Man, I HATE Bottling....

[CiscoKid]

everything and everyone was sticky and wet afterwards... and then I suggested, "Hey! We should bottle some beer today, too."

There, I fixed that quote for you.

 

[Homercidal]

I guess I am weird. It wasn't until I got a keg system that I got my bottling system working well. It wasn't hard or time-consuming once I got the kinks worked out.

It helps that my little one likes to carry bottles for me, and soon she will be capping them too. I only have room in my fridge for 2 kegs, so once I get another batch brewing, I'll have to bottle again. Ok, two batches. The IPA I have in my second keg can be bottled to make room for a better batch. My first AG was not fantastic.

Taking labels off the bottles is the worst part for me. I can get all the bottles I want for .10 apiece, and the bar downtown is saving the guinness bottles for me in return for doing some IT work for them. They don't go through a lot, but the are easy to clean and have a sexy shape!

 

[Dave R]

I'm a very low-rent kind of guy. I use 2 liter coke bottles and it only takes ten of them for a five gallon batch. I rinse them well after emptying, put the cap on and store until ready to fill. Then I spray some StarSan in each one, swish it around for a few seconds, then bottle. I've use the same 30 or so bottles for three years now and it's no hassle at all.

I pressurize 2 or three of them with a paintball cannister, shake very well, keep pressurizing and shaking for a few minutes and then the next day I can start drinking.
I'll keep doing this until 3 weeks have gone by and then I can just open a fresh bottle and drink. Of course by that time, I only have a few bottles left, lol.

If you don't drink it fast enough, yeah it will go flat. But that's never been a problem around my house. Between me and my friends, we go through them pretty quickly.

Just another way to do it. Do it your way and enjoy what you brew.

 

[SmugMug]

Dave R

I did that in school with my Mr. Beer kits. Probably the worst move ever in my beer making days. I'm glad it's working for you though. My problem was that I had an alcoholic roommate with a penchant for Pepsi. He'd wake up in the middle of the night in a drunken stupor, open the fridge and grab a bottle indiscriminately thinking it was Pepsi and just tilt the bottle. I'm pretty sure his taste buds were shot since he only complained once about the soda being "off". I hated him. 3 batches of beer ruined because of him. The 2 or 3 batches that made it had a distinct taste of plastic.

 

[HOOTER]

I'm a very low-rent kind of guy. I use 2 liter coke bottles and it only takes ten of them for a five gallon batch. I rinse them well after emptying, put the cap on and store until ready to fill. Then I spray some StarSan in each one, swish it around for a few seconds, then bottle. I've use the same 30 or so bottles for three years now and it's no hassle at all.

I pressurize 2 or three of them with a paintball cannister, shake very well, keep pressurizing and shaking for a few minutes and then the next day I can start drinking.
I'll keep doing this until 3 weeks have gone by and then I can just open a fresh bottle and drink. Of course by that time, I only have a few bottles left, lol.

If you don't drink it fast enough, yeah it will go flat. But that's never been a problem around my house. Between me and my friends, we go through them pretty quickly.

Just another way to do it. Do it your way and enjoy what you brew.

You might be a redneck.

 

[brrman]

I keg, but bottle a 12er from each batch usually. If I forget to bottle then I can just bottle from the keg after force carbing. The bench capper is the one tool that makes bottling less painful... man, that wing capper sucked so hard.

 

[Dave R]

Lol @ HOOTER!!

Yeah, I'm from Alabama so I guess it qualifies. BUT it IS cheap and easy and you can take them wherever you want to party and only being ten of them, it's not a hassle at all. Takes about 10 minutes to bottle.

 

[talenos]

I like to bring a few bottles for people at work, so I'll still bottle at least part of each batch probably. Luckily the SWMBO does the capping and I just do the filling.

 

[Laughing_Gnome_Invisible]

Just bottled my first batch in many years. Now I remember 1/2 of why I quit brewing 8 years ago. Bottling is such a hassle!

That part of the OP is just strange IMO. :cross:

How could anyone quit brewing just because of a minor hassle? My flabber has been ghasted.

