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Bottling
hello guys,
It seems like the longest and boringest part of making your own beer is preping the bottles. I meticulously wash each bottle with soap and water and a bottling brush, rinse, soak in bleach water and then blast with a jet blaster and hang on a bottle tree. I know that my bottles are good but it seems to eat up a whole morning just getting the bottles ready. Has anyone out there got a better way? I have tried mini kegs and kegging is not an option at this time so please stick to the fact that I will be bottle conditioning my beer.
Thanks in advance
hello randy,
On the cleaning part of the process:
it seems to me you probably spend a lot of time just rinsing to get soap and bleach residue out of the bottle. If you used a percarbonate based cleanser (like PBW, One-Step, etc.) your rinse time would be cut considerably. These work so well, you might not even need a brush. Then I would switch to a no-rinse sanitizer like Star-San or Iodophor--dunk the bottles in this sanitizer for the required time and drain it. Then you're ready to fill it.
On the filling end of the process:
My first approach was to use bigger bottles--16 oz, 22 oz, 32 oz. But then you need to concern yourself with possibly 'wasting' beer if you don't finish the serving in your bottle (and who wants to waste beer?) Consider using swing-top bottles instead of bottles that need to be capped as another time-saver.
Then I went to mini-kegs....the Party Pig to be specific. This worked for me for a while. The Pigs were easy to use once set up, and they're mobile, but the cost of the inflatable pouches add up--$4 each, one per pig per use. Additionally, removing the pouches once inflated to full size was a major PITA.
As a replacement I looked at the Tap-a-Draft and the 5L mini-kegs. I never went this route because I made the plunge into full kegging, but if hadn't I would've used the Tap-a-Draft. You'll have to buy the little CO2 canisters and, if you want more than one beer on tap, another tap head. Then you'll have the recurring cost of replacing the bottles probably every year.
So these were my thought processes as I remember them about 3 years ago. I know you said kegging isn't an option for you. But if space is the issue, have you considered the 2.5 or 3 gal corny kegs? They're half the size of a 5 gal corny and would keep your equipment footprint down by not requiring a large fridge.
all the best,
hello randy,
The mini kegs I was referring to was the 1.25 gal tin kegs. They are tough to clean and don't react too well to pressure. I have been told that they really were not designed for the homebrewer as the preasures generated by natural carbonation are too high. I can validate that statement as well as the deformed kegs I experienced mega foaming. I cut the priming sugars way down and still had the same problems so I went back to bottles.
I also own a party pig which worked pretty well except for getting the blatter to activate and the cost of the blatter. Removal wasn't much of a problem if you jab it with a sharp pointed object.
I appreciate all you info and will try the no rinse sanitizers to speed up the bottling process. My wife is the "official" bottle filler which helps
good bye
A very informative and useful topic it is to read and act upon on bottling .
All precautions and techniques are included !
if you rinse your bottles out well, immediately after they are finished being drained of drinkable beer, then you should not need such a thorough washing with a brush. if they are clean to begin with (or rinsed out at least) then, a simple dunk in either a very mild dish soap mixture, or a one step cleaner, like ryan mentioned should be enough, then rinse well. next add iodine to water in a bucket or your kettle, and dunk the bottles in there. after about 3-5 minutes pull them out, shake out the liquid as best you can, and prime. with iodine, you dont need to rinse, it is not harmful, and as long as you dont overiodine your water, you will not notice or taste anything. (there would only be a few drops of water left after you shake it out)
if your process is still too long for your tastes, i would wash one day, and then have perfectly clean bottles to quickly sterilize and prime for bottling another day.
I always rinse my bottle out ASAP with my jet washer and then hang them on my bottle tree. I have a Vinator Bottle Rinser that fits on top of my bottle tree. When it is time to bottle, I fill the Vinator with Star San, and then rinse each bottle with Star San by plunging the bottle onto the Vinator, then hang the bottles back on the bottle tree, whose "branches" have been sanitized with a spray bottle of Star San. Star San is no rinse. That is all there is to it, quick and easy.
The trick I learned about bottling was to wash the bottles out immediately after I used them, don't let anything sit where it can dry and get crusty or worse start growing something. Then the morning I am going to bottle, I load the dishwasher with the bottles, nothing else, and run it. I do use the sanitizing rinse, but pretty much if you let it go on the heated drying cycle, the heat will kill anything that will harm your beer. I have bottled every batch of beer I have ever made (untile I started kegging) and never once had a problem with contamination.
The process takes a bit of time for the dishwasher to run, but at least you can do something else during most of that time.
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