AG#1 - Bottling

[Paddy]

Last Monday I bottled my first brew using the kit I bought from Big Dave (Thanks Dave). It's a Timothy Taylor Landlord clone and brew day was pretty straight forward, bottling was without doubt the biggest faff known to man! I know it's early but I cracked a bottle open last night to sample....to summarise, it looks very cloudy and is flat as a pancake...but tastes great! Is this what I should expect after 4 days in the bottle?

Before bottling I dissolved 20g of Demarera sugar and 60g of spray malt into 120g of boiling water and pitched this into the fresh fermenting bucket which I used for bottling. Have I done the right thing?

Cheers Paddy.

[Rick_UK]

4 days isn't long enough for it to carbonate really. I often sample after 10 days and it usually nearly there with regards to clarity and carbonation. 3 weeks and it should be fine.

20g of sugar and 60g of DME would likely give a light carbonation (assuming a 5 gallon brew length). I used 200g of DME in my last bottled beer and it is only slightly more than lightly carbonated.

Rick

[Spud395]

It depends on the temperature you've stored the bottles at.
Was there any fizz of gas when you took the cap off?
I've often had a dissapointing 1st bottle after a few days, but there's allways some gas present.
That will give quite low carbonation as has been said.
I normally use 80-120g of cane sugar which is more fermentable than DME, I think using DME is unnessary at this point in the process and wont effect the taste or body in any noticable way.

[leewink]

Congrats firstly

4 days is a very small amount of time to leave it, I would say leave it for at least 2 weeks to age a bit and to reach full carbonation, then personally i'd (try) to leave it a month in total.

Personally, i use bottling sugar only, you can use just ya ordinary tate and lyle if you like its down to taste and preferrence.

Bottling can be a royal one yes, but i'm a slow drinker, so to me, its better, takes me the same time to bottle a batch what with sanitising and washing, much the same as a brewday itself

its all good, lee

[Sandybee]

Like leewink I don't get through the beer quickly enough to put it in a cask. I use a bottling stick and I don't find bottling that much of a chore. As has been said many times before, if you can get in to the habit of rinsing your bottles immediately after you pour a beer, you'll find that sanitising them prior to bottling is not that much of a pain either.

Well done on your first AG brew - you won't be using kits once you've tasted a good AG brew.

[leewink]

Hi sandy, I dont go through it either hence I bottle, same again with a bottling stick on the end of my syphon tube, and agreed I always soapy soak/rinse them "wet" straight after use.

Although, I repeat the soapy rinse before sanitising too, I suppose from complete start of getting the box of bottles down, to storing the "fulls" would be about 4-4.5hrs for me, that is with all the washdown and store of the fermenter and other bits to.

I have done a good 8 or so brews now, and my systems I use make the optimum of the time involved all through the processes.

I wouldnt say bottling is a killer in the process though, a PIA is an "ickle" whinge thats all LOL.

Brew on, Lee

[Spud395]

I have it down to a fine art now.
From empty unsanatised bottles to full sanitised, capped and packed away bottles witheverything cleaned up in under 2 hours, for a 5 gallon brew.
This is without using starsan which I'm told reduces the time a lot.
Find a system and use a bottling stick.

By the way I'm used to piece work and am allways looking for quicker ways to get work done

[Beer O'Clock]

"Bottling is just part of the process".

I have used the expression many times on Jim's as I don't see a problem with bottling. I bottle all my brews.

There are things you can do to make your life easier.
Like;
*Always rinse straight after pooring the contents
*Give them a squirt with StarSan
*Put on plastic stopper.

On the day;
*Use a bottle tree
*Establish a 'work station' - arrange the area so that you don't have to bend or double back on yourself too much. Try to get a 'flow' going
*Use a Little Bottler (bottle stick)
*Get a bench capper
*Try to bottle in batches of similar sized bottles (so you don't have to keep adjusting the height of the capper).

Start to finish (including the pedantic cleaning of ALL the gear including FV) it takes me under 2 hours. This leaves me ready to fill my FV with more stuff to turn into beer.

[Naich]

My top bottling tip: steralise in the oven. Give them a good clean (using a Crudstick if necessary), then when they have drained, seal them with silver foil and bake them in the oven at 170C for an hour. Make sure they have cooled to handling temperature before removing. If you don't remove the foil they will stay steralised until you need them. Our bog standard oven can take 20 bottles at a time, so it only takes a few hours to steralise 40 bottles and you can put your feet up and watch TV while you are doing it.

[Rick_UK]

I can usually bottle a batch in under 2 hours providing the bottles were rinsed last time they were emptied. My bottle sterilising process is as follows:

1 - fill sink with warm water and bleach, bottles on the side ready.
2 - bottle in each hand submerge in the water turning as they fill up.
3 - tip them out leaving an inch or so of water/bleach in each bottle
4 - starting with the first ones sterilised shake the fluid in each bottle tip down the now empty sink - 2 at a time
5 - the tricky bit! Bottle in each hand fill one with cold tap water and while tipping the water out have the other filling up while tipping this one out put the now empty one on the side and start filling the next one with water. The idea being that each hand is always working the process and never idle.

I have done some business process re-engineering at work before, can you tell!

Like the oven idea. Is there any need to clean first if they were well rinsed after the last use?

Rick

[Spud395]

Very like my technique Rick, keep both hands busy.
If I could figure a way of using my feet to speed things up I would

I'm with you on the wash after use and then they're fine for sanatising come bottling time!

[trucker5774]

As everyone has said.........4 days isn't long. About a week at 20C should see you on your way. I would stick with normal white sugar for priming. 80g for ale up to 160g for lager (or your preference.)
I use a spare FV full of bleach for sanitising then rinse ........start to finish using a bottling stick about 90 mins.

[Paddy]

Thanks for all the advice on bottling I'll be using it all for the next batch (planning a stout for #2). Ordered a botling stick today...I think I'll save at least 30 mins with that alone.

Spud365, to answer your question there was a slight fizz when the bottle was opened. I suspect with time it will come good, but you know what it's like..curiosity!

Thanks again.

[deanrpwaacs]

Rinse bottles first , then i use an Avvintor Bottle Washer with star san 3 pumps , put on bottle tree , put in crate and add 1/2 tsp sugar , then bottle with little bottler and cap . Simples .