 

[Arkador]

How could anyone quit brewing just because of a minor hassle? My flabber has been ghasted.

I toned down to 1 or 2 batches a year, because I hated bottleing. No matter how efficient i got at it, it still sucked for me. I understand some people enjoy it.

Kegging renewed my love for the hobby, and I have brewed more in 2 months, than the last 4 years...

 

[Laughing_Gnome_Invisible]

I toned down to 1 or 2 batches a year, because I hated bottleing. No matter how efficient i got at it, it still sucked for me. I understand some people enjoy it.

Kegging renewed my love for the hobby, and I have brewed more in 2 months, than the last 4 years...

Nope! Sorry! I still don't understand it!

 

[jeffk14]

That part of the OP is just strange IMO. :cross:

How could anyone quit brewing just because of a minor hassle? My flabber has been ghasted.

Well, I DID say that was 1/2 the reason ( I guess "one of the reasons" would be more grammatically correct). I also didn't know back then that sanitization could be so easy. I was using bleach at the time & had to rinse and rinse and rinse. There were other factors at work too, not the least of which was the amount of time I spent working in those days.

Things are different now. I've got more time, I've mostly figured out how to avoid or at least simplify racking, I AM getting a kegging system and I've discovered the miracle of Iodophor.

 

[WorryWort]

I keg, but I still bottle occasionally. When I make a 10gallon batch I often bottle half of it so that it's around longer and I'm starting to a mass some inventory for competitions.

When I bottle I use bombers. I find that once you get the damn labels off of them its' not so bad. Throw'em in a bucket with oxyclean the night before, or bathtub, give 'em a rinse. A quick sanitization in the dishwasher, boil up some sugar and make a bucket of sanitizer. Grab a clean, santized pail and get to it.

My keg fridge is a source of pride, but so is looking at 28-30 little brown soldiers from time to time.

 

[timmystank]

Ive got 3 batches sitting, waiting to be bottled cause it does kinda suck. But im looking forward to it.....Its a love hate relationship.

 

[HillbillyDeluxe]

I drink from the kegs at home, and bottle for the road(swmbo drives). I'mcompletely "pff the grid" for bmc's.

 

[ChickenSoop]

I use 18 1L PET bottles plus a few 500ml PET bottles for testing. So easy with those twist tops. Just rinse them right after using to wash out the yeast and store them on the bottle tree. Then just sanitize before bottling and good to go.

Crank on the tunes and open up a beer while bottling. Done in no time.

 

[Laughing_Gnome_Invisible]

I use 18 1L PET bottles plus a few 500ml PET bottles for testing. So easy with those twist tops. Just rinse them right after using to wash out the yeast and store them on the bottle tree. Then just sanitize before bottling and good to go.

Crank on the tunes and open up a beer while bottling. Done in no time.

Same here except I also do a few glass bottles for good measure. I tend to forget that when people are complaining about bottling they could well be talking about close to 100 12oz bottles.

Yeah, that would become tiresome.

 

[WorryWort]

I tend to forget that when people are complaining about bottling they could well be talking about close to 100 12oz bottles.

Yeah, that would become tiresome.

Yeh me too, that would certainly suck @ss.

For what it's worth Ray Daniels was just bitching about bottling on twitter yesterday. So we're not alone, even famous homebrew authors whine about it!

 

[jeffk14]

After starting this thread on 5/25, I bottled another batch on 5/26. My hatred of bottling is now ten-fold. It went something like this:

On the night before, started a soak of all my (plastic) bottles in sodium percarbonate. Bottling day, got up & started tedious task of rinsing all the bottles. I don't sanitize after the rinse, since I brew with my tap water & I consider it to be clean, but I digress. Shove all bottles in a couple of buckets upside down to drain.

Go to kitchen to measure & boil priming sugar. Make up sanitizing solution for utensils, racking cane and such. Haul bottling bucket up from basement to be sanitized. Sanitize bucket. Dump now boiled priming solution into bucket. Haul bucket back down to basement. That's where the bottling will take place.

