Sparging?

[doctorcosmonaut]

Do breweries sparge beer bottles before bottling? I'm not sure I understand the puspose(s) of sparging alcohol bottles.

 

[unionrdr]

Sparging is the act of rinsing more sugary wort out of the mashed/drained grains. but they have automated bottle washers if that's what you mean. We soak'em in a tub or 5G bucket of oxyclean free,or PBW to loosen labels & soak'em clean. Then rise well in the sink & onto the bottle tree to dry before storing them in covered boxes,etc. Then saintize them with Starsan or Idophore,etc right before filling & capping.

 

[doctorcosmonaut]

I think what I'm referring to is also called "purging" ... It is not about removing the sugary wort.

 

[chickens4life]

purging is to remove oxygen, and yes all of the good commercial breweries do that when they are bottling, purge with CO2, that is. otherwise the beer has a pretty bad shelf life.

alternately the head space can be purged by driving some CO2 out of solution right before the bottle is capped.

 

[doctorcosmonaut]

purging is to remove oxygen, and yes all of the good commercial breweries do that when they are bottling, purge with CO2, that is. otherwise the beer has a pretty bad shelf life.

alternately the head space can be purged by driving some CO2 out of solution right before the bottle is capped.

Know of any economical sparging apparatuses?

So is this the order?
1. Sparge
2. Fill (gravity filler)
3. Cap
?

If someone has a vacuum filler do they forgo the sparging N2 step (i.e. is sparging unnecessary if using vacuum fillers)?

Also, I'm having trouble finding a semi automatic caper (or is it semi-manual ) that's below $3000. Seems like manual ones are $25-500 and then it jumps to over $3000 for the next range of products.

 

[shawnbou]

Commercial wineries refer to gas purging of bottles as "sparging" also.

doctorcosmonaut - I see that a lot of your questions seem more relevant to brewing on a professional scale. Just a suggestion, but you may get more responses on another forum geared towards professionals rather than hobby brewers. I don't know a lot of homebrewers spending $3000 on a bottle filler/capper.

 

[unionrdr]

That's the first time I ever heard of the term sparging having a second definition. Ya learn something new every day.

 

[jonmohno]

Ive learned that when bottleing beer when using priming sugar, that you should lay your sanitized caps on without sealing them til you get them all out of the bottle bucket, then cap them with your capper. Supposibly the co2 gets a chance to be released some by doing this while replacing the oxygen. Not shure if this is the proper technique and if its completly true, but its what Ive always done when bottleing. I rarely have oxidation, an in fact im not familiar with the terms sherry and cardboard like tastes-Ive never tasted that in my beer and Ive aged my bottles years.
However, since Ive gotten into kegging and have co2,Im considering doing this with the bucket/bottles just because I can,but not shure if its neccesary,maybe just blasting the tops with co2 right before capping them.

 

[unionrdr]

I fill the bottles with beer till I get 12-15 of them. As each bottle is filled,I dunk an o2 barrier cap in Starsan & place it on top of the bottle. I guess it does allow for some purging action. When I get that dozen or so filled with the sanitized cap on top,I run'em through the bench capper. Ithen tip each one once to make sure the o2 barrier part of the cap is activated before placing the bottle in it's covered box.

 

[Denny]

nm

 

[texcan2000]

If the beer is carbonated you can gently smack the top of the bottle. The headspace foams up and then you quickly cap it.