You may here a lot of people recommending kegging...It's up to you what ultimately you choose to do. But don't let zealots convince you that no one bottles...actually there is probably a vast majority of brewers who still bottle for various reason. And even many experienced keggars rack some of their beer to bottles and prime and condition with sugar, or they use a beer gun (either blickman or Biermuncher's) to fill some bottles.
If you enter contests then bottling is a must.
I don't have the space or money to keg right now, nor do I think in the future when I move out of my loft will I keg exclusively. There is still something about cracking open a bottle of your own beer. And not many people want to take a keg on a picnic or to a game, when a six pack will do (and it's hard to stick a keg in your pocket when you are trying to sneak a beer in somewhere, not that I know anything about sneaking homebrew in.)
Bottling doesn't have to be a chore.
The trick to bottling is to make the process work for you...to make yourself as comfortable as possible doing it. It took me a few batches but I got it dialed in enough to get it done in about an hour for a 5 gallon batch....not including clean up. One of my half batches can be done in 20 minutes
You just gotta dial in your process,....try different things until they work for you, until you've pimped it down to the bare minimum of steps...and practice practice practice...and if it doesn't work for you, then scrap it and change it again...
Eventually you will find exactly what works for you.
For example I hated the bottling wand on the end of a hose, with the bottles in beer case method, that most people use..You know, then one shown in Papazian's book where the bucket is on the counter and you sit on the floor and fill the bottles sitting in the cases....well the first time I did that, I lost track of where I was in order, and actually capped about a half dozen empty bottles...as well as spilling a sh*tload of beer because I could really see when the wand was putting the beer to the lip of the bottle....a ton would spill out....
Plus sitting for so long on the floor was bad for my back....
So I kept tweaking my process until I was happy...
I have my bottling wand mounted right on my bucket's spigot...
So I can sit at my dining room table and fill bottles confortably...I prop my bucket on a pot, or fermenter bucket to bring it up to my eye level. (Actually that pot is too low, I have now moved it to the top of my boil kettle...a fermenter bucket is about the same height and works great as well.
I have a dip tube in my bucket so I get all but about 4 ounces of stuff from my bottling bucket. What that means in my case is about another 6 pack of beer- 54 bottles instead of 48.
Here's an overview of my process
The first thing I do is set the fermenter on my dining room table, and open it (briefly) to take a gravity reading, so I can calculate the amount of priming sugar I need. (I carb to style and use beersmith to tell me how much I need.) Most of you in your first few batches will be using the stock 4.5 - 5 ounce packets that came with you ingredient kit.
Putting the fermenter in position first gives some time to let the beer settle since I just moved it. Some folks put it in position hours ahead of time, but I've never seen the need.
After I've set the bucket down, and figured out how much sugar I need, I measure it out and set it to boil. I start my priming sugar water boiling.
Then I start sanitizing my gear. I fill my bottling bucket with about 2 gallons of diluted starsan, and add my auto siphon, my bottling wand, my dip tube setup and anything else I may need into it, after first swirling around the bucket a few times to spread the sanitizer along all the sides of it. I then set the bucket on the table, and autosiphon about half of the sanitizer into another bucket. This sanitzes the inside of the autosiphon and the hose. After abut a gallon to gallon and a half of sanitizer has run through it. I open the spigot to flush that with the remained of the sanitizer as well.
Then I install the dip tube that is pictured above.
By now I usually can hear the boiling of my solution in the kitchen. I check on it, and perhaps lower the heat a bit to a gentle boil.
Then I begin to sanitize my bottles with my vinator....after the first case is sanitzed then take the priming solution off the stove to let it cool a bit, you can set it in a bit of cold water in your sink. Then I go back and sanitize my second case and final sixpack of bottles.
After sanitizing I count out my bottlecaps and drop them in my vinator to sanitize. I set my bottling bucket below the fermenter and pour half of the priming solution into the bottom of the bucket then I start racking the beer on top of it. When I get to 2.5 gallons I I add the remainder of the solution to the bucket.
When ready I put a pot lid on top of the bottling bucke, and gently lift it on top of a pot, or the empty primary bucket and clip on the bottling wand to the spigot. Then I get ready to bottle.
Since I'm a lefty I work right to left on my table....I put my two cases of sanitized bottles on the right hand side of the table (on the chair next to me,) I put the vinator on the table to the right of the bucket filled with my bottles caps sanitizing away. Then when I fill the bottle I place a cap loosely on it, and move it to the left side of the table...with the bottling bucket in the middle of the table there's room for a case worth of filled bottles on the table on the left side.
When I hit 24 bottles, I stand up, move the empty case to a chair on the left side of the table, then I pick up my capper and cap the first case of bottles, putting them in the case on the chair nearby...Then I grab a beer from the fridge, and sit back down and do the next case of beer....
I can get them all done and the bottling bucket and stuff soaking in oxyclean between 45 minutes and an hour....
