Bottling it! (with pictures)

A forum to discuss the various ways of getting beer into your glass.
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floydmeddler
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Re: Bottling it! (with pictures)

Post by floydmeddler » Thu Sep 16, 2010 10:23 pm

CrownCap wrote:
Should drink more wrote:I have a question about whether you can add finings to the beer at the same time as the priming sugars.

Will fined beer condition properly in the bottle or will it settle out too much and not ferment the primng sugar?
Its not recommended that you add finings when bottling. The resulting sediment will be unstable and likely to come out when you pour completely negating the whole point of fining in the first place.

I've not had a beer that I've bottled yet that has not settled out given sufficient time. By all mean add finings in the keg if you want quick results but not for bottles.
Alternatively...

I always rack to secondary for a week with gelatine then transfer my crystal clear beer to a bottling bucket, add priming sugar and bottle form there. Never ever any carbonation issues. A few of my brewer mates do this too with perfect results.

If you can't be bothered with a bottling bucket, add the priming sugar directly to bottles and bottle from secondary.

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CrownCap
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Re: Bottling it! (with pictures)

Post by CrownCap » Fri Sep 17, 2010 5:55 am

floydmeddler wrote:Alternatively...

I always rack to secondary for a week with gelatine then transfer my crystal clear beer to a bottling bucket, add priming sugar and bottle form there. Never ever any carbonation issues. A few of my brewer mates do this too with perfect results.

If you can't be bothered with a bottling bucket, add the priming sugar directly to bottles and bottle from secondary.
Must admit I did do similar to this when bottling my recent IPA - fine in secondary, leave a couple of days, transfer to bottling bucket with priming sugar.

However, as in the original question, fining and priming just before bottling is probably not such a good idea.
Next Up : Something for the summer
Primary : Nothing
Secondary / Conditioning : Nothing
Drinking : Mosaic IPA

Stomach
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Re: Bottling it! (with pictures)

Post by Stomach » Fri Sep 17, 2010 8:48 am

CrownCap wrote:I do them one box/crate at a time (12 bottles) as its convenient, but I wouldn't worry too much if you cap them all at the end.
Thats fantastic!

Cheers for that!

Matt

Fermenting:-
FV 1 - Festival Spiced Winter Ale
FV 2 - Empty
FV 3 - Empty
FV 4 - Ditches Stout

Drinking:-
Keg 1 - Nothing

Conditioning:-

Bottles - Brewferm Winter Ale
Bottles - Brewferm Triple

Next
Work in progress
Old Tin of Coopers Cerveza
Couple of old tins of stuff to experiment with!

Andris

Re: Bottling it! (with pictures)

Post by Andris » Sat Sep 25, 2010 6:39 pm

Here is my setup. I sanitize bottles in dishwasher.. Messy as usual - little bottler got sticky and clogged - pissed beer all over the place :D

I have rigged little bottler to beer line using some plastic tubing

Image

and, here is very satisfying result - 2 full crates and some little samplers :)

Image

Stomach
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Re: Bottling it! (with pictures)

Post by Stomach » Mon Sep 27, 2010 10:49 am

Well I bottled my Coopers IPA at the weekend!

Once I got used to the little bottler, it was a doddle with little mess! The cleaning and sterilising of almost 50 bottles was a bit of a ball ache and half way through I wondered if I would ever bottle again! Especially as it took quite a long time, but we do have a 4 week old baby so time at the moment is a premium!! That said, once I had all my bottled filled and capped, it was quite a satisfying sight!

They are now in a warm place (the nursery as our baby isnt inthere yet being so young!!) for a week and then off to somewhere cold to condition.

I am lookign forward to the result!

Cheers

Matt

Fermenting:-
FV 1 - Festival Spiced Winter Ale
FV 2 - Empty
FV 3 - Empty
FV 4 - Ditches Stout

Drinking:-
Keg 1 - Nothing

Conditioning:-

Bottles - Brewferm Winter Ale
Bottles - Brewferm Triple

Next
Work in progress
Old Tin of Coopers Cerveza
Couple of old tins of stuff to experiment with!

jarv

Re: Bottling it! (with pictures)

Post by jarv » Mon Oct 04, 2010 9:19 pm

Nice one CrownCap!
I might have to get a bottle tree?!

from teh pics looks like you didn't spill a drop!

CJBrew

Re: Bottling it! (with pictures)

Post by CJBrew » Tue Oct 05, 2010 1:29 pm

I hate my little bottler. It's a little bit broken but it always did get stuck and piss beer all over the place :evil:

I wish there was a better/more reliable solution but the only things I've really found that look like they'd work are commercial kit for £100s. Any suggestions?

