First bottling day. Some questions.

[njohnsoncs]

I went through my first bottling day yesterday. It went fine - no huge mistakes - just a few things I had to figure out during the process. I have a few questions and I'd appreciate it if someone could give me some advice.

1. I boiled the priming sugar and let it cool but it was still a little warm when I added it to the bottling bucket. I then racked my beer into the bottling bucket Is it OK to have the priming sugar solution warm or even hot?

2. It took me a while to clean and sanitize the bottles and equipment and during this time I had already combined my priming sugar solution and beer so it sat a while before bottling. Is this OK or will it start to separate?

3. I estimated that I had 4.78 gallons of beer in my fermenter. I'm following the instructions from Brewer's Best IPA recipe but wanted to adjust the amount of sugar since I was not at 5 gallons. I used a few calculators to give me a number of samples for how much sugar to use. I settled on going for a CO2 volume of 2.2 oz and determined that I should use 3.46 oz of priming sugar (corn sugar) since my beer was about 68 degrees F. I do not have a scale but on the Brewer's Best recipe it says that 1 oz = 2.5 tbsp so I should use 8.65 tbsp but I rounded it to 9 to make it easy. I combined the 9 tbsp of priming sugar with 1.5 cups of water. Is the amount of sugar and water I used OK? If not, how should I adjust it in the future?

4. How long should bottling day take, on average, from start to finish? It took me about 6 hours.

Thanks!
Nick

 

[cswis86]

1. Yes. I don't cool mine. I dump it in the bottling bucket and add my beer right on top. A cup or 2 of hot water isn't going to do anything harmful to 5 gallons of beer.

2. It's fine to let it sit. The sugar will not settle out and an hour or so of it sitting will not effect the carbonation.

3. Sounds like you used a safe amount of priming sugar. I normally aim for 2.2-2.4 vol of CO2 so you'll be fine. I would highly advise purchasing a scale to weigh out your priming sugar. It's much more accurate and will make your bottling day a little easier.

4. 1.5-2 hours. 6 hours seems like a lot but once you get organized and familiar will the process you'll get much faster.

Hope everything turns out great!

 

[violinguy]

4. How long should bottling day take, on average, from start to finish? It took me about 6 hours.

Thanks!
Nick

Depending on the size of the batch, an average bottling day should take no more than a couple of hours. I brew 3 gallon batches and I'm done in under an hour. I don't count cleaning bottles in that time because I soak them. It's a "set it and forget it" style of cleaning.

You'll get your bottling day routine down after a few more batches. It took me about 4 batches to get my process streamlined. Sanitation, filling, capping, and clean up are all things that will get faster over time.

One thing - don't aim for faster by cutting corners. You can sanitize and clean effectively without wasting time, but don't take time away from those important tasks.

 

[njohnsoncs]

Thanks for the comments.

I'm counting cleaning and sanitizing before and cleaning after in my total time. It does take me a long time to clean and I'm wondering if I'm not that efficient or I'm cleaning more than I need to.

Here was my process for bottling day in detail:

I created a solution of about 6 gallons of water and 6 * 3/4 ounces of PBW. Is this too much PBW? I was able to soak about half my bottles in that solution and did that for ~30 minutes. I then scrubbed them with a brush, rinsed, then set upside down to dry. I did the other half of my bottles in the same way. I then cleaned my equipment (bottling bucket, caps, racking cane and siphon, etc.) the same. In total, it took about 3 hours to clean all bottles and equipment (~1.5 hours to soak and 1.5 to scrub everything).

I could speed this up by doing all my bottles together and then after do the equipment. This would save about 30 minutes of soak time.

For sanitation, I used 5 gallons of water and 1 ounce of IO Star. I threw my equipment in that solution and let it soak while I made the priming sugar solution. Once the priming sugar solution was done and somewhat cooled (~30 minutes), I pulled my equipment from the sanitizing solution and started racking the priming sugar solution and beer into the bottling bucket.

After that, used the same sanitizing solution to sanitize my bottles. I then started pulling the bottles and filling them. About half way through I added a little more IO Star (~1 tsp) since I thought the sanitizing solution may be getting used and not working well anymore. How long or how much equipment can one sanitize with 5 gallons of water and 1 ounce of IO Star (or Star San)?

After that, capping took a while since I had to crimp the cap 2-3 times per bottle because it wasn't crimping well. It would twist so only one side would crimp. So I had to rotate the bottle and do the other side. Any tricks to this? The bottles I used are standard 12 oz amber crown which I bought from a local homebrew store.

