Compliment & a complaint

[brewswithshoes]

So, for the first time since my initial brew when i took up the hobby, i bottled a batch straight out the fermentor. NEVER AGAIN !!!!

I give out a serious compliment to all of you regular bottlers out there. How you deal with washing, cleaning, rinsing, sanitizing, filling is beyond what i can take. Maybe it gets easier or more efficient the more you do it, but i even find that washing the 6 pack of bottles i occasionally "beer gun" off the keg is not fun to do.

This was a glitter beer "Unicorn Fart Pale Ale" from Morebeer, and all the reviews said that kegging just made the first few pours glittery and then all gone. My wife & her friends will get a kick out of drinking this, but i am forever done with fermentor to bottles.

 

[bigdawg86]

Cool story bra! But for real I upgraded kegging after 2 or 3 batches of bottling. Never looking back!

 

[brewswithshoes]

Here ! Here ! (or is it hear, hear)

yeah, many years of happily kegging. Just had forgotten how miserable it is to do all that to 50+ bottles.

Seriously, kudos & compliments to the folks that do it for each batch. True commitment.

I love my kegs & draft system !!!

 

[william_shakes_beer]

When I was bottling, I would rinse the bottles under the tap as soon as they were empty, then upend in the dishwasher and run through a cycle with the other dirty dishes. Stored in basement beer case until it was time to bottle. Then run sanitizer through a vintator, cap. Wash rinse repeat. I must confess toward the end I was appreciative of someone to assist, even if it was just someone to run the capper and talk to me. I did the chore as foreplay to my brew day. Cause, ya know, ya gotta empty them fermenters before you can refill em!!!


siiiigh I miss those days





naaa, just kidding

 

[deadwolfbones]

I bottle directly from my (SS BrewBucket) fermenters all the time and it works great.

 

[Soulshine2]

So, for the first time since my initial brew when i took up the hobby, i bottled a batch straight out the fermentor. NEVER AGAIN !!!!

I give out a serious compliment to all of you regular bottlers out there. How you deal with washing, cleaning, rinsing, sanitizing, filling is beyond what i can take. Maybe it gets easier or more efficient the more you do it, but i even find that washing the 6 pack of bottles i occasionally "beer gun" off the keg is not fun to do.

This was a glitter beer "Unicorn Fart Pale Ale" from Morebeer, and all the reviews said that kegging just made the first few pours glittery and then all gone. My wife & her friends will get a kick out of drinking this, but i am forever done with fermentor to bottles.

I still bottle. I actually like bottling. Call me strange...
Its a process ,yeah, but I dont have the space or cash for the entire keg and delivery setups. I live in a county that is half-wet so beer and homebrew suppliers are not at all local. The only part I really could do without is the chore of peeling the old labels off . Once thats done, I just keep recycling and reusing them,with different batches of colored caps to tell the batches apart. Triple hot rinse right after I empty one, every time. Saves a lot of work before bottling day. Just a quick Oxiclean and Starsan and I'm bottling. I brew 5 to 6 gallon batches ,so I'm doing from 45 to 55 bottles each batch)and I like to drink a variety , not just drink the same beer every day ,until its gone ...Right now I have 5 beers [a Hefeweizen,Moon Over Miami(Blue Moon 'ish,my first sort of "tweaked" recipe)American Honey Brown Ale,Oatmeal stout, Roll Tide Red Old Ale(my own recipe) ],bottled and ready to drink or in the process, 1 (Tangelo Pale Ale) I just bottled and waiting until Feb 1st to condition, 1 (Bavarian Hefeweizen)in the fermenter finishing up soon (I hope) and after I bottle that ,once I have enough bottles for another one , I've got at least 2 on deck (Dunkel AG and Kolsch extract)and my son bringing me yet another one (Maerzen/Oktoberfest AG)he picked up for me on Tuesday.

