Third batch lessons

[m25wilson]

While bottling my third batch I have come to realize a few things.

1. I am way to impatient to wait while the auto siphon transfers the beer into the bottling bucket. What else can I do?

2. I either need different color caps for each beer or I need labels. I found this out the hard way as I took a drink of the American pilsner I was bottling instead of the ale that I was intending to drink!

3. You can never have enough refrigerators! The garage fridge that I have always had is now packed. And I have even purchased a second for lagering that one is full of carboys.

4. Kegging would solve almost all of my issues.

Just a few funny things that I have observed throughout this process. I had been thinking lately that I wanted to do a 10 gallon batch of a Belgian wheat since all of my equipment is big enough to accommodate that size( and belgian wheat is probably my favorite beer). After these things I think I will wait awhile before I venture into that. I now know that I am fully addicted to this though!

 

[A4J]

3. You can never have enough refrigerators! The garage fridge that I have always had is now packed. And I have even purchased a second for lagering that one is full of carboys.

ha! I was just thinking this earlier today. There are 4 fridges in my house (1 main one for the food, 1 in the garage for bottled beer, 1 mini-fridge in the kitchen for sodas and beverages and 1 keezer). I need another one for fermentation.

 

[BrewingRugger]

You will never feel that you have a big enough or enough refrigerators. I have one in the kitchen, one in the garage, a four tap keezer, and standing freezer. I am ready for a bigger keezer or maybe another refrigerator.

 

[bkorver]

Just buy a sharpie and write an initial or two on the top to remind you what is inside...

 

[nanofreak]

Sharpie on the cap or a piece of scotch tape. Unless you're gifting them labels are such a pain in the ass to keep cleaning off to change,

 

[unionrdr]

Auto siphons are fine,but I think spigots flow a tad faster. I like the red & white Italian spigots,as they have a recess on the spout to accomadate 3/8" tubing. Just right for atatching the bottling wand,or a racking tube.

 

[squirrelly]

I feel you on the lack of fermentation space. I just built a 5x5 walk-in cold storage unit to accommodate 10 conicals. For now that is enough room; we will see how long that works.

 

[maffewl]

Sharpie on the cap or a piece of scotch tape. Unless you're gifting them labels are such a pain in the ass to keep cleaning off to change,

I disagree. When I bottle, I use the milk method and just run hot water over the label while I'm rinsing the bottle out anyways after pouring it into a glass. The label slides right off. But if you don't want to create, print, etc. a label for every batch, sharpie is the way to go.

And yeah... kegs are the best by far.

 

[spokaniac]

I haven't tried it yet (bottling my first batch this weekend) but my friend says he uses glue sticks to attach his labels. They slide right off when rinsing the bottles and leave no residue. He also showed me a pretty cool site for making labels, beerlabelizer.com, which makes it pretty easy to design custom labels.

 

[A4J]

I use glue sticks. They stay on pretty good and you can actually peel them off without having to use water.

 

[RM-MN]

1. I am way to impatient to wait while the auto siphon transfers the beer into the bottling bucket. What else can I do?

This is the time when I sanitize bottles and boil some caps so they are pasteurized. I have learned to watch the spigot too since the time when I had it part way opened and spilled about a gallon of beer on the floor. Sometimes I even check out some posts on HomeBrewTalk.

 

[res291que]

I use avery 3/4" round ink jet printable labels can be found at any office supply. The ones I buy come 24 to a sheet so 2 sheets are just about perfect for 5 gallon batches, fit perfectly on the cap and no need to peel them off.