Bottling is ruining my brewing mojo!

[MarkA]

The siphon tube I use has a hard, straight plastic tube at one end of about 10 inches in length, and saves having to worry about the siphon tube curling about in the beer either kicking up sediment or coming out of the liquid completely, making it a lot more controllable. A couple of sterilised plastic clothes pegs do the job to keep it all in place and a bottling wand makes light of the work the other end.

As for holding the fermenting bin at a 45 degree angle.......I wait until I've got a few pints left to go and a stick a margarine tub under one side of the base. It usually holds but I always have my spare hand hovering by it just in case it slips. No expense spared here

[BenB]

I've got bottling down to a fine art.

1) Bottling bucket with mini bottler
2) Vinator pump type thing

I set up the crate of cleaned bottles on the far left, next to it (by my side) a bucket of cold water then in front of me the vinator and then the bottling bucket. To my right I have a nice big desk (with the bench capper on it)

So whilst I'm filling the bottle with my right hand I can take a bottle out of the crate, stick it in the bucket of water to give it an extra rinse, take a previously dunked one out the bucket, give it a good couple of squirts on the vinator full of starsan and then let it drain. Then once the bottle is full of brew I put it on the desk, move the rinsed starsaned bottle to the right hand and repeat. Once they're all full I fill the vinator with crown caps, stick them all on the bottles then mass-cap them.

Moving to a single size bottle has been a good investment (no more adjusting the bench capper height).

Once in a rhythm with some music on it's quite pleasant. Other good thing is to have a head-torch on- makes the beer level in the bottle easier to check.

[Jocky]

Great tips from Orlando in that old thread.

My biggest tips are:

Get comfy while bottling
Setup with a chair where you can reach your stack of empties, the bottling bucket, and a clear area where you will leave bottles before they're capped. Then sit down and get to work.

Get your bottles clean in advance as Orlando says. My bottling brush, a small tub of PBW, a spray bottle full of starsan and bag of plastic caps are all by the kitchen sink:
1. After pouring a bottle I rinse with water and invert to dry.
2. When I have a few I put less than 1/4 tea spoon of PBW into each bottle, fill with hot water, give it a shake and leave for a few minutes.
3. Come back, give each one a quick brush, rinse with hot water once or twice and then invert to dry again.
4. Squirt starsan into each bottle (half a dozen squirts), cap and put into a box ready for my next bottling session.

I don't like siphons
I got annoyed with siphon tube flapping about everywhere while bottling, so now I use a bottling bucket with a tap on it.
The siphon is used for transferring from fermenter to bottling bucket. Previously I transferred from a fermenter with a tap, but found that unless it was a secondary that the tap would pick up too much sediment.

I also got annoyed with bottling wands. My first one didn't have a spring valve, and regularly got stuck open. I got one with a spring valve, which works great but is S-L-O-W to fill. So I now just use the tap on the bottling bucket with a 10" length of tube on it to fill the bottles and I just turn the tap on/off. Fills a bottle in about 6 seconds.

[LeeH]

I keg it, then use a beer gun.

Bottles and caps submersed in starsan.

My better half purges and fills, I cap and put them in the crate.

You can do a couple keg in no time at all.

Before that I used a wand which was easy and simple.

[TheSumOfAllBeers]

I am looking to put together a stainless bottling wand just for Gravity filling or low pressure filling from primary.

Amazing that there is no stainless version of the little bottler.

Hoping to link up a 3/8 stainless tube with a cheap ball valve, and connect that to some 1/2 tubing onto my racking arm.

Anyone know what parts I would need. The 3/8 tubing onto the ball valve seems the tricky bit

[WalesAles]

Love it! Love it!
Bottling on Sunday, same regime as my previous post!
MrsAles working so she will find me zonked in the garden again when she comes home.
If it is inclement weather I will be found zonked in the house.

WA

[Peatbogbrewer]

Love it! