the good, the bad, the ugly .... bottling experience

[Lepetitnormand]

well yesterday was my 6th beer bottling day, add to it 2 batch of cider and you have my entire brewing experience in front of you. That being said before yesterday all the batch were 1gallon, yesterday was a 2.5 gallon batch. I have not been able to have a good bottling experience so far but at least I am moving forward.

The good :

all the bottles were well capped on the first try (yeah). until yesterday I was using the blue wing capper that came with my northern brewer kit and was always strugguling to have a proper seal. I had enough of it and bought a new capper. I got the gray wing capper from austinhomebrew and boy what a difference, a joy to use with great result.

bottling bucket. well I made my own bucket from a 5 gallon food grade bucket from lowes, a spigot from austin homebrew and a 1" spade drill. a breeze to make (my first homebrew build, I know I know fairly easy, but hey for the appartement dweller that I am it's freakingly involved...), the bucket performed really well aka it did not spill anything by its own fault, no leak at the spigot.

The bad :

close the freaking spigot jacka$$ before you pour any liquid in the bucket (luckily it was starsan, no harm done but a sanitized kitchen floor...)

leaky bottling wand, well that one came with the norther brewer kit too just like the capper, sounds like the next thing to be replaced as well. The spring loaded one from austin homebrew seems much better

almost two hours to do the bottling sounds like I need to get a better routine.

The ugly :

a wet mess all around on the floor mainly starsan from my bootle sanitation process (not to count the first pour from the open faucet on the bucket), and a bit from the bottling wand wiping out the kitchen floor all the time is a pain and time consuming.

21 bottles of beer . WTF !!! Sounds like I got my volume target way off when I brewed that batch (and the one I did wednesday as I have the same volume). While there was some spilling from the wand and some lost in the carboy that was at mpst a bootle and a half, I am still short of 2 to 3 bottles.

What's next :

Well overall I am still happy with my experience I should say, bottling 21 bottles straight from the carboy would have been a pain in the rear end to say the least.

On the next try I will get my engineering degree to work and put on a good dose of 5s. cleaning well I read it multiple time here and I can see why it's so appericiated now, the diswasher bottling stand, put the bucket above the dishwaher, open the door use the door as a work surface, bottle, let the spill happen on the door, close the door once bottling is over, and done floor clean up is over (well that's the theory)

Get a new bottling wand that do not leak (well lets hope so at least)

Get better organized. humm that one might require some practice to get there ( wait what practice, you mean I got to brew more in order to get better at bottling ... oh well I guess I will have to how to say taht well drink it all too )

better volume target, well I guess gestimating the darn volume is not the best option, next brew (irish red ale by the way) will first see me mark the 2.5 gallon mark ( oh wait what about the yeast cake and trube .... hummm maybe I am onto someting there) geez more gestimation to do before I can fine tune this, I guess that will pair up well with the better organisation one that require more brewing anyway .

next brew (well this is the hope at least)

irish red ale.
cream ale
pattersbier
Tbd at vitam etrnae (darn those brew your own magazine are full of geez I need to try that and that oh how about that)

If you guys can see anything that can be improve in my process let me know....

 

[treacheroustexan]

I always use an empty 5 gallon bucket and fill my bottles inside of that. Just in case I over fill my bottles or have a leak, it goes into the bucket rather than the floor.

I switched to kegging and haven't had to deal with that in a while though.

 

[BowAholic]

sounds like you are having fun while learning... congrats!

The bottling wand end should pull off and it should have a spring in it... it needs taken apart to clean it well anyway. It might just need pushed on tighter, but the more gravity there is, the more drips you will get... all of them that I have used drip.

 

[Mismost]

One of the very best pieces of advice I got (from this site) was to sit the bucket on the kitchen cabinet, open dishwasher door and bottle over it.....no messy floors and the bucket is up higher and easier to access. works great.

 

[CJ-3]

When filling I like to put 12 bottles in one of my wife's baking pans. I can move my bottling wand from one to the next. If anything spills over it is kept in the pan and keeps the floor dry.