Stomach
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Re: Bottling it! (with pictures)

Post by Stomach » Tue Oct 05, 2010 1:51 pm

CJBrew wrote:I hate my little bottler. It's a little bit broken but it always did get stuck and piss beer all over the place :evil:

I wish there was a better/more reliable solution but the only things I've really found that look like they'd work are commercial kit for £100s. Any suggestions?
Mine worked ok once I got the hang of it. I only probably lost 1/4 pint if that in a 'slop tray' which i tried! Get a new one and perservere!

My tip is while you are filling one bottle, get the next one ready with your other hand. Minimal drips then!

Fermenting:-
FV 1 - Festival Spiced Winter Ale
FV 2 - Empty
FV 3 - Empty
FV 4 - Ditches Stout

Drinking:-
Keg 1 - Nothing

Conditioning:-

Bottles - Brewferm Winter Ale
Bottles - Brewferm Triple

Next
Work in progress
Old Tin of Coopers Cerveza
Couple of old tins of stuff to experiment with!

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potatoes
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Location: Melbourne

Re: Bottling it! (with pictures)

Post by potatoes » Tue Oct 05, 2010 1:52 pm

Andris wrote:Here is my setup. I sanitize bottles in dishwasher..
Do you put bottles in the top of your dishwasher or just the bottom? I cant fit my bottles in the op of my dishwasher when facing downwards. Was wondering if that is a biggie?

Andris

Re: Bottling it! (with pictures)

Post by Andris » Wed Oct 06, 2010 10:22 pm

I can take out top shelf where I put spoons and have bottles on both shelves (I have 3 shelves - top is very small for spoons/etc) - this way I can load about 48 0.5l bottles.

I think if you put them upright, you will have to pour water out of them, thats about it, should not make too much difference as mine end up foggy and watery as well due overload - never stopped me from bottling :-)

As for pissing little bottlers - thats normal behaviour - mine end up that way as well closer to the end of the process - I think, its the sugar and malt in the beer that makes little valve in bottler sticky.

will try rinsing it in some sanitizer next time bottling to see if that helps.

CJBrew

Re: Bottling it! (with pictures)

Post by CJBrew » Thu Oct 07, 2010 12:47 pm

Andris wrote:As for pissing little bottlers - thats normal behaviour - mine end up that way as well closer to the end of the process - I think, its the sugar and malt in the beer that makes little valve in bottler sticky.
Well one of the two black sticky-out bits on the end of my little bottler has now completely broken off, it's been half-gone for quite a while.
I bottled last night without a pissing problem so perhaps that's the answer... ;-)

One technique that I think helps, is to have your bottling bucket raised up, and a ballvalve regulating the flow to a fairly slow rate. The bottler then attached to the tap via a 90' elbow so it hangs vertically and you raise the bottles to it.

I had a lot more trouble and mess when I used to syphon the beer while bottling (before fitting a valve to my bottling bucket).

boingy

Re: Bottling it! (with pictures)

Post by boingy » Thu Oct 07, 2010 12:56 pm

It's been many years since I have bottled whole batches but I used to syphon the beer in one continuous flow and just switch quickly between bottles without interruption. If you overlap the new bottle lip on the filling bottle lip you can switch the tubing across without any spillage or drips. No valves to get stuck. The biggest problem was arranging the bottles so you could reach all 40 without having to move.

The little bottler thing seems to be a bit of a marmite item.

deLaCuerva

Re: Bottling it! (with pictures)

Post by deLaCuerva » Tue Nov 02, 2010 9:47 pm

Image

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Last edited by deLaCuerva on Tue Nov 02, 2010 9:49 pm, edited 1 time in total.

deLaCuerva

Re: Bottling it! (with pictures)

Post by deLaCuerva » Tue Nov 02, 2010 9:48 pm

Image

Bayerd

Plastic Caps vs Crown Caps

Post by Bayerd » Fri Nov 05, 2010 12:54 am

I have bottled several brews now, always using the plastic reusable caps. I've now noticed that the young beer will have plenty of carbonation, but as the beer conditions, most of the carbonation diminishes. I'm guessing that this is probably because once the cap has been used once it never quite creates a completely air tight seal which allows the beer to flatten. There's never been off flavours, in fact the flavour improves as you'd expect, it's just the beer ends up pretty flat.

Would I get the same result if I swapped to crown caps, all other things being equal?

I should probably add that I don't bottle as much these days, but I'm planning on doing a Duvel type lager through the winter with conditioning until summer and a RIS with conditioning through to next winter. As you can imagine, after waiting patiently for a long period of time, I'll be pretty pissed off if they turn out flat.

Any ideas?

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