiclean in one sink, warm rinse water in the other. give the bottles a quick soak in the oxiclean, a rinse in the warm water and set them on the counter above the dishwasher. Since I have a vinator, I use that to sanitize the inside of the bottles and set them upside down on the prongs in the dishwasher to drip out, much like a bottle tree would do. I can comfortably fit 24 bottles in the dishwasher so I do that many and then bottle that much, then do it over again. The bottling bucket sets on the counter right above the dishwasher so it's handy to fill the bottles right on the open door of the dishwasher so any spills are contained right there. When I have the last beer bottled and capped, I close the door to dump the spilled beer into the dishwasher, then open and rinse the door and close it again. From the time I have the bottles ready to wash until final clean-up will probably take me about an hour to hour and a half.

 

[LostBavarianMan]

For getting the labels off I just draw a sink of hot tap water and soak the bottles for about 20 minutes. The labels pull right off.+1 on the rough side of the sponge to get the glue off.
I also wash my bottles when I empty them. I set up a 5 gal bucket for of sanitizer and let the bottles soak for about 10 minutes and use pull them from the bucket as I need them for filling. Just my 2 cents.

 

[dzlater]

cap on foam

 

[Diver165]

The big thing is to find a process that YOU can do that is both simple and effective. If it is too cumbersome or complex you will have a tendency to skip a step or cut corners. That's where a lot of the "my beer tastes bad" threads come from.

Oxyclean and hot water is all I use to clean. I rinse the he'll out of everything and I use Starsan soak for my caps. But I also use a dishwasher(no detergent) with heated dry for my bottles. But I'm lucky that I have a spare dishwasher that all it has ever seen are beer bottles and brew tools.

Just remember K.I.S.S. (keep it simple stupid) eliminates a lot of mistakes.

 

[weyerfan]

Thanks to all of you for the wonderful tips and links to helpful resources. I'm excited to get it underway later on and feel pretty confident it's gonna go real smooth.