The pain of bottling

[gibovski]

I love brewing and drinking my beer. Bottling is the only downside. I use quite a bit of water and time in washing out 60 stubbies. I then have to rinse all the bottles to get rid of the bleach. Then I prime each bottle with a little funnel and a half tea spoon.(This stage is easy, theraputic and doesn't need improvement.) Then I put beer in each one and put the caps on. All up it is around a 3 hour operation.

I realise a bunch of you keg and bulk prime. I don't want to keg. I like beer in bottles and the priming isn't a source of trouble for me. i just want to know if people out there have some better techniques to speed up the process. Personally I fill around 20 stubbies at a time then cap the 20 I have. 20 is just the number I choose due to bench space.

Thoughts, Ideas, Improvements?

[wildschwein]

Yeah, I know the feeling but there really isn't a lot else you can do to cut down on the time factor if you use stubbies and you don't bulk prime. The only thing I can suggest is that you round yourself up some longnecks as it will cut your bottling and capping time in half.

I'm sure others here will think of something.

[kangarool]

last batch, i ran out of coopers carbonation drops halfway through, so had to pull out the sugar bowl and funnel... made it more unwieldy and felt less certain that I was going to get a consistent level of carbonation. We'll see in a couple months, but i won't forget to buy the little sugar pills next bottling time.

I share your concern with the water used, so to keep it at a minimum, I've plugged the drains and filled two sinks with water, then tipped in some of the Brewshield no-rinse sanitiser, and let the bottles sit in there while I then pull them out one by one, tipping the clean water back into the sink from the bottle. I made sure each bottle was full of water as it sat in the sink.

I know this isn't exactly how Brewshield is meant to be used, and no idea if this is effective but I can't see why it wouldn't be. It doesn't take that much I'm guessing.

[geebz]

I gave up home brewing about 5 years ago and just started again. Main reason we gave up was because of the bottling, capping cleaning etc.

Using PET bottles and carb drops definantly speeds up the process. Using tallies instead of stubs will cut your time by half.

[DJ]

longnecks and using no rinse santiser...

Takes me just over an hour..

[Toam]

I used to use bleach for cleaning bottles, now I use a sanitiser and I find that it is a fuckload easier to rinse the bottles (takes a lot less water).

[rwh]

Yeah I use idophor. I rinse the bottles after I drink the beer, so they don't need cleaning, just sanitising. I make up some idophor solution, tip a bit in each bottle, say 100mL, then shake them up so the idophor touches all the inner surface, leave for a few minutes, then tip out and reuse the idophor for the next batch of bottles. Then I put about 100mL of water in each bottle. Then I sit down with my bulk-primed fermenter of beer, and tip the water out of each bottle with my right hand as I'm filling the previous bottle with my left. All this water goes into a bucket which also serves to catch any drips of beer. Then I wash my car or water my garden with the water, as it's grey water and not governed by water restrictions.

[rg013]

I am also always thinking of new ways to cut the bottling time down. I use longies but still find it a laborious task. I am experiementing with 2 ways to cut down time:

1. Employing my 5 year old son - He fills the bottles then I cap them and crate them. He fills one in about the same time it takes me to cap and crate the previous one then prime the next empty. It not only cuts down time but at 5 years old he doesn't demand a share of the batch at the end!

2. Bringing the beer to the bottles - I have bought a length of clear food grade hose that fits over the tap and the bottle filler goes into the other end. I then prime the bottles still in the crate and then just put the bottle filler inside each bottle one after the other, putting the caps losely on with the other hand. At the end I have 30 longnecks filled with caps on and can then seal caps on one go.

Hope this helps.

rg

[dragonphoenix73]

My mum has a restaurant and I thought, "great! a source of free bottles!"

Stubbies, mind you. And most of them screw-top.....

Eventually managed to get together 60 Asahi and Stellas, which are nice clean bottles with no stamps and pop-top.

But I had to clean these buggers (cafe junkees like to drop their ciggy butts into their empties), get rid of the bloody labels, and then sanitise for bottling.

Well yes they were free - but this time around I went back to the HBS and bought some longies. Quicker, easier, less water (and less caps too).

I too am stuck with the water-saving dilemma. Other than pouring into grey water, what else can we do? I'm not sure how good sanitiser is for the vegies anyway....

I saw some kind of device at a HBS that claimed to save water. Looked like you stuck the bottle on it, and then water is squirted up into it. Anyone know of this, or how effective it is?

[rwh]

That'd be a bottle rinser, I've used one at a friend's house. If you use a no-rinse sanitiser like idophor, you can theoretically just squirt the inside of the bottles, drain them on a bottle tree or whatever, and then bottle straight into them. That would be an extremely low-water option. Easy, too.

