I have forgotten how good bottled hombrew is

[RabMaxwell]

Hello all i haven't bottled homebrew for probably about 10 years as i make too much beer & i am too lazy.But i bottled a cornie worth so i can have a supply of Themes Valley 3 yeast the draft stuff was good but the bottled stuff is amazing.The bottled stuff has retained so much more hop flavour why can't our draft stuff retain this flavour. I think i will have to make an effort to bottle more but i have thrown out most of my bottles & my two bottle cappers .I think i will need to save up some more brown bottles & that bench bottle capper in Chris's video look's the job

[Digby Swift]

If you make a highly hopped beer it really is a waste to keg it. I have recently got 240 bottles from 'beers of europe' so I can bottle a lot of my stuff. I'd echo what chris says about the bench cappers, they are so much better than wing cap or the disastrous hammer on ones. I carried on with the hammer one for ages before I realised there were the other types.

You can't beat the convenience of a corny but I keep them for my quick beers, anything special from now on gets bottled. I have tried quite a few things to keep the aroma in a corny but I think the answer is to just dry hop it.

[RabMaxwell]

You can't beat the convenience of a corny but I keep them for my quick beers, anything special from now on gets bottled. I have tried quite a few things to keep the aroma in a corny but I think the answer is to just dry hop it.

I have used huge amount's of finishing hops 80oc hop steeps huge hop-back additions in the past but the lovely hop flavour/aroma still largely fades pretty quick in the cornie at a huge cost in hops .I think you are right the best we can do is dry hop it.

[Scooby]

Rab Is it better just because of the hop flavour/aroma or in other ways? I don't bottle so can't really comment but I find most if not all commercial bottled beer including bottle conditioned, inferior to the cask version, why would home brew be the opposite? Maybe it's because it's in the cornie longer, but then how much better would the beer from a cask be if left longer to mature?

Like you I've tried hopbacks etc to get the most out of the hops and I'm currently very happy with the additional cost of late hopping/steeping, and in my attempt at Hop Head the hops remained dominant through to the end. I have dry hopped leaving them in, pulled them out etc and while they do add to the aroma I can't say I detected much in the way of flavour.

Maybe it's the American influence but beer isn't just about hops.

I'll stick some of my next brew in a pet bottle and see what it's like

[Digby Swift]

I think that it is the hop flavour/aroma which is better. I find it strange as I, like you, much prefer cask versions of commercial beer. I don't remember having a bottle conditioned beer where i've thought the carbonation is right, they're always way too fizzy for me.

I agree its not all about hops which is why I think that it depends on what you're bottling. It will be interesting to compare my stout in the corny and the bottle to see whether it benefits from the bottle. This has no late hopping and so should be a good coparison to see whether anything other than hops benefit.

My thinking is clouded about the issue of the flavour dissapearig in my cornies as I can see the thinking behind force carbonation and purging having an effect. I experienced something quite odd earlier on in the year in that a particular batch I was annoyed that I'd lost a lot of hop flavour from was put from a corny into a couple of pet bottle to take round a friends. One was drunk that night which was ok but the next day at lunch we had the second one and the hop aroma and flavour returned. This makes me think that it was carbonation that was too high direct from the corny, or perhaps a little bit of air which inevitably got in the bottle helped the hop flavour re-develop.

I keep my cornies at no greater than 5 psi, and at that time just room temperature, so its not as if they were heavily carbonated.

[RabMaxwell]

Rab Is it better just because of the hop flavour/aroma or in other ways? I don't bottle so can't really comment but I find most if not all commercial bottled beer including bottle conditioned, inferior to the cask version, why would home brew be the opposite? Maybe it's because it's in thecornie longer, but then how much better would the beer from a cask be if left longer to mature?

Hello Scooby i would say on the up side it has retained more hop flavour /aroma than the draft stuff.The down side the bottled stuff doesn't have the head retention that the draft has. I would say that i also filled a couple of Pet bottles & the glass bottles taste better than the Pet bottles. I have six cornies worth of Elderflower beer that i am going to keg today it tastes lovely from the fermenter
.I think with some Goldings dry hopped in the keg it will be great think a few bottles of this will go down well.

[Scooby]

Oh no! I'll have to use a glass bottle for my test then Rab

My latest brew is destined for beer engine dispense at a BBQ August bank hol, I'm going to purge but not set any pressure then with a week to go I'll check and decide if I need carbonation and set maybe 2-3psi for a few days, I'll have a glass bottle to compare

DS If by force carbonating you mean setting a low pressure and leaving as opposed to setting a high one and rolling the keg about (that's what I call force carbonation) then I don't see much difference as the bottle would quickly reach a similar pressure to the keg.


I've had a beer from my keg that tasted fantastic but the very next day was just ordinary, so beware the comparison you made with your bottle, I'm sure my beer wasn't on form one day and not the next but with many things to influence them my taste buds could have been. We've all said 'This is going down well'

[Digby Swift]

DS If by force carbonating you mean setting a low pressure and leaving as opposed to setting a high one and rolling the keg about (that's what I call force carbonation) then I don't see much difference as the bottle would quickly reach a similar pressure to the keg.

I was mainly thinking out loud about reasons people have suggested on here. I was talking about setting a low pressure and leaving, which is my usual practice, I have never done the other force carbonation. Perhaps I should revise my use of the term.

[Scooby]

DS If by force carbonating you mean setting a low pressure and leaving as opposed to setting a high one and rolling the keg about (that's what I call force carbonation) then I don't see much difference as the bottle would quickly reach a similar pressure to the keg.

I was mainly thinking out loud about reasons people have suggested on here. I was talking about setting a low pressure and leaving, which is my usual practice, I have never done the other force carbonation. Perhaps I should revise my use of the term.

I do the same as you

When force carbonation is mentioned I normally assume 'set and forget' but I have seen posts recently describing force carbonation by the rock and roll method so I thought it worth checking. I can't think of an appropriate term, it's not natural and normal would be confusing so please don't revise you terms on my account

[Digby Swift]

How about force carbonation for our method and bastardised carbonation for the set and shake method

[Invalid Stout]

It wasn't until I'd been brewing for several months and I drank a bottle of older homebrew where the priming sugar had completely fermented out making it very fizzy, that I understood how much of a difference carbonation levels make to the taste of beer. It also helped me appreciate that it's not Trappist beer I dislike, so much as the very high carbonation of them.

[mysterio]

I really like the red wing cappers, I find them really easy to use and never had a problem with them... Bench cappers look a bit unwieldy to me! For me the big PITA is sanitising all those bottles, disconnects, beer line etc!

I've taken to bottling a bit more than I used to, only one fridge so I need the beer out of there so I can get the next batch fermenting

The shake method of carbonation is barbarous, but if you like beer to taste like soda water then it is the way to go

[mysterio]

You know i'm talking about these things right



What's not quick about them ? Takes two seconds to place the cap on and push the arms down and you can cap anywhere you please

[garwatts]

Have you seen my bottling video, you can cap much quicker with a bench capper. They are best screwed down but I use it on non slip mat which is almost as good.

Just watched Chrids - my god you're quick. What were you bottling from? It looked like an 18 pint beer box?
My problem would be lifting my fermenter (25 litres plus) high enough to do it like that

[coatesg]

Takes two seconds to place the cap on and push the arms down and you can cap anywhere you please

But not cap anything you please - lots of bottles won't work in these cappers (Wychwood bottles and annoyingly the stubby Leffe bottles too) - pain in the bum unless you're careful to make sure the bottles you're refilling are compatible with your capper . I started using a bench capper and they will cap everything I have found so far - and I reckon you get a better finish on the cap too