bottle draining

[pongobilly]

unless i spend £15 on a bottle tree how do people drain and dry there steralised bottles, and are these bottle washers any good

[oxford brewer]

I normally sit the bottles on the radiator to dry out for 20-30 minutes before i bottle!

[tubby_shaw]

Why drain?

I rinse half the batch then cover with a Jay-Cloth that has been soaked in sanitiser and wrung out. A few droplets of water wont hurt and if i've use iodophor I rinse with a weaker solution.
I find if you let bottles stand up right any remaining water collects down at the bottom of the bottles which can be poured out just before filling.

You took the words out of my mouth DaaB
What you have described is exactly how I work minus the J-Cloth.
I line up ready for filling with the sterilised caps loosely on the bottles

[pongobilly]

how many bottle do you normally fill when making a 40 pint kit, because surely you must lose some during racking, and what is best glass or pet bottles and can you re use the metal crown caps for the glass bottles

[The Cardinal]

This is something I can't understand: my latest '40' pint kit was made up as follows:-

- Approximately 2 pints of the syrupy stuff
- Add 6 pints of boiling water
- Top up with 31 pints of cold water
- Total.....39 pints of liquid.

And YET....when I come to bottle, I filled and capped 41 bottles, and had I risked using the increasingly yeasty mix at the bottom I reckon I could've gotten a couple more! A mystery to me where the extra liquid comes from, I can only conclude it's Yeast Wee (!)

[Immy's Dad]

Your bottles would be 500ml.

A pint is 568ml.

Just a guess.......................

[Garth]

39 pints = 22 litres, and you're probably using only 500ml bottles not pint ones, (eg Newky Brown)

22 litres = 44 500ml bottles so that's probably where the extra is coming from

22 litres = 38 pint (568ml) bottles

I try to use pint bottles rather than 500ml ones as it's a few less to clean/sterilise/fill/cap. and because bottling is sooo bloody tedious it saves a few minutes.

[pongobilly]

good guess

[ColinKeb]

whenever i think back to when i used to bottle i get palpitations and a cold sweat. i admire those that have the patience and shoulder muscles though

[Garth]

'tis a pain in the ass

[ColinKeb]

i think the worst point is when you are faced with 40 bottles all needing steralising , rinsing and filling. and just to send the missus into nag factor 9, after youve soaked the kitchen floor you have to pour 40 teaspoons of sugar into them. most of which ends up on the floor to add that sticky slap to ones step . nope not for me again

[prodigal2]

I find using 6or 7 PET 2lt bottles reduces the pain and a selection of 250ml 330ml and 500ml bottles cleaned as DaaB does.

The only pain I have is having to pour the 2lt bottles into a jug so I dont get yeast in suspension in my beer. I do harvest the yeast at the bottom of the bottle (well waste not want not).