 

[tellyho]

I'm in the same boat, on my 12th year of brewing and still bottling. I have 5-6 varieties at any given time and I don't drink enough to make it through a keg in any reasonable amount of time. Plus all the equipment and cleaning. I gave up on peeling labels - just leave em on.

 

[hout17]

I like kegging but am finding I am actually enjoying bottling a bit better and don't mind cleaning and sanitizing. I usually go with the 22 oz bottles.

 

[HB_ATL73]

Its too bad I'm too lazy to go through the effort of bottling because like tallyho said it is nice to have 5-6 or even more varieties to choose from which you don't get from kegging unless you have a large tap set up. Though, I find its far too easy to siphon into a keg and be done 15 min later- those bottling days were rough

 

[Still Brewn]

When my wife got me started brewing 12 years ago, along with the starter kit she also gave me a complete kegging system. I use to bottle the bottom of the kegs (6 pack or so) but I'm too lazy for that anymore. Now days if I need space for another brew I just tell the wife I'm out of keg space and she finds one for me. Damn my wife spoils me. I'm thinking my next project will be to get a half a dozen or so 1 gallon keg. More variety that way.

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

I mostly bottle, and I mostly brew small batches. The dishwasher can be your friend. I remove label and wash with one step or brewery-wash then put them into the dishwasher (which will only have bottles, no dirty dishes) then on bottling day I run the washer on sanitizer no detergent. Once done they are ready to fill, I do dip the opening and keep the caps in starsan solution. I keg for parties and club events, but when I have leftover beer, and no kegerator it really isn’t convenient to cool it in a bucket of icewater before pouring.

 

[bleme]

I usually keg now, but my boss loves Grolsch and gives me all his bottles. When I do bottle, I use those exclusively and it seems to go a little faster. I probably have close to 300 now, even after giving away 100 or so. If I ever figure out how to ship them efficiently, I need to eBay 200 or so. My garage is running out of space!

 

[HTH1975]

I bottle all my beer as I currently have no room for a dedicated fridge to store kegs.

Bottling is a pain in the behind and I’ll be glad when I finally get a keg system set up.

 

[ApolloSimcoe]

I bottle as well but am thinking of moving on to kegging. For any beer that's below 9% it goes into the 22oz bombers. Half the bottles half the time to do the job. I mean who drinks just one anyway?? For higher ABV beers i put those into the 12 oz'ers.
I can't remember the last time i sanitized a bottle. I rinse when empty. When i have enough bottles i soak in Oxy, quick scrub and rinse and i'm done. The day before I'm going to bottle i bake the bottles in the oven with a small piece of foil covering the opening. This sterilizes the bottle and should remain that way until ready to use. I just let them cool in the oven overnight and use the next day or whenever. Easy for me but man i wish i had a keezer

 

[Andrew Hodgson]

I bottle all my beers due to space constraints. I am lucky SWMBO helps me with the bottling process. She fills from the bottling bucket while I do everything else (cleaning, capping, , boxing, etc.) With two people it really isn't that bad and if all the bottles are soaked/cleaned ahead of time we can do 5-6 gallons in an hour and a half. I am sure kegging would be easier but I try to enjoy it like I do brew day. She groans about it but since it is the only brewing process I ask for help with she hasn't turned me down yet.

 

[ncbrewer]

I am lucky SWMBO helps me with the bottling process. She fills from the bottling bucket while I do everything else (cleaning, capping, , boxing, etc.)

A keeper for sure.

 

[brewswithshoes]

The only part I really could do without is the chore of peeling the old labels off . Once thats done, I just keep recycling and reusing them,with different batches of colored caps to tell the batches apart.

Totally agree on the labels, this is what got me in the wrong mood to start the whole bottling process. Trying to get them dang labels off, then moved into cleaning, rinsing, sanitizing....

Brilliant idea on the "cap colors" too. i often find that i am trying to guess which beer is in the bottle by holding it up to the light. When i am killing off a keg for another use, i will beer gun the remaining into bottles. that's typically only 6 - 9 beers from the end of a keg, but after awhile i have this random assortment of beer bottles that i have no clue what's inside. i could probably put an initial or something on the cap, but i like your "colored cap" idea.

 

[small_b_brewing]

I bottled after 10 or so batches of kegging.

It was a Pumpkin Spices Latte Porter- A very flavourful beer I like to have in small amounts infrequently. Bottling made sense so I didn't want to: 1)Tie up a keg forever; 2)'Contaminate' my keg lines with PSL flavours.

It took forever, was messy and finicky. Kegging is amazing! (Until I have to clean the keg)

 

[Soulshine2]

Totally agree on the labels, this is what got me in the wrong mood to start the whole bottling process. Trying to get them dang labels off, then moved into cleaning, rinsing, sanitizing....

Brilliant idea on the "cap colors" too. i often find that i am trying to guess which beer is in the bottle by holding it up to the light. When i am killing off a keg for another use, i will beer gun the remaining into bottles. that's typically only 6 - 9 beers from the end of a keg, but after awhile i have this random assortment of beer bottles that i have no clue what's inside. i could probably put an initial or something on the cap, but i like your "colored cap" idea.

its a good system. Thing is, caps aren't always the same price . But so far my cap id system goes like this-
Gold -hef(first AG batch )
hops(green on white)-Moon Over Miami belgian
red- roll tide red
black- oatmeal stout
silver - american honey brown
orange- tangelo pale ale
yellow -bavarian hef (STILL in fermenter)
(to be brewed )blue- Oktoberfest...tried to find a blue and white checked cap but no luck.
white- TBA

then theres the ones with a beer glass that are temperature sensitive(turn blue at 40*F)

 

[str8jkt]

I differentiate using caps as well. As a trick you can pick up 3/4" round Avery stickers from Staples or Walmart. They have packs with 4 colors (Red/Yellow/Green/Blue). Each of these stickers gives every bottlecap another color - Red cap with green sticker - Irish Red, Silver cap with Yellow sticker, etc..

 

[Jako]

So, for the first time since my initial brew when i took up the hobby, i bottled a batch straight out the fermentor. NEVER AGAIN !!!!

I give out a serious compliment to all of you regular bottlers out there. How you deal with washing, cleaning, rinsing, sanitizing, filling is beyond what i can take. Maybe it gets easier or more efficient the more you do it, but i even find that washing the 6 pack of bottles i occasionally "beer gun" off the keg is not fun to do.

This was a glitter beer "Unicorn Fart Pale Ale" from Morebeer, and all the reviews said that kegging just made the first few pours glittery and then all gone. My wife & her friends will get a kick out of drinking this, but i am forever done with fermentor to bottles.

thanks to my wife and in laws i no longer bottle. i had infection issues and it was such a pain in the you know what.... i have a beer gun that helps but its still a major PITA. i tell everyone if you want beer bring a flip top i shove a bit of tube into the tap and lower the pressure and call it a day. normally the beer is drank that night or within the week so i don't care about oxygen.

 

[Jako]

When my wife got me started brewing 12 years ago, along with the starter kit she also gave me a complete kegging system. I use to bottle the bottom of the kegs (6 pack or so) but I'm too lazy for that anymore. Now days if I need space for another brew I just tell the wife I'm out of keg space and she finds one for me. Damn my wife spoils me. I'm thinking my next project will be to get a half a dozen or so 1 gallon keg. More variety that way.

I bottle all my beers due to space constraints. I am lucky SWMBO helps me with the bottling process. She fills from the bottling bucket while I do everything else (cleaning, capping, , boxing, etc.) With two people it really isn't that bad and if all the bottles are soaked/cleaned ahead of time we can do 5-6 gallons in an hour and a half. I am sure kegging would be easier but I try to enjoy it like I do brew day. She groans about it but since it is the only brewing process I ask for help with she hasn't turned me down yet.

my wife helped the first batch. the neck on a bottle snapped and that was the last time i had help... in her defense it was pretty crazy.