[earle]

Takes me just less than an hour to bottle into stubbies, including a clean up of the fermenter.

I rinse the bottles well with hot water after I drink them or the next day. I use a bottle tree and the washer that sits in the top. Three squirts of the water with bottle cleaner in it into each bottle and drain on the tree. I use the little H shaped sugar dispenser as I take the bottle from the tree and set up 8 bottles next to the fermenter, these then all get filled and then capped. Inverted a couple of times as i take the couple of steps to the box.

Haven't been able to cut the time any further though. Bulk priming would save maybe a few minutes all up IMO.

Earle

[Emo]

I use a no rinse steraliser, carbo drops and PET bottles.

[Danis]

Yeah, I use the bottle rinser/sprayer thingy with the bottle tree. Brilliant - highly recommended.

[Boonie]

I am also always thinking of new ways to cut the bottling time down. I use longies but still find it a laborious task. I am experiementing with 2 ways to cut down time:

1. Employing my 5 year old son - He fills the bottles then I cap them and crate them. He fills one in about the same time it takes me to cap and crate the previous one then prime the next empty. It not only cuts down time but at 5 years old he doesn't demand a share of the batch at the end!

2. Bringing the beer to the bottles - I have bought a length of clear food grade hose that fits over the tap and the bottle filler goes into the other end. I then prime the bottles still in the crate and then just put the bottle filler inside each bottle one after the other, putting the caps losely on with the other hand. At the end I have 30 longnecks filled with caps on and can then seal caps on one go.

Hope this helps.

rg

I am the same, my son helps me sometimes

I also do the bulk prime with the hose for the bottles, it is easy for me and my son does not have to hold the weight as I have the bottles lined up. I cap as we go.

As for sterilising, I use neopink, about 2 litres and I funnell 20ml approx into longies reuse for last 10 and fill half way with fresh water, shake and pour into buckets for lawn. (Wont need that today with 250+mm of rain in Newcastle, it's a bloody cyclone!!!!)

Takes me under an hour per batch and the next batch, which is usually straight after, only takes me 30 minutes as I am alraedy prepared.

I do have a picture on here with the bottles lined up. I think it is in the sugar cubes thread..........I'll check in a sec.

Hope this is helpful,

Found it http://www.homebrewandbeer.com/forum/vi ... 0&start=20

Oh its also the pics for Bulk Priming

Cheers

Boonie

[mikey]

My question is - why do you sterilise your bottles?

If you rinse them properly after drinking and then drain them properly you should not need to sterilise and waste water. The wild yeasts and other bacteris need wet conditions in which to hide so if you follow those simple precautions there should be no problem.

I store my bottles in broccoli containers lying on their side so no junk gets in.

I have not sterilised my fermenter or bottles for over a year and a half and have never had one stubbie let alone a brew infected (I have made around 40 brews in that time). I strongly recommend you do yourself, your wallet and more importantly the environment a break by not sterilising.

[blandy]

Here's a list of the stuff I use while bottleing. I don't think you could get faster unless you kegged (or didn't sanitise, which I don't want to do)

- fermenter for bulk priming
- racking cane

- bottle washer (like rwh mentioned)
- iodophor
- spray bottle

- bottle drying tree (not necissary with iodophor, but veryb handy)

total water consumption: 1.5L sanitising (1L for the bottles, 500mL sprayed on the cane and fermenter)
4-5L rinsing stuff afterwards (this goes on the garden)

[Phantom]

I have never done anything other than rinse the botles after using and then storing upside down in a show rack, then re bottle as required. Never had a dud bottle yet even after a couple of years but about to start kegging so will only use a few bottles to use up the extra after kegging.

Phantom

[Boonie]

I steralise as I found a cockie in a bottle once. The cockies come from the sewer..............gross.

I am certainly not anal when it comes to cleaning but cockroaches do like to "wander" and search.

My Father in Law has a great way of catching cockies, he leaves his cans outside when finished and after a day or two, he always has one stuck in his can.

I steralise as I cannot stand the thought of faecal matter crawling through my beer..........bottoms up

Cheers

Boonie

[Link]

Rinse after drinking, then sanitise with iodophor, bottle tree with bottle rinser (the squirty thing on top). I don't really wash the bottles, just the rinse after drinking, then sanitise. The bottle rinser takes about a litre of water to do the lot. Then they sit on the tree draining for about half an hour and in goes the beer.

Probably as easy and water wise as you'd get - other than sanitising with heat (like in the oven) instead. I know a couple of people who do this, but I prefer my way.

[blandy]

I'd question the enviromental benefits of heat sanitising vs liquid. Energy's just as important as water.