 

[johnsant]

About 21 bottles is right, you wont get a full case if everything is done right with 2.5 gal. batch the most I have gotten is 22 and that was squeezing it. You lose some volume from trub. so enjoy what got and let us know how it tastes.

 

[Singletrack]

Oddly, I have found that 22 oz bottles hold more than 22 oz, and I assume the same is true of 12 oz bottles, so that helps explain why your number of bottles is off.

I agree with @CJ-3's advice above. Instead, I put 12 bombers in a case that has the top cut off, but the idea is the same. After filling 12 bottles, I put the wand in an empty bottle on its side to catch any drips while I cap.

You will get this down to a relaxing zen-like ritual that you will enjoy. Or, you will move to kegging. I am perfectly happy bottling. It is just so easy, and bottles are more convenient and cheaper.

 

[brewpool]

One of the very best pieces of advice I got (from this site) was to sit the bucket on the kitchen cabinet, open dishwasher door and bottle over it.....no messy floors and the bucket is up higher and easier to access. works great.

This. Bottling is much easier using the dishwasher to contain the mess.

Even better, load your bottles in the dishwasher with NO detergent and run a wash cycle with a sanitizer cycle and/or heated dry. Your bottles will be sanitized and ready to go. No need for dunking bottles in starsan. Just remember to still sanitize the caps.

 

[BlueHouseBrewhaus]

My routine is mostly based on the ergonomics of my kitchen layout.

All my bottles are cleaned immediately after pouring the beer so they are clean to begin with. I run my dishwasher the night before so it is nice and clean in the morning. Then on bottling day, I fill my stainless sink with sanitizer and I can immerse 24 bottles at a time. I drain those bottles, open the dishwasher door and place the bottles upside down in the dishwasher rack.

My bottling bucket rests on the edge of the counter with the wand hanging down and a pan beneath it to catch drips. I sit in a chair between the dishwasher and the bottling bucket. I can reach an empty bottle with my left hand and the bottling wand with my right and place the filled bottles on the counter in front of me. I fill 12 bottles, stand to cap them and then sit down to do the next 12. Start to finish, including setup and cleanup is about 1:45 for 5 gal (48 bottles +/-). The best thing for me is that it is easy on my back.

 

[fuelish]

The best thing for me is that it is easy on my back.

Right On to that, brother !!! Am trying to remove the statement " I'm too OLD for this s#!t!!!" from my vocabulary ....with limited success, perhaps I work 12 hour night shifts as a nurse at the local hospital, my back is spent a lot of mornings/days/nights....

 

[Kharnynb]

The best thing to learn when bottling is to invite someone over, or like myself, ask swmbo to help out

It might cost you a bottle or 2, but it saves so much hassle, one filling, one capping and bringing new bottles.

 

[slym2none]

I switched to kegging and haven't had to deal with that in a while though.

The first response.

 

[tnsen]

I just had to chime in here, my process is much ths same my bottling bucket is on the kitchen counter right above the dishwasher door, all bottles clean and sanitised in the dishwasher, also a glass measuring cup filled with starsan and all my caps on the dishwasher door, I grab a bottle with my left hand holding my bottling wand with right, fill er up , grab a cap just rest it on top, put it on counter, repeat until all bottles are filled, then stand and cap, I like to spread some old beach towels on the floor, same with breweing day, just in case...if my beer is dry hopped I line my bottling bucket with the Lowes Paint strainer b4 I rack, all because those small hop particels clog my bottling wand, as in you pull a bottle off the wand and it keeps running.....aka PITA.....also my capper its A Ferrari bench capper....works much better with just a small smear of veg oil, or olive oil on the inside of the bell portion...hey... everything works better with a lil lubrication....also lables......I use a pkg of sticky dots from Staples, or office max, there about 7bucks for a thousand, stick on cap marked B for Blue Moon or whatever, then no lables to remove next time hope this helps....Tom

 

[bucfan1234]

I bottled my first few batches of cider, and I made a similar mess until I got the hang of the bottling bucket.

