Not to mention astronomically more expensive than bottling. :rockin:
Long night of bottling ahead
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Not to mention astronomically more expensive than bottling. :rockin:
My wife and I can knock out 50 or so bottles in 25-30 minutes, start to finish....so 10 gallons would about double that time.
If it took me from 5pm until 1am to bottle 10 gals (that's almost 5 minutes per bottle!), I'd definitely figure out a new system. How do you go about bottling now? Give us all a rundown, and we can see if we can cut some time for you.
Best regards,
If it took me from 5pm until 1am to bottle 10 gals (that's almost 5 minutes per bottle!), I'd definitely figure out a new system. How do you go about bottling now? Give us all a rundown, and we can see if we can cut some time for you.
Best regards,
I second that! Although I agree that bottling is my least favorite part of the process, I LOVE having my beer in bottles. For me, it's not a financial choice. It's just a personal preference.
The task of bottling is a pain but I'm finding as I improve my process, it is getting faster and easier.
The original poster of this thread mentioned getting through his night of bottling with coffee. Here's an easy bottling process improvement tip:
Instead of coffee, relax and enjoy a tasty home brew while you bottle!
rico567
Well-Known Member
Hear, hear! Kegging is not some more "advanced" form of storing beer. It's just different, and for the people who want it, it's fine and dandy. I bottle, and I have absolutely no intention of doing anything else.
The crown-cap bottle is a century-old technology, but it holds up very, very well in our time. Simple, most of what is involved is eminently recyclable, etc. Technology can be that way- the Egyptians invented pen, paper, and ink several millennia ago, and it's not going anywhere, either. It lives very nicely right alongside our more technologically involved means of writing.
Man I like bottles to take some where or give to friends but my five kegs stay full first. Kiss the bottling process. Get a bucket of star-San put bottles straight in soak for a min drain and line up you can clean all bottles in about 20min then fill, cap and rinse set on towel to dry over night. boiling bottles is crazy to this guy if they are that dirty go buy new ones. Glad your pipeline is not in jeopardy tho
Wow! I can see where having two people would make it a lot faster but even with two, 25-30 minutes sounds really fast. Very impressive. I'd like to hear more about your process.
Are you including boiling and cooling of the primer in that time? How about racking to the bottling bucket, cleanup, and moving the two cases to storage?
With two people, I can see how you could sanitize, fill, and cap 50 bottles in 30 minutes but I cannot picture myself and another person doing it that fast if the time included prep work and cleanup. I know some things can be done in parallel but not everything.
I know priming sugar boiling (then cooling) and racking can be done at the same time but then you have to stir in the priming sugar if you add it AFTER racking. I don't see how the priming sugar prep and racking could done in less than 10 or 15 minutes. So that would leave only 15 or 20 minutes to fill and cap the bottles and you still have to clean up the room and your equipment.
It takes me at least a few minutes to rinse out the carboy and bottling bucket and then to fill them up with water and Oxyclean.
I'm very interested in hearing more about your process and what all is included in that 30 minutes. I'd love to chip away more time off of my process.
- Looked like a good place to repost my double-barrel bottling bucket pic. It nearly doubles my bottling speed.
- Find a gadget called a vinator and get the associated bottling tree. Cheap and all the LHBS have them. Makes sanitizing bottles a breeze. The pic below shows a bottling tree with a vinator on top.
- I keg also. I prefer kegging, but some beers don't make sense in a keg (i.e., sours, high-ABV)
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.
I thought about adding this, but with my wife and I we have a rhythm (see above)...now, if I we solo, this would be a no brainer!!!
Definitely use the short tubing either way, this frees up a hand, instead of having to handle the wand on a long tube in one and a bottle in the other.
:rockin:
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!
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