Run back upstairs & fill racking cane/hose with sanitizing solution. Run back downstairs with racking cane, put cane in beer on bench, clip the clip thingy on edge of beer bucket whilst I attempt to run off the first few ounces of sanitizer into a small container.

Just as beer starts to flow, racking cane comes flipping and flying out of the beer bucket, slinging beer all over me, the floor and the wall. Stare in disbelief for 5 seconds. Commence inventing cuss words. Regain composure, gather up cane, head back upstairs to resanitize racking cane (still inventing/recycling/modifying/ cuss words).

Head back downstairs with now resanitized racking cane, primed (I thought) with more sanitizer. Start racking procedure again. Flow stops because I didn't have enough solution in the tube to get it started. Stare in disbelief. Invent still more cuss words.

Look up on shelf and see my cheap bottle of vodka that I use on my airlocks sitting there. Lean over trashcan, spit snuff out, grab vodka, wash mouth out and siphon away.

The rest of bottling day went without incident, but now, the kegging system is on the fast-track.

 

[Nurmey]

I keep reading these threads but I don't really get them. I think you guys need to streamline your procedure if it's taking you that much time and trouble to bottle.

This past weekend, we bottled 8 cases (12 oz bottles) of various brews. We spent maybe a little more than an hour bottling the 8 cases with another 45 minutes between gathering equipment and cleaning up after we were finished.

Now the fact that I fill while hubby caps cuts our time a bit but since I do the gathering and cleaning, it's not much time saved.

So two hours of time and 8 cases of brew equals about 15 minutes per case. Doesn't sound that bad to me.

 

[jezter6]

After starting this thread on 5/25, I bottled another batch on 5/26. My hatred of bottling is now ten-fold. It went something like this:

1) Why do you run up and down the steps? Cant you take your sanitizer with you?

2) Invest in auto-siphon or bottling bucket. Using a normal siphon for bottling has GOT to be teh sucks!

3) Use a no-rinse sanitizer like iodophor or star-san. No more need to rinse the hell out of your bottles after sanitizing, just pour out the san and pour in the beer!

 

[jeffk14]

1) Why do you run up and down the steps? Cant you take your sanitizer with you?

2) Invest in auto-siphon or bottling bucket. Using a normal siphon for bottling has GOT to be teh sucks!

3) Use a no-rinse sanitizer like iodophor or star-san. No more need to rinse the hell out of your bottles after sanitizing, just pour out the san and pour in the beer!

I make an Iodophor solution in a big tray/tub for sanitizing utensils and stuff. I have no running water in the basement.

I do have a bottling bucket. I was trying to rack to it when I had my issues.

I'm concerned about the Iodophor leaving a taste in my bottles. I just rinse them.

I will probably just do that mod to my racking cane where a plastic tee is used to create a "suck tube". That would be simpler than the autosiphon, I think.

From now on (since I'm getting an early jump on my pipeline), I'll probably just have one fermentation going at a time (except for my Apfelwein). For my beer fermentation, I'll use my Cooper's fermenter. I LOVE that thing. It will ferment a 6 gallon batch with plenty of head-space to spare. It also has a spigot so I can rack directly to my bottling bucket when bulk priming, or bottle from it if I use the carb drops.

Or, when I get my kegging setup, I'll put 5 gallons in a keg, then bottle the extra gallon. Straight from the fermenter.

 

[alpo]

I'm not trying to be a hater or anything. If you enjoy bottling and your pipeline is big enough to negate the bottle carb time, then more power to you. I totally understand getting enjoyment out of certain procedures (heck, if I didn't, I wouldn't brew in the first place).

I also totally understand that kegging isn't attractive to everyone either...you have additional costs and equipment, major reduction of portability, added complexity, more space needed, more electricity used, a lot more DIY $hit going on, etc.

I know that this issue has been done to death a million times over, so I am hesitant to even type this at all.

Anyway, I guess I just want to point out that we all have different opinions about the different components of the overall experience. Personally, the time I spend is a major component, second to only quality/taste. There is no question that kegging and force carbing take a small fraction of the time and effort compared to bottle conditioning. For me, this is the deal breaker.

