Tips For Making Bottling Day Less Painful

[lucas]

after spending almost 4 hours today cleaning bottles then sanitising bottles then rinsing bottles, then sanatising and rinsing lids, then bulk priming, bottling and capping, I've decided its time to ask for everyone tips to make bottling day less of a pain in the ass.

ive seen bottle trees at my LHBS which ive decided would be a good investment. they also sell a little bowl thinger that goes on the top of the tree that squirts sanatiser/rinses bottles, anyone used one of these? do they do the job properly? i think it'd be $30 well spent in water savings alone if the result was the same as my current routine.

also, how important is scrubbing bottles with a bottle brush? is there a shortcut around having to do that?

oh, and one last thing; no posts saying "keg, its the only way". kegging is well out of reach of a poor uni student like myself

 

[barls]

i suggest rinsing the bottles when you empty them and for the stubborn ones use and alkali salt based cleaner and soak them the coopers bottle wash is good for this.

 

[Kai]

Rinse your bottles as you empty 'em and you'll almost never have to clean them on bottling day.

 

[johnno]

Hi lucas,
The best tip is to get into a routine. Also the more you do it the more shortcuts you find.

I have been bottling for nearly 3 years now and its a bit of a pain, but I really enjoy cracking a bottle open when its time to taste the beer.


Here is what I do.

Whenever I get new bottles i give them the BIG overnight soak. At least 12 hours. Even if they look clean.

I soak them in a bleach washing powder solution. If there are any very bad ones I give them the brush treatment while rinsing the next day and leave them to soak more. This is the longest stage in the process but only happens once.

I time this with a bottling episode so as soon as they are rinsed, I use them pretty much imediately.

Then, whenver I finish a bottle I try and give it a good rinse so no sediment is left. Doesn't matter if you misss one or two as you get them later.

So, that leaves my empties in the crate. When I next want to bottle this is what i do.


Take bottles in crate to laundry
Fill and 11 litre bucket with water and about 50-100 mls of bleach in the laundry tub
Take one bottle at a time and dip in buscket so you get about 50-200 mls in the bottle
Block with palm and shake so the mixture coats all of the inside of the bottle
Drain solution back into bucket
Do the same procedure 2-3 more times but with water and do not drain the water back into the bucket. You only need the same amount of water, no need to fill up the whole bottle.
Put in crate and when it is full take outside to bottle tree
Bottle the brew

Not much water is used like this at all.

I ususally clean about 40-50 bottles and then bottle the brew in about an hour and a half. Thats with cleaning/soaking fermenters as well.

Hope that helps a bit.

johnno







PS get a keg system

 

[Screwtop]

10,000 home brewers, 10,000 opinions. Here is how I do it.

I use pet bottles, after emptying each one it and the top are tripple rinsed and stacked upside down to drain in the dish draier. Next morning bottles are returned to the empties crate, lid screwed on, not tight to allow for temp changes/pressure adjustment and so the air inside can dry, but bugs can't get into the bottle.

I use Phos Acid (non rinse) sanitiser.
Day before bottling day: Take a fermenter tap out of bleach steriliser solution (I keep an ice cream container of solution made up in the brewery) fit a tap seal and spray the tap thread and hole thread in a fermenter with sanitser from spray bottle and screw in the tap. Spray the fermenter lid thread and seal seat with saitiser, spray the lid seal with saniiser and fit the lid seal. Spray a grommet and airlock with sanitiser and fit to lid. Spray 3 squirts of sanitiser into airlock.

Make up 3 litres of phos acid sanitiser and pour one litre into the fermenter, put in the racking hose replace the lid and give a good shake. Pour a small amount of sanitiser (50ml each) into 32 pet bottles, screw tops on, give a shake and return to crate. Leave overnight.

Bottling day: Remove pet bottle cap place into 2L jug and tip sanitiser out of bottle into jug, repeat for all bottles, placing each one on the bottle tree to drain. Tip sanitiser out of fermenter and allow fermenter and racking hose to drain for 20 min. Add boiled priming sugar/water liquid to the fermenter and rack the beer from the secondary vessel to the fermenter. Bottle using an aussie bottler, cap using the tops, give each a shake when removed from the jug of sanitiser solution. Record the brew number from Beersmith on the label.

Done, hassle free day.

 

[deebee]

Ditto... rinse three times with hot water after use, drain upside down and they are pretty right to refill. On bottling day I put about 6 litres of mild solution of no rinse sanitiser in a bucket and tip it into the bottles with a funnel and jug. Drain it back into the bucket and leave them upside down.

To drain them I drilled 42 holes about 60mm in a piece of MDF and put legs on it. Bottles sit upside down in the holes. It won't fall over like a bottle tree might.

Saves a bit of time if you bottle double batches. After bottling one batch, rack the second batch straight into the bottling vessel and bottle it, no need to re-sanitise.

Best time saver is to get a system that you do every time and can do quickly, but bottling is just a pain in the arse.

 

[Tony]

i rinse em as i drink em and give em a quick hit with a bit of boiling water from a jug just before i bottle to clean out the daddy long legs and crickets.

I then bulk prime and fill them and cap as i go.

Forget the "sanitising the caps" bit, waste of time in my books.

I have bottled beers into bottles with insects in them and green mould growing in them on purpose to see the effect and it did nothing.

just my opinion

cheers

 

[Screwtop]

I have bottled beers into bottles with insects in them and green mould growing in them

Mmmm Protien Shake

 

[Batz]

"Making Bottling Day Less Painful"

Easy

Kegs

Kegging 18 years!! Never bottle now , well for comps. only.

Hey and I bought 6 kegs delivered anywere in Australia $33.00 each !