So sanitizing and bottling/capping took about 1.5 hours so in total I'm at 4.5

After all that, I then cleaned all my equipment again using 5 gallons of water and 6 * 3/4 ounces of PBW (it seems like I'm using up the PBW quickly...), let it soak for 30 minutes then scrubbed everything with a sponge. After that, I used that solution and filled up my carboy and let that soak overnight. This took about an hour.

So in total roughly 5.5-6 hours. Any tips on where I could speed things up?

Depending on the size of the batch, an average bottling day should take no more than a couple of hours. I brew 3 gallon batches and I'm done in under an hour. I don't count cleaning bottles in that time because I soak them. It's a "set it and forget it" style of cleaning.

You'll get your bottling day routine down after a few more batches. It took me about 4 batches to get my process streamlined. Sanitation, filling, capping, and clean up are all things that will get faster over time.

One thing - don't aim for faster by cutting corners. You can sanitize and clean effectively without wasting time, but don't take time away from those important tasks.

 

[EarthwormJim]

On bottling day, I do not clean anything before any bottles are filled. At the end of bottling day, all of the equipment is cleaned. I keep my hoses in the bucket with the lid on. Siphon and bottling wand are stored clean in a drawer just like anything I would use in my kitchen. Unless there is something that can not be removed with a rinse and wipedown, I don't use any cleaners. With the amount of time the beer is in contact with any of those things, nothing should get stuck on so bad that it requires using any cleaners.

I clean my bottles as I use them. After filling a glass, I rinse a few times, hold up to a light to make sure everthing is rinsed out, turn over to dry then store in a case. New bottles with labels and bottles from friends go in differnt cases. Once I have a few cases waiting for cleaning, I clean them all at once. I mix up a bucket with some oxiclean and can soak about a case at a time. I let them sit a few hours then rinse them and hang them on the bottle tree to dry. If a label won't come off or anything is stuck inside, it goes in the recycle bin. I have collected a few cases so a couple of bottles getting tossed isn't a big deal. Once a case of clean bottles is filled it gets closed up and put on the shelf reay to use.

On bottling day, I mix up a gallon of Star San, if I don't already have some, in an old pickel jar with a wide mouth. Get out the bucket, hoses... and rinse. Dump a quart or two of sanatizer into the bucket, put the lid on, and put the hoses into the jar. The siphon and bottle wand go in the jar too. I can't submerge them, but I use a sprayer on them and the runoff ends up in the jar, mostly. While the priming solution is coming to a boil I spray the stuff sticking out of the jar a couple times to coat and roll/shake the bucket to make sure the inside is covered. I also sanitize my bottles while the solution is boiling. I grab a couple cases off the shelf and use one of those vinatore bottle sprayers. Couple pumps in each bottle then hang on the tree. When the priming solution is ready the sanitizer in the bucket gets dumped back into the jar, usually with a lot of foam ending up on the floor. I get the siphon ready then transfer from the fermentor to the bucket while adding the priming solution.

I put the bucket on a towel in the window sill above my sink and fill the bottles in the sink. Any overflow is contained and cleanup is easy. I roll the towel up on one end to tilt the bucket so I don't have to adjust when the beer gets low. I could probably just put the bucket on the counter but then I would have to move more stuff out of the way and put it back after. Caps go in the sanitizer in the bottle sprayer on another towel next to the sink with the capper. I can fit a case of bottles in the sink at a time. Each is filled and a cap placed on top. When they are all full they get capped on the towel on the counter then put on a baking sheet on the stove. Each sheet holds 24 bottles so I usually need two. They keep anything from dripping on the stove and if I want to rinse off the bottles I can just move each sheet to the sink, run them under the water then set them someplace to dry.

When everything is done I clean up. Sanitizer in the bottle rinser gets dumped back in the jar. Lid goes back on the jar then it goes back on the shelf to be used later. There are threads about how long it is safe to store sanitizer. The bucket, hoses, wand, rinser, bottle tree and siphon get rinsed, laid out to dry then put away. Towels go right in the washing machine. I try to put towels down where ever it is possible to spill something. Quicker to just pick the towel up and throw in the wash then to be wiping up messes. Then I clean the fermentor. If I used glass it is the only thing that I use cleaner on that day. I rinse and brush out the big chunks then fill with hot water and a little oxiclean to soak. I usually will use that oxi solution to start a bulk bottle cleaning if there are any bottles waiting. You know, waste not want not and all.

I can usually be done in about two hours but I don't like to rush. It takes a few times to get a process down just like anything else.

 

[Revvy]

Um, did you notice the bottling sticky? By dialing in your system, figuring out what works for you, in terms of conservation of motion and working smartly in a comfortable way, you can get done in an hour..... including sanitizing the bottles.

 

[kh54s10]

Lots of good info here: https://www.homebrewtalk.com/showthread.php?t=94812

1) I too add the almost boiling priming solution directly into the swirling siphon.

2) My bottles are already clean, from the last use. So sanitize with a Vinator, set on the dishwasher rack, when I have 56 sanitized I start filling them. Put a cap on the top and fill then next, when they are all filled I then crimp all the caps.

The solution will not separate. Technically you could put the sugar straight into the wort without boiling first. Boiling dissolves the sugar so it mixes with the wort better.

3) I use a calculator to determine the amount of sugar, I use Northern Brewer's one. Your adjustment seems good.

Get a digital scale, it makes things easier. Like measuring hops from a 4 ounce pack or a pound.

4) It takes me somewhere between an hour and 2 hours to bottle a 5 gallon batch.

A few batches and it will become routine and speedier.

 

[violinguy]

I just finished bottling my latest batch - not quite 3 gallons of honey wheat. Now I haven't cleaned the fermenter, but I've cleaned everything else, and put my towels in the laundry. Here's my new and improved system:

1. Two 5 gallon buckets - one with PBW and one with Star-san. Put as many bottles as I can in PBW and soak for 15 min. Then transfer to star-san bucket. Then fill PBW bucket with bottles again - usually 8-10 at a time.

2. Take bottles out of star-san and place on towel on floor. Shake them out good. Put domino dot in each bottle.

3. Fill all bottles using spigot and wand. I can't recommend highly enough to get a bottling wand. They are awesome! Then cap each bottle.

4. Repeat until finished. I filled 25 bottles and drank the sample I used for FG.

Start to finish, just over an hour. Yes I still have to clean the fermenter but everything else is done and put away. The trick is to multitask and have things soaking or drying in a pipeline.

Suffice to say, this is not how I started in this hobby. I had junk and water all over the place on my first bottling day. You will get better as you go - in this, and every other process in brewing. Best of luck!

 

[kh54s10]

I would do like violinguy with one exception. If you don't clean the bottles before storing, use the PBW or oxyclean as mentioned. But I would rinse them before putting them in the Starsan

 

[violinguy]

I would do like violinguy with one exception. If you don't clean the bottles before storing, use the PBW or oxyclean as mentioned. But I would rinse them before putting them in the Starsan

The PBW might be overkill because I do thoroughly rinse the bottles as I drink them. I think I will put a rinse cycle in there though. Bottles are slippery as @#$!@ coming out of PBW or Oxy.

 

[jrgtr42]

I wash my bottles out pretty well when I empty them (usually.) What I do is have the cases of emptys, I'll look in to make sure there's nothing gross is there - if it's moldy, or residue or anything, it goes in the recycle. The others I rinse out again then then go in the sanitizer. Few minutes in there then dump, and upside down into the case with a clean piece of paper towel in the bottom. in between I'm boiling the sugar solution, letting it cool down a bit on my workbench while doing other things, transfer the beer to bottling bucket.
I'll get water into the empty fermenter to let it soak while I bottle.
Oh, yeah, I also don't worry about labels on my bottles. If they come off, great, if not, I don't care. I label the cases and also the bottlecap as to what's inside.

 

[kh54s10]

The PBW might be overkill because I do thoroughly rinse the bottles as I drink them. I think I will put a rinse cycle in there though. Bottles are slippery as @#$!@ coming out of PBW or Oxy.

I doubt there is anything harmful in what is left, I don't know if it affects the action of the Starsan, but I would not want any getting into the beer however little there is.

Have a bright light handy so you can see what is in the bottles. With the rinsed bottles, I put aside any that look like there is anything gross or residue on the sides of the bottle for an Oxyclean soak and use them in the next batch.

 

[beergolf]

Um, did you notice the bottling sticky? By dialing in your system, figuring out what works for you, in terms of conservation of motion and working smartly in a comfortable way, you can get done in an hour..... including sanitizing the bottles.

Hey Revvy.. good to see you back. It has been a while.

Listen to Revvy. Bottling should take no more than an hour. With clean bottles I usually bottle when I Brew and it is more like 30-35 minutes.