Perhaps me being impatient is a personality flaw. Call it whatever you want.

 

[Dave R]

I keep reading these threads but I don't really get them. I think you guys need to streamline your procedure if it's taking you that much time and trouble to bottle.

This past weekend, we bottled 8 cases (12 oz bottles) of various brews. We spent maybe a little more than an hour bottling the 8 cases with another 45 minutes between gathering equipment and cleaning up after we were finished.

Now the fact that I fill while hubby caps cuts our time a bit but since I do the gathering and cleaning, it's not much time saved.

So two hours of time and 8 cases of brew equals about 15 minutes per case. Doesn't sound that bad to me.

I agree totally about the streamlining.

I get out 10 2-liter bottles that have already been rinsed after emptying, spray two or three squirts of StarSan in each one, swirl around for a second or two, let sit for about 30 seconds, dump out the liquid, and bottle immediately. 10 minutes tops!

 

[Arkador]

It is funny watching everyone try to talk the OP out of kegging.....

Kegging kicks ass! I'll bottle some beers from time to time, but I LOVE my keezer!

 

[Moose777]

I bottled my first batch a few weeks ago. I did maybe 8 12 oz bottles, the rest were either 16 oz swing top, or 22 oz..oh yeah, one 32 oz growler.

By next week I will have my kegging setup completed but I haven't written bottling off, in fact I think I'll continue to use the many swing top bottles...I'll just need to master bottling from the keg now.

 

[Boondoggie]

After starting this thread on 5/25, I bottled another batch on 5/26. My hatred of bottling is now ten-fold. It went something like this:

(cut out stairs and siphon story)

The rest of bottling day went without incident, but now, the kegging system is on the fast-track.

Seems to me that kegging would avert none of the problems you had with the day? You'd still have to siphon, and likely do it in the basement?

 

[syd138]

I actually like bottling.. I've got it down to a science right now..

from start to finish it'll take me an hour

Kegging would be nice, but I like the idea of letting this stuff bottle condition for awhile. Especially with stouts and belgians.

 

[cyberbackpacker]

Buy this:

Search Results

and this:

NORTHERN BREWER: Sanitation & Cleaning

to go along with this:

Bottle Filler: Search Results

Combine those three things together along with the tips in the thread Revvy started (most importantly the bottling bucket diptube/racking arm) and bottling is much easier. I am telling you, the vinator makes sanitizing a snap.

First, all my bottles are already rinsed/cleaned right after pouring. Time saver #1. On bottling day my bottling bucket is on the counter above the dishwasher with the dishwasher door down, my chair is at the front of the dishwasher door, my bottle tree with vinator on top directly next to the dishwasher on the right hand side, and I line up a case of 20 .5l german flip-top bottles (one case of 20= 2.5 gallons) at a time right next to my chair.

(missing from the pick is bottle tree with vinator on top)

The actual process goes like this: pop the tops on all the bottles. Grab one bottle, sanitize it, and place it under bottle filler; open spigot, start to fill while holding bottle in left hand. With right hand grab new bottle and sanitize. Place sanitized empty bottle on dishwasher door. Start holding bottle being filled with right hand. Once the bottle is filled I remove the filled bottle and immediately using my left hand place the empty sanitized bottle in place and begin filling. I do not lose one drop. While the one is being filled I secure the flip-top onto the filled bottle with my right hand, and place it right back into the case. The process starts over with grabbing and empty, sanitizing, etc... I can bottle a case of 20 bottles in under 6 minutes with ease all by myself. With cleaning figure a total of 20-30 minutes.

I tried kegging, and still might do it for larger batches, but the time for me to transfer from into a keg, and then clean-up was not not significantly faster (2-3 minutes tops).

Just my suggestions, my process, and my way of doing things.... maybe it will help someone out.

PS. I also can do this without flip-tops and that does add about another 5-10 minutes to the process.

 

[bruin_ale]

Good tips.. I hated capping - it lost it's allure after half of a batch. Flip tops I guess save money and time.

Using bigger bottles is key, cleaning/filling/sanitizing 50 12 oz bottles sucks.