I love bottling

[Cider123]

The wife usually does the capping. Maybe I'll get her one for Christmas.

Interesting, your the second one here that says the wifey does the capping.

I have my wife do the filling and I do the capping. I think it's easier for her than trying to work the wing capper. Oh, and the 7 year old brings the bottles from the dishwasher to the filling area and the 5 year old stacks the capped bottles in the boxes.


"Dooley had two daughters and a forty gallon still. One gal watched the boiler, the other watched the spout. Momma corked the bottles when ol' Dooley fetched them out."

 

[lumpher]

early on, i bottled. i almost stopped brewing since i hated bottling so much. my brother did stop brewing for that reason. i haven't bottled in several years

 

[iambeer]

I love bottling and capping, and I love naturally carbonated non-filtered beer. I have five different bottles; std us short 12 oz (sierra nevada), std US 12 oz, standard DE 330 ml and 500 ml, flip top bottles and those stubby chimay bottles. I use these types of bottles lovingly to different batches and colored caps.... and I get an uncanny amount of pleasure from running my eyes down the rows of shiny glass amber.

I will go to kegging one day but I'm not in a hurry and I will only keg certain types of beer.

 

[blakelyc]

I also love bottling! I often take 5-gallon batches and split them into 5 1-gallon secondaries with different stuff. Bottling allows much more flexibility and experimentation this way.

 

[lgilmore]

I also learned a lot from the Revvy sticky on bottling and have it set up to be about 30 minutes of bottling and capping a 5 gallon batch. It takes me about ten minutes active bottle prep with a bottel jet cleaner and brush, then a full sanitize dishwasher run. Sometimes I will do this in the morning to bottle at night or let the bottles sit overnight and first thing in the morning.

I have made an effort to make my set up practical so most of my work is done without a lot of wasted motion. So for me, it's a few Van Morrison tunes and before I know it, I'm done.

 

[Frogmanx82]

I like star san for brew day, but on bottle day I prefer iodophor. I use the bottle squirter and the star san just foams too much and stays in the bottle too long and interferes with filling.

 

[iambeer]

I've stopped using sanitizer on bottles.. i just stick them in the dish washer with a finger of white vinegar to counteract base elements.

 

[HollisBT]

I have my wife do the filling and I do the capping. I think it's easier for her than trying to work the wing capper. Oh, and the 7 year old brings the bottles from the dishwasher to the filling area and the 5 year old stacks the capped bottles in the boxes.

You aren't bottling on your dishwasher lid? That trick alone made me love bottling even more... Literally no clean up.

 

[brussum]

You aren't bottling on your dishwasher lid? That trick alone made me love bottling even more... Literally no clean up.

I'm giving that a try during my next bottling session.

I agree with most that bottling is kind of relaxing to me. It's mindless, but productive. It also lets me see all that great beer I'll be enjoying and sharing in the near future.

 

[Beerbeque]

If I grew to hate bottling as some guys here do then I would probly just quit homebrewing. I don't mind it at all and I think bottled homebrew is just better anyway. I have bottled 147 5gal batches now.

 

[matc]

I stopped brewing because of the bottling process. Just got my first keg last month ! Bottling simply equals a major time loss to me.

 

[Frogmanx82]

I'm still bottling because its cheap, bottles are easy to store, easy to share, easy to save portions of brews. What has me put off about kegging is buying and storing half a dozen kegs, modifying the fridge, keeping up with CO2 cartridges, cleaning lines, being able to put a kegerator where its convenient, and you still end up wanting to put some in a bottle from time to time.

I'm sure there are many keg vs bottle posts out there, but for me bottling makes the most sense and I do like to see all the shiny bottles in the fridge.

 

[Chipman]

I'm about to be much happier about bottling with a vinator, bottle tree, and a slick new dip tube for the bucket. I really enjoy being able to give someone a sixpack of homebrew and say "I made this". Yeah I know you can bottle from a keg but that just seems like one extra and very expensive step!

 

[HollisBT]

I'm about to be much happier about bottling with a vinator, bottle tree, and a slick new dip tube for the bucket. I really enjoy being able to give someone a sixpack of homebrew and say "I made this". Yeah I know you can bottle from a keg but that just seems like one extra and very expensive step!

And messy lol.