When I brewed my first batch of beer, I switched to kegging. Just didn't want to deal with bottling, storing, cleaning, etc. 53 bottles of beer each time I brew, or deal with all the issues and inconsistencies that go along with carbing in the bottle.

Now if I want a couple of bottles for the road, I just put the bottling wand in a picnic tap, turn the gas down to <5psi and bottle from the keg. Filled a couple of 22oz bottles to take to an event on Saturday in about two minutes with no mess.

 

[ChelisHubby]

for myself I find that if you have help bottling there is less mess and screwups. I use the wife most of the time , my eight year old grandson others. Most important is to not stress out over anything.

 

[slym2none]

When I brewed my first batch of beer, I switched to kegging. Just didn't want to deal with bottling, storing, cleaning, etc. 53 bottles of beer each time I brew, or deal with all the issues and inconsistencies that go along with carbing in the bottle.

Now if I want a couple of bottles for the road, I just put the bottling wand in a picnic tap, turn the gas down to <5psi and bottle from the keg. Filled a couple of 22oz bottles to take to an event on Saturday in about two minutes with no mess.

This thread is not about kegging. We're all glad you went to that system, but that's not what this thread is about. We don't go into kegging problem threads and say "I never had my dip-tube clog, because I don't keg, I bottle!" so please don't come into a bottling thread and talk about kegging. It's rude.

 

[bucfan1234]

If you read my post, you will see that I was talking about bottling.

That said, one can easily bottle from the keg (A used keg can be had for $30; a small bottle can be had for $50; regulators are cheap on amazon; hose, picnic taps and pin locks are a couple bucks). Its not messy, which solves his problem, and there is a sticky thread on here that tells you how to do it.

Whether you put your beer in a bucket and bottle, put your beer in a keg (which is really little more than a big bottle), or bottle from a keg, you are still putting flat beer into a pressure vessel and carbing it. What is the big deal?

 

[Rkb1983]

My very first bottling experience, the NB capper broke after only a few bottles. Thankfully it was during the day so I just drove to the LHBS and got a press style capper. I also realized that the caps that came with the NB kit are much harder to use.

 

[Singletrack]

I also realized that the caps that came with the NB kit are much harder to use.

No lie! I bought some colored caps from NB. They had good ratings, and caps are caps, right? Wrong. Never again.

 

[stella_tigre]

I bottled today...so awesome when I get to play she-man and pull the top of the bottle right off with the capper! But I managed to do 4 1/2 gal without spilling more than a drop or two.

 

[Lepetitnormand]

well thanks for all the reply pointers and encouragement. I bottled a 1gallon hard cider tonight and was. done in 45 minutes. Obviously there was no priming solution to do cool and so on as I used some sugar pill thingy. that being said tjere was no liquid on the floor and only a few drop on the counter. if I had not broken a bottle at capping that would have been a full success .

I sanitized the 10 bottles in a 5 gallon bicket no sanitozer anywhere but inside the bucket. all bottle were then put in a small tub for an easier handling.

bottling was done on the dshwasher door nothing on the door the small tub contained all the spilling on its own.

capping was then done on the counter, I started to cap with the bottle in the small tub but broke the 3rd one , I was applying the pressure sideways, no harm done no spoling one lost bottle and its liquidi poured in the sink. after that I took the bottle out of the tub and capped on the counter, flowless process if you except the fact that I forgot to prime the bottle first, so I reoppened all of them and capped them a second time .

In 10 days to 2 weeks I will bottle my new 2.5 gallon batch and will see of I can repeat tonoght success in term of cleanless and overall procedure

 

[wyccad915]

My first bottling experience was my worst. I had a leak in the spigot. A constrant drip really. I had towels on the group soaking up the beer and my kitchen smelt of beer (really good beer though ). I used soda bottles and was still able to capture 23 liters though.

My 2nd bottling day was today. I filled the bottling bucket with water and it was still dripping and it took quite a bit of adjustments to get it to not leak. I think this bucket is not good quality. It was a mess last time, made even worse that I was doing it solo. This time I had a buddy over and everything went smoothly I'd just say I think you did ok, and 21 bottles seems pretty good.