Lazy mans bottling

[JWB]

Im not normally lazy, thats why I bought a kegging system years ago, I got sick of cleaning and filling bottles, its one of the worst aspects of home brewing im sure?

It takes me about 25 minutes to fill a keg after sterilizing it over night with star san compared to about 2 hours cleaning bottles, sterilizing them and filling, putting the caps on and cleaning up afterwards.
My mate wants me to go to his shack in the Tassie Highlands :beerbang: in October so I brewed an Ale for the trip but the thought of bottling 60 plus stubbies got me wondering. :unsure:

I soaked the stubbies 24 at a time in a mild bleach solution over night, cleaned them of labels rinsed them and left them to dry. Next day I bottled the 24 stubbies and soaked another 24. Did the same the next day and so on.
Took four days to bottle them all but the time it took each day was only about 40 minutes or 3 glasses of my finest.

I know im going to get shot down about leaving a fermenter half full or less but by my reasoning is the alcohol in the beer will take care of any beasties sucked through the airlock while bottling on the first couple of days.

Anyway its all bottled and should be a good drop in three months time :super:

JWB


:super:

 

[antiphile]

Of course, JWB, there is another approach to bottling that works particularly well on double-volume brews. I like to bottle until I either:
(a) I run out of acompanying home brew to assist in the process (hasn't happened yet); or
(b) I can't see the empty prepared bottles anymore (this I blame on failing aged sight problems and not inebriation :blink: !)

Have a great trip to the coldlands. Oops, I mean highlands.

 

[Mutaneer]

find a no-rinse sanitiser and really cut down your bottling times
Here's my process

Wash bottles after use (hot water and food-grade detergent)
Hot Rinse Using a bottle-cleaner tap-attachment thingy.
then before sterilising,
cold rinse/ drain
then sterilise with a no rinse solution, 3-5 sprays, while rotating bottle, from a spray bottle.
I leave them to stand until i finish spraying all the bottles
then invert to drain
While draining I'll mix up my priming solution and transfer it and the brew into a clean fermenter and mix ready to bottle.