 

[Dog House Brew]

I don't mind bottling. I really don't mind saving so much time with kegs. I still like the bottle pours for some reason. That said I just bottled 20 gallons of brown and IIPA the last two evenings. Once you get the process down it isn't so bad. Sometimes you gotts do what you gotta do. Kegging would have saved 4 hours of time. To me that is reason enough to keg.

 

[Calichusetts]

I really like bottled beer. I love cracking it open...the sound it makes, the labels, everything about it. Bench capper is a must. Same as many posters, its rather relaxing and its foolproof as far as I am concerned. I also bottle during the brew day, 2 hour boils for me so no need to rush and everything gets done. Finally, you know that your one step closer to drinking homebrew

 

[swackattack]

I didnt mind bottling but the stacks of cases became an annoyance with how much i brew. I like kegging more, but by the time you consider cleaning the beer lines, maintenance on faucets, etc its really not much of a time savings

 

[divrguy]

It's funny to read the complaints about bottling when the title is the I love bottling thread! Huh?

 

[TNGabe]

It's funny to read the complaints about bottling when the title is the I love bottling thread! Huh?

Haters gotta hate.

 

[BadgerBrigade]

1 keg will never match the joy I get from so many beautiful bottles! I can't be the only one who loves bottling beer.

Your not the only one bud......

 

[HollisBT]

I didnt mind bottling but the stacks of cases became an annoyance with how much i brew. I like kegging more, but by the time you consider cleaning the beer lines, maintenance on faucets, etc its really not much of a time savings

Uhhh, what?

You don't have to clean your bottles? Sanitize each bottle and cap? I think there are several aspects of bottling that you are glazing over and forgetting about...

And quite honestly, maintaining a kegerator is not as much work as you seem to think it is.

 

[Chipman]

Your not the only one bud......

Those caps are awesome!! Snarling badgers? A brigade of them?? So cool!

 

[TNGabe]

Those caps are awesome!! Snarling badgers? A brigade of them?? So cool!

I've been pretending I didn't see them and that I'm not dorky enough to get custom bottle caps. It's not working.

 

[BadgerBrigade]

Those caps are awesome!! Snarling badgers? A brigade of them?? So cool!

Thanks bud.... Badger Brewing actually started out as The Badger Brigade paintball crew! 32 guns on my side point back at you guys... Lol

 

[BadgerBrigade]

I've been pretending I didn't see them and that I'm not dorky enough to get custom bottle caps. It's not working.

I understand one goal of homebrewer's is to make as best brews possible for as little money as possible, But I have to say this is really fun, creative and worth the very little money you spend!
My last batch I bottled everything with badger caps, But you don't have to do that and I do not plan to do that next time.....
I am going to bottle the ones for me with just plain old cheap caps and my flip tops, But if you pride yourself in what you make why not pride yourself in your presentation....

BottleMark.com makes things very easy, You upload your image and it's done, Then they send them out to you!

My idea is to make fun labels for my different brews but always have the badger caps so I'm recognized by the badger logo....

 

[skw]

I don't mind bottling. In fact, I just bought a case of beer because I wanted to use the 0.33l swing top bottles, I kinda like them.

 

[Mojzis]

I don't mind bottling, its relaxing. However I bottled once while brewing and it was a pita. Never doing that again.

 

[Torkermax]

i find cleaning and sanitizing bottles to be a big PITA!

 

[Frogmanx82]

I never sanitize the caps. How much can be on them if you keep them in a ziplock and handle them carefully. They don't touch the beer either.

 

[TNGabe]

I understand one goal of homebrewer's is to make as best brews possible for as little money as possible, But I have to say this is really fun, creative and worth the very little money you spend!
My last batch I bottled everything with badger caps, But you don't have to do that and I do not plan to do that next time.....
I am going to bottle the ones for me with just plain old cheap caps and my flip tops, But if you pride yourself in what you make why not pride yourself in your presentation....

BottleMark.com makes things very easy, You upload your image and it's done, Then they send them out to you!

My idea is to make fun labels for my different brews but always have the badger caps so I'm recognized by the badger logo....

Yeah, 12 cents each isn't too bad. I loaded up the logo for our business. I think my wife will love it. It would be pretty cool to do a batch with kraft paper labels and custom caps, they'd match the packaging for the products we sell at farmers markets.