If you enter contests then bottling is a must.
I don't have the space or money to keg right now, nor do I think in the future when I move out of my loft will I keg exclusively. There is still something about cracking open a bottle of your own beer. And not many people want to take a keg on a picnic or to a game, when a six pack will do (and it's hard to stick a keg in your pocket when you are trying to sneak a beer in somewhere, not that I know anything about sneaking homebrew in.)
Bottling doesn't have to be a chore.
The trick to bottling is to make the process work for you...to make yourself as comfortable as possible doing it. It took me a few batches but I got it dialed in enough to get it done in about an hour for a 5 gallon batch....not including clean up. One of my half batches can be done in 20 minutes
You just gotta dial in your process,....try different things until they work for you, until you've pimped it down to the bare minimum of steps...and practice practice practice...and if it doesn't work for you, then scrap it and change it again...
Eventually you will find exactly what works for you.
For example I hated the bottling wand on the end of a hose, with the bottles in beer case method, that most people use..You know, then one shown in Papazian's book where the bucket is on the counter and you sit on the floor and fill the bottles sitting in the cases....well the first time I did that, I lost track of where I was in order, and actually capped about a half dozen empty bottles...as well as spilling a sh*tload of beer because I could really see when the wand was putting the beer to the lip of the bottle....a ton would spill out....
Plus sitting for so long on the floor was bad for my back....
So I kept tweaking my process until I was happy...
I have my bottling wand mounted right on my bucket's spigot...
So I can sit at my dining room table and fill bottles confortably...I prop my bucket on a pot, or fermenter bucket to bring it up to my eye level. (Actually that pot is too low, I have now moved it to the top of my boil kettle...a fermenter bucket is about the same height and works great as well.
I have a dip tube in my bucket so I get all but about 4 ounces of stuff from my bottling bucket. What that means in my case is about another 6 pack of beer- 54 bottles instead of 48.
Here's an overview of my process
The first thing I do is set the fermenter on my dining room table, and open it (briefly) to take a gravity reading, so I can calculate the amount of priming sugar I need. (I carb to style and use beersmith to tell me how much I need.) Most of you in your first few batches will be using the stock 4.5 - 5 ounce packets that came with you ingredient kit.
Putting the fermenter in position first gives some time to let the beer settle since I just moved it. Some folks put it in position hours ahead of time, but I've never seen the need.
After I've set the bucket down, and figured out how much sugar I need, I measure it out and set it to boil. I start my priming sugar water boiling.
Then I start sanitizing my gear. I fill my bottling bucket with about 2 gallons of diluted starsan, and add my auto siphon, my bottling wand, my dip tube setup and anything else I may need into it, after first swirling around the bucket a few times to spread the sanitizer along all the sides of it. I then set the bucket on the table, and autosiphon about half of the sanitizer into another bucket. This sanitzes the inside of the autosiphon and the hose. After abut a gallon to gallon and a half of sanitizer has run through it. I open the spigot to flush that with the remained of the sanitizer as well.
Then I install the dip tube that is pictured above.
By now I usually can hear the boiling of my solution in the kitchen. I check on it, and perhaps lower the heat a bit to a gentle boil.
Then I begin to sanitize my bottles with my vinator....after the first case is sanitzed then take the priming solution off the stove to let it cool a bit, you can set it in a bit of cold water in your sink. Then I go back and sanitize my second case and final sixpack of bottles.
After sanitizing I count out my bottlecaps and drop them in my vinator to sanitize. I set my bottling bucket below the fermenter and pour half of the priming solution into the bottom of the bucket then I start racking the beer on top of it. When I get to 2.5 gallons I I add the remainder of the solution to the bucket.
When ready I put a pot lid on top of the bottling bucke, and gently lift it on top of a pot, or the empty primary bucket and clip on the bottling wand to the spigot. Then I get ready to bottle.
Since I'm a lefty I work right to left on my table....I put my two cases of sanitized bottles on the right hand side of the table (on the chair next to me,) I put the vinator on the table to the right of the bucket filled with my bottles caps sanitizing away. Then when I fill the bottle I place a cap loosely on it, and move it to the left side of the table...with the bottling bucket in the middle of the table there's room for a case worth of filled bottles on the table on the left side.
When I hit 24 bottles, I stand up, move the empty case to a chair on the left side of the table, then I pick up my capper and cap the first case of bottles, putting them in the case on the chair nearby...Then I grab a beer from the fridge, and sit back down and do the next case of beer....
I can get them all done and the bottling bucket and stuff soaking in oxyclean between 45 minutes and an hour....
![Craft A Brew - Safale S-04 Dry Yeast - Fermentis - English Ale Dry Yeast - For English and American Ales and Hard Apple Ciders - Ingredients for Home Brewing - Beer Making Supplies - [1 Pack]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/41fVGNh6JfL._SL500_.jpg)
Sorry, but that is the funniest picture I have seen in a while 
