I'll do my best to explain the process as thorough, but as concisely as possible.....I did not include the priming solution in there, so add 20 minutes to the time if you make it right before bottling. I usually will make this before hand when I am cooking or something and let it cool in a water bath during dinner. I also make 2.5 gallons of starsan sanitizer solution in the bottling bucket at the same time.
The process starts with the bottling bucket, for speed i snipped a short piece of tubing to connect the bottling wand to the spigot. The wand is then stationary, and you move the bottles up and down to fill.
now the start:
- Drain some sanitizer through the spigot (30 seconds) and into another 5 gallon bucket, with several beer bottles in the bottom standing upright. Then dump the rest of the sanitizer in the second bucket (2.5 gallon in a standard 5 gallon bucket should fully cover the beer bottles when put in the sanitizer bucket, at least in the bucket I use).
- Put priming solution in bottling bucket, and begin auto-siphon and attache to racking cane holder attached to fermentor (this frees your hands).
- Next make sure the bottles are submerged in the sanitizer (or wifey can do this step), and start replacing sanitized bottles with new bottles...2-out, 2-in, and the sanitized ones go on the dishwasher rack.
- One can also start preparing their capping station...we work left to right, pre-bottling stuff on the kitchen floor, post-bottling on the kitchen table....left-to-right: new bottles (have more than you will need at the ready), sanitizer bucket, bottling bucket on counter above open dishwasher, capping station, then small bucket of water to dip/rinse capped beers, towel off (get a few towels ready in place), and into new box.
- Keep an eye on beer, as you will need to manually finish the siphon to watch out for yeast uptake. I should mention we use the larger diameter auto-siphon, and it is a lot faster! I also use a roll of duct tap under the back side of the bucket in order to tilt it forward to drain more beer, with less yeast near the end.
- When beer is transferred (about 5 minutes or so in), put it up on the counter above the dishwasher and get in position. I cap, wife bottles and she sits on an upside down bucket, next to the folded down dishwasher door.
- She starts grabbing bottles from the dishwasher (should be a good number in there), fill 1st with right hand, hands it to me, starts filling 2nd with left hand, switches to right and grabs another with the left...
- ....meanwhile I am capping, dunking, quick towel and in the box, getting next cap in position on capper (which has a convenient magnet for this)....got a good rhythm going now....
- Once we run out of bottles in the dishwasher, we switch to the bucket which still has bottles in it from the beginning....since we have a rhythm and I have a second or two between bottles, we do the same 2-out, 2-in method in the bucket...she takes two out on her side, I put two in by sliding bottles that are already in there over to her side (this helps ensure new bottles are not picked out before the old ones)....
- Continue until bottling bucket is empty (***trick for bucket dip tube*** a 3/4" 90º fpt X slip pvc fitting will screw on to the inside of the spigot after the big plastic "nut" screws on. You just have to cut off a few mm of the slip end for it to twist on without hitting the bottom of the bucket. This leaves about a cup or 2 in the bottom with no tipping, which would require a break in the rhythm and puts the bottling wand at an awkward angle)
- Now this should be 20 minutes or so in, and clean-up begins....
- Fermentor, bottling bucket, spigot and siphon are washed in the sink, while I take beers to storage and use the now wet towels to wipe down the floor, table and counter.
- I take buckets, empty boxes and other stuff downstairs to the brewroom after the beer, while wifey puts more dishes in the dishwasher (including pot and utensils from making the priming solution), shuts it up and starts it (if full) to wash away the spills on the doors.
I think that is about it, I'll edit if I see anything I missed.
Great info and very helpful. Thanks for taking the time to write that!
