Many, many problems while bottling

[msx]

Hello all,

First post to these forums. I'm a new brewer, have bottled one batch of beer that came out well and just had a nightmare of a time bottling a batch of the 5 day sweet country cider. It was a perfect storm of mistake after mistake. The difference was, the first time around, I had someone there to help.

I've read the bottling sticky but don't really have the space/funds at the moment to buy extra equipment. What I'm using is a 2 gallon pot, an auto siphon, and a bottling wand.

Today I had a hard time getting my auto siphon started while transferring cider from the fermenter to the bottling bucket (pot). I ended up having to slowly pour the last quarter of cider from the fermenter to the pot. Then I was having still more trouble with the siphon and it ended up sending air bubbles up through the cider in the pot. Then I siphoned the cider into bottles that I ended up not being able to cap. I had to pour it as slowly as possible from the bottles back into the bottling pot so I could put it into different bottles. Finally ended up getting it into bottles but it took me a little more than an hour from start to finish.

My question is, how likely is it that I've ruined my cider due to oxidation? Since it was the 5 day cider, it's still actively fermenting. Will that help my chances of coming out with ok cider?

 

[JEnglish]

I would put those bottles in a plastic bin (something that has a lid) if the cider was still fermenting. There is a good chance you will have bottle bombs. I woke up one night to a case of bottles blowing up. The clean up was not fun...

If I were you I would RDWHAHB in regards to the oxidation. Before I got into kegging, there were a few times that I screwed up everything possible when bottling and the booze turned out fine. If it is actively fermenting, then the oxygen in the bottles will be used and turned into CO2.

 

[msx]

Good point with the oxygen in the bottle being turned into CO2. Makes me feel better.

I had planned to pasteurize them to prevent bottle bombs after my tester soda bottle hardened up but then realized that my pot is not large enough for that. I have my fridge turned way down with the bottles in the very back. We shall see...

 

[bethebrew]

Your real concern should be bottling something still fermenting. In the fridge if a bottle blows up, now you have a real mess. Better to wait till something finishes, then bottle it. Pasteurization may or may not stop fermentation. Any rogue bug in there now has free reign!

As to your auto siphon, how much pulp or sediment is there? Keeping it off the bottom helps to keep things clean. I am careful with the rack to my bottling carboy, don't want stuff in there. But I'm making beer with very little sediment, just a tight yeast pack after a month of sitting there.

Well, good luck you are at least slowing any ferment in the fridge...

 

[msx]

There wasn't any sediment in the auto siphon. I think it was a matter of trying to use the bottling wand with it. I tried to start it with the bottling wand on it and couldn't get the siphon to start. When I took the bottling wand off, it siphoned just fine.

I found that bottling goes a lot easier with two sets of hands there. Think I'll stick with that until I get more bottling practice under my belt.

As far as the cider still fermenting, I followed the directions for the 5 day sweet country cider to a t. It seems to be working okay so far. I assume that the bottles would have blown up by now if they were going to. I may invest in some pet bottles if I continue to make the quick cider just so I don't have to worry about bottle bombs.