Batz

 

[Stuster]

The one thing that made the actual beer into bottles part easy for me was to line up all the bottles, attach some hose to the tap and the little bottler to the other end of the hose, and fill all the bottles in one go. Then cap them all.

I totally agree with the wash as you go crowd. Also iodophor saves all the rinsing that you have to do with some other sanitisers.

 

[Doc]

"Making Bottling Day Less Painful"

Easy

Kegs

Kegging 18 years!! Never bottle now , well for comps. only.

I didn't want to be the first.

KEGS.

I wouldn't be still brewing if I was bottling.

Doc

 

[stephen]

I rinse the bottle three times as I empty them. After I collect several (6-12 or so) I then rinse with a no rinse sanitiser (I use 2.5 ml of Betadine to one liter of cold water) drain for 10 mminutes and then seal with a strip of glad wrap. Come bottling day, just simply remove gladwrap and go for it. No need for any more rinsing or sanitising. I have been doing this now for over twenty years.

Cheers

Steve

My bottle drying "tree"

 

[sm0902]

Bottle washing - this is my way ... until I can improve it:

1) Hot water rinse within a few days of consumption
2) Cold water rinse immediately following above
3) Let them sit (wherever)
4) On bottling day I fill all bottles from a tub with solution (Brigalow)
5) With brush (attached to cordless drill) I spend about 5 seconds or so on each bottle
6) Wait 30 minutes or so, then empty solution from all bottles
7) Fill with cold water and let sit
8) Empty and ready to go (smell check to ensure they smell like water/nothing).

 

[Darren]

No way to make it easier.
Kegging is the only way. Sanitising, filling, and capping bottles all take their time. Save some bickies and but two kegs. You will be able to spend your saved time studying.

cheers
Darren

 

[deadly]

get someone to help you - its twice as fast!

 

[Beerpig]

I find bottling theraputic

Good music, cold beer ................. not a care in the world

Cheers

 

[Trev]

Lucas,

That 'Push Down Thingy' does work.

I used to bottle, before I got into K..ging and used one of them. It really speeded everything up a lot.

I rinse the bottles a few times as soon as they're empty and store them upside down.

On brew day I would grab the number of bottles needed, use an Idophor solution in the push-down thing (I don't really know what to call it either) and give each bottle a few squirts and let it drain. They only really need the surface wet from the sanitiser solution after all.

Leave them for 20 minutes while you finish the brew. The Idophor does its job. Give the bottles another shake to get rid of the solution and fill.

Stuster's idea with the hose also works a treat and saves another load of time. Also filling all the bottles first and then capping them means that some CO2 comes out of solution and displaces the air left in the headspace of the bottle so helps to avoid oxidisation - I don't know if you can tell the difference in practice, but it seemed like a good idea at the time.

Trev

 

[WildaYeast]

Ditto on the push down thing and also the bottle rack. Have not regretted purchasing them at all.

I am good about rinsing after drinking, but have still been washing on bottling day. Might try just sanitizing... would save a lot of work and they are pretty much clean.

I have been washing in a 20L bucket. I load about 9 bottles in, run the brush through them and then drain them. I then load another 9 so they can soak while I rinse the first set. I have been working on improving the rinsing. I do this in the garage, so I'm using water from a hose. I've rigged up a "Y" fitting (1 to 2 hose splitter) that has an on/off valve. Mine is set up with a male quick disconnect fitting. This works pretty well as it gives me a stream of water that I can shoot up into the bottle while I am holding it upside down. Not bad -- saves time and water. Would like to have a push-type valve, so I don't have to turn it on/off and can just activate it by pressure from the bottle.

I do bottle all at once, and just place the cap loosely on top as I go. Then I come back and properly cap the lot.

My last thought would be about finding the "right" bottles. I searched for a bit and am quite happy with what I ended up with -- 500 ml green glass San Pelegrino bottles. The size is a good compromise between stubbies (too many) and tallies (too much beer to fit in glass -- fine if you have a friend, but...). I work near "Tedder Avenue" in Main Beach on the Gold Coast, which is littered with fancy restaurants. A few of them put these bottles of water out on all the tables. I simply hit the alleys in the mornings and found it very easy to build up a collection. Nice to clean -- not smelly -- but the labels took a bit of work.

I really like the shiny new stainless steel kegs that look like BBQ gas bottles, but not in the budget yet. Besides, there is something satisfying about a bottle...

Cheers, Brian

 

[peas_and_corn]

OK, I will join the crowd of people who gave their 2c on this question...

first, I get someone to help me. A couple of times I had two people help me, and that was fantastic (one cleaning, the other filling, the third capping). Also, it makes the bottling more of a social thing, rather than someons in a basement with the missus shouting "you still sulking down there??" Where was I?? Anyway, I let them drink however much homebrew as they want, and they provide me with their time. It's win/win.

As to my method... well, I go with the others on a lot of things. When I drink, I rinse out the bottles. Nothing extravagant, just putting a little bit of water in and shaking with my hand over the end.

When it comes to the big day, here's my method. I have one of those two-section sinks. I have the left one with hot water with brewer's detergent in it. The second has iodophor in it. I bottle brush the bottle with the detergent in it. Then I check to see if there is still yeast stuck to the bottom. If there is, I try again. If it doesn't work, I leave it on the window sill with a little bit of coke in it- that gets it off real easy if you give it about 10 minutes.

Then I give the bottles a bit of a soak and a shake around, before putting them onto the bottle tree. I will sanitise the bottle tops in my next bottled brew, just throw a bit of iodophor into the container you keep your caps in- it shouldn't be too much.

Cheers,

Dave

 

[muga]

I keg the beer, and bottle six stubbies that have been soaked in boiling water.

I always wash my bottles out with water directly after I have finished with them.