 

[SlitheryDee]

I find that trying to get multiple things going at once can help with the process. For instance, I put a couple of cups of water on to boil before I start anything. Then mix up 5 gallons in sanitizer in the bottling bucket to sanitize it. By then I can go remove the water from the heat, stir in the sugar, and put it back on the burner. The sanitizer from the bottling bucket gets dumped into a plastic tub that already contained my bottles, caps, autopsiphon, tubing, etc. I spend a bit of time wetting everything down, making sure the bottles get fully sanitized, and then go take the pot off the burner and dump it into the bucket. By then the stuff has had enough exposure to the sanitizer, so I siphon the beer out onto the hot priming water (the heat doesn't hurt anything) and start dumping sanitizer out of bottles while that's happening. After that, everything is pretty straightforward. I've got my bottling bucket full of primed beer, my sanitized bottles lined up and ready. The rest of the process might take another hour to complete including cleanup.

I'll usually take the dirty fermenter into the bathroom, stick the shower hose into it, and just let the water run into it for the entire time I'm bottling. By the time I'm headed that way with the other stuff that needs to be cleaned it'll be 90% clean already, save for a bit of floating particles and a ghost of scum still sticking to the high Krausen line. A few quick passes with the carboy brush cleans that right up, and everything else mostly just needs a good rinsing. As a bonus I can go back to my tub of sanitizer, dump that into the carboy, and have it resanitized for the next batch, which I am hopefully doing right after bottling the previous one. Once again in the spirit of multitasking, I should probably put my water on to boil for the next batch around the time I'm taking my bottling equipment back to clean it.

 

[TGFV]

Definitely going to second a bottling wand. Most can be attached straight to your bucket using a bung on the spigot end as well (the bigger the better, but whatever is in hand should work).

Also, like everyone else said, pre clean your bottles. I picked some up off people getting out of the hobby and they were relatively clean, but leading up to bottling day I rinsed them and filled with oxyclean for over night in batches. Did a batch every night and they were ready to go for bottling day at the end of the week.

Also look into getting a hose attachment for your sink. My sink is only a hose style nozzle (which means wort chilling is an endeavor) but this makes cleaning and filling containers with water so much more convienant.

Edited add on:

Also maybe switch to bigger bottles when you are able. I did my first batch with a combination of 375ml and 750ml bottles and it took me 1.3 hours all included while my next batch was all 750ml and it took less than an hour. Different bottle sizes make a difference that adds up.

 

[njohnsoncs]

From everyone's comments, it seems like I could save a lot of time (~ 3 hours) if I do not clean my bottles and equipment before I start bottling. I guess I don't have an understanding of, to what extend, I need to clean.

Let's say that I clean everything (equipment, bottles, etc.) immediately after using them with PBW. The next time I want to use the equipment and/or bottles, is it OK to not clean them? Can I just sanitize them or maybe a quick rinse of tap water then sanitize? I was doing a full clean with PBW before and after using everything.

Is cleaning with PBW simply to remove obvious residue? Suppose that, after using my bottling bucket, I just rinse it with tap water. Is this sufficient or does it need to be cleaned before the next use?

 

[kh54s10]

From everyone's comments, it seems like I could save a lot of time (~ 3 hours) if I do not clean my bottles and equipment before I start bottling. I guess I don't have an understanding of, to what extend, I need to clean.

Let's say that I clean everything (equipment, bottles, etc.) immediately after using them with PBW. The next time I want to use the equipment and/or bottles, is it OK to not clean them? Can I just sanitize them or maybe a quick rinse of tap water then sanitize? I was doing a full clean with PBW before and after using everything.

Is cleaning with PBW simply to remove obvious residue? Suppose that, after using my bottling bucket, I just rinse it with tap water. Is this sufficient or does it need to be cleaned before the next use?

For my bottling equipment, I just rinse thoroughly right after use. Then on bottling day I rinse again to get the dust off. I then sanitize everything with Starsan.

I only clean if something won't rinse off.

Fill a bottle, rest a cap on top, fill another, rest a cap etc until they are all filled. Then I crimp all the caps.

I also suggest a Vinator for sanitizing your bottles. It is so much faster than soaking the bottles in sanitizer.

 

[SlitheryDee]

From everyone's comments, it seems like I could save a lot of time (~ 3 hours) if I do not clean my bottles and equipment before I start bottling. I guess I don't have an understanding of, to what extend, I need to clean.

Let's say that I clean everything (equipment, bottles, etc.) immediately after using them with PBW. The next time I want to use the equipment and/or bottles, is it OK to not clean them? Can I just sanitize them or maybe a quick rinse of tap water then sanitize? I was doing a full clean with PBW before and after using everything.

Is cleaning with PBW simply to remove obvious residue? Suppose that, after using my bottling bucket, I just rinse it with tap water. Is this sufficient or does it need to be cleaned before the next use?

The way I see it, your chief concern is to be leaving no place in the bottles that could potentially harbor undesirable microbes. Any kind of visible scum or detritus could potentially shield microbes from the effects of your sanitizer. Anything invisible is probably either going to be rinsed away with nothing more than water or be completely penetrated by the sanitizer. To that end, I only worry overly about dirt I can see in the bottle.

I suppose it's possible to miss something in the contours of a dark colored bottle, but assuring that doesn't happen involves the lengthy process of rigorously cleaning every single bottle. It just isn't worth it to me for what must be less than a percent benefit in terms of bottles of beer saved from contamination.

 

[eric19312]

Get a
+ Faucet jet carboy and bottle washer
+ bottle drying rack / tree
If you can leave it set up - maybe on a garage sink - it will be ready to use all the time. Then everytime you drink a home brew immediately rinse it with the jet washer and let it dry on the rack. That is all you will have to do to clean that bottle before bottling day. More aggressive cleaning may be required for bottles with labels and bottles you or friends did not rinse right away. For me if the gunk on the inside is dried on and won't spray off the bottle goes to recycling.

On bottling day my bottles all get 2 squirts of Starsan using a vinator. No other cleaning. Eventually you will break the basin that comes with the Vinator. No big deal, just put the pump part in a bucket with 2" Starsan and it will work forever.

I do recommend getting a cheap kitchen scale. I have one that weighs anything from 1 gram to 10 lbs and use it for everything including brewing salts, priming sugar, hops and grains. Oh it is awesome in the kitchen too, best tool you will find if you get into making bread!

Good to see you Revvy and so appropriate that this would be the thread...

 

[njohnsoncs]

OK thanks for the comments. I will now switch to only cleaning my equipment with PBW after use. Then before the next use I will rinse quickly with water and sanitize. This should help speed things up.

I'm planning on bottling my next batch this weekend. One concern I have is that I use IO Star to sanitize my bottles. I fill a large plastic bin with the sanitizing solution (diluted at 1 ounce IO Star / 5 gallons water) and place the bottles in the solution. I then pull from the bin, flip the bottle upside down and let the solution drain from the bottle for a few seconds then I fill with beer. I obviously cannot get all the solution to drain from the bottle but I'm guessing since it's no rinse that whatever solution is left is OK to consume and will not affect the taste of the beer. Is this correct?

Also, while I was taking a hydrometer reading for the next batch, I pulled the airlock and lid off, took the reading, then put the lid back on. I re-filled the airlock with sanitizing solution (again, IO Star diluted at 1 ounce / 5 gallons of water) and stuck it back in the hole. However, the airlock started to drain the sanitizing solution into the fermenter. It was less than 1 tsp but will this be OK to consume? Will it affect the taste? Fermentation is finished and I hope it will be OK to bottle in the next couple of days.

Thanks!
Nick

 

[Revvy]

The solution you're using is a "no-rinse, wet contact" sanitizer, what that means is it's expected that the beer/wort, etc will come in contact the solution. It's fine at that dilution. In fact after you finish up using the iodine based sanitizer, instead of buying more of that switch to their OTHER sanitizer product STARSAN, you will find that the starsan foam actually breaks down into a phosphate compound (the same stuff in softdrinks like cola) that the yeast actually uses to help in fermentation, it breaks down into yeast energizer which is good for yeast growth. (It's also great for the bugs in septic systems, so pouring it down the drain is a good thing.)

Iodine based sanitzers like Iostar are great BUT they're old school and there is something better out there. (One of the reasons people don't like iodine based sanitizers much anymore is that it stains everything, your fermenters, hoses, hands, clothes, etc.) Some people, usually those who don't mix at the proper dillution like you do, claim they can smell/taste iodine based sanitizers in their... I never could discern that in anything I sanitized with iodophor sanitizers before.... There is also some concern with folks who are shellfish sensitive with iodine solutions...again nothing that can be confirmed, just conjecture on a lot of brewer's parts.

Also save yourself a lot of money and get a vinator bottle sanitizer... you use far, far lest sanitizing solution- in fact you can mix up a gallon of starsan and pretty much do everything from sanitizer all your bottles, to every piece of gear with that. AND if you mix STARSAN with distilled water, and keep it in a sealed container (like a gallon jug or a spray bottle- or in my case both) you can re-use it for several times without needing to mix any fresh up... One 30 dollar of Starsan lasts me on average 2-3 years, and I brew A LOT....

Here's the vinator in action, and it's also another reason why bottling can take only an hour... 2-3 pumps and your bottle is sanitized

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K9u0cIERnuQ[/ame]

If you want more info on Starsan and sanitizing in general, nearly a decade ago (sheesh, really?) I posted a lot of info in this thread.