Bottling tips?

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

FSR402

Supporting Member
HBT Supporter
Joined
May 30, 2007
Messages
2,808
Reaction score
30
Location
Jenison, MI
Bottling my first batch this weekend and is there any words of wisdom that you can give me?
Any tips that may make this go better or faster. It's going to be a rough day as it is. I'm racing a 5K in the morning then I have to go into work for 8 hours then I can go home to bottle 5 gal. of brew.

I washed (even though they were new bottles) 72 bottles last night and they are hanging on my bottle tree right now.
Tonight when I get home I plan to put foil on the tops of them and bake them in the oven.
Yes I know that I don't have to bake them, I can just put them in some Starsan but I would rather not deal with a bunch of slick bottles. So I'm doing the bake thing.

I'm all
bigear.gif
 
FSR402 said:
Bottling my first batch this weekend and is there any words of wisdom that you can give me?
...
Yes I know that I don't have to bake them, I can just put them in some Starsan but I would rather not deal with a bunch of slick bottles. So I'm doing the bake thing.

I'm all
bigear.gif
my tip would not to go the long and dangerous route. But if you decide to anyway, heat and cool down the oven slowly because beer bottles are not pyrex and do not take well to quick changes in temperature
 
If you bought the bottles brand new, then you don't need to go the extra step in baking. A good wash and rinse and your good to go. There's basically two ways us cheapo-s can bottle. With a bottling wand or a spigot on the bottom of your bottling bucket. If your using the wand, take time to get a good siphon and place the bucket about 3 to 4 feet above the bottles your filling. Have all your bottles handy and ready to go. Once you get started, it's a PITA to have to stop and gather more bottles. Keep kids away or get them to help with capping. Make sure you leave some head space before you cap them.
 
Ol' Grog said:
If you bought the bottles brand new, then you don't need to go the extra step in baking. A good wash and rinse and your good to go. There's basically two ways us cheapo-s can bottle. With a bottling wand or a spigot on the bottom of your bottling bucket. If your using the wand, take time to get a good siphon and place the bucket about 3 to 4 feet above the bottles your filling. Have all your bottles handy and ready to go. Once you get started, it's a PITA to have to stop and gather more bottles. Keep kids away or get them to help with capping. Make sure you leave some head space before you cap them.


I have a bottling bucket with the tap on the side and I have a bottling wand and I plan to use the wand.

I was planing to put the bottles in the oven when it's cold then turn it on and bring it up to 335* for one hour then turn it off and leave them in there over night to cool. Is this something I SHOULD NOT do?


Also what would be better, using the priming sugar that I have or getting some light DME to bottle with?
 
why do you insist in baking the bottles in the oven? that is a waste of time.

wash the bottles with warm dish soap and water. rinse well and let dry. as extra precaution dunk all the bottles in no rinse one-step just prior to bottling.

give your oven a rest...especially in the summer when its hot!

and dont think of bottling as a chore! rather the last step in the brewing process.

good luck, and have fun!
 
yeah, 1 hour in the over after a long day, and probably another 45 minutes to cool the bottles so their residual heat doesn't kill the yeast needed to carbonate the beer....vs a 2 minute soak in starsan or One-step or any number of quality no-rinse sanitizers.

beyond that, keep kids, pets...anything that'll knock over bottles...out of the bottling area.

its also helpful to have a second person around to cap the bottles as you fill them to speed up the process and to keep you from having to fill 8 bottles, then cap...fill, then cap.

and if this is a 5gallon batch, you only need about 48 bottles :)
 
malkore said:
yeah, 1 hour in the over after a long day, and probably another 45 minutes to cool the bottles so their residual heat doesn't kill the yeast needed to carbonate the beer....vs a 2 minute soak in starsan or One-step or any number of quality no-rinse sanitizers.

beyond that, keep kids, pets...anything that'll knock over bottles...out of the bottling area.

its also helpful to have a second person around to cap the bottles as you fill them to speed up the process and to keep you from having to fill 8 bottles, then cap...fill, then cap.

and if this is a 5gallon batch, you only need about 48 bottles :)

Ok I'll skip the oven. I was only thinking it would be nice to work with dry bottles not starsan covered and slick bottles.

Oh and I only washed the 72 because that's what I had sitting there and I figured "while I'm at it".. That and I have a stout to bottle the next weekend or maybe the week after depending on time. So I'll be washing more before then. But those are not new ones. :(

What about the sugar or DME? What do you all prefer and does it really make a difference?
 
FSR402 said:
What about the sugar or DME? What do you all prefer and does it really make a difference?

When I bottled I could never really tell, but I wasn't consciously comparing.

Why not split your batch and bottle half with each? Then you'll know what YOU prefer, which is far better than listening to the likes of us anyway ;)
 
Bike N Brew said:
When I bottled I could never really tell, but I wasn't consciously comparing.

Why not split your batch and bottle half with each? Then you'll know what YOU prefer, which is far better than listening to the likes of us anyway ;)

LOL... But, But, you all are the all knowing of the brew world and I respect your advice. :D
 
If you don't want to handle wet bottles sanitize them all in advance and let them drip dry on the bottling tree. Thats what the tree is for after all. I sanitize them as I use them and store them on the tree, ready to go.
 
Here's how I do it.

I load the bottom rack of my dishwasher with washed bottles. I don't need to count the bottles. Regardless of bottle size, as long as I get the rack as full as I can it always seems to work out to enough bottles for a 5 gallon batch. I then run it on a high temp cycle the night before I plan to bottle. This gives the bottles plenty of time to cool off. As long as you don't open the dishwasher in advance, everything inside is sterilized from the heat.

I then add the priming mix to my bucket, siphon my beer into the bucket, and place that bucket on the counter above the dishwasher. I sit on a small stool with my bottle wand and fill bottles. I'll pull them out of the dishwasher as I need them...this way there aren't a bunch of empty bottles to knock over/risk contamination.

My buddy (who is usually all buzzy from the brews) stands on the other side of the dishwasher and caps the bottles as I fill them.

This method works like a champ and any spillage is trapped on the dishwasher door for easy cleanup. I've also done both bottling and filling using this method. I'll bottle enough to fill the door up, cap those bottles, then fill another round.

hope this helps
 
That's a great tip Fezz, thanks!

I'm going to be bottling for the first time in a few weeks, so I'll definitely keep your tips in mind.
 
hey one more question for you all.
I was thinking of putting some kind of filter on my racking cane when I rack it to the bottling bucket. Tink of a last filtering. If I do this what should I use and should I even do it. It's a wheat beer so I know it's going to be a little foggy but I don't really want any floaties.
 
Just be careful when you rack into your bottling bucket and you shouldn't have any floaties. You could also let the bucket sit for 20-30 minutes before you start bottling so any sediment you picked up in racking will drop to the bottom. Most buckets have a little space below the spigot so you always have a little waste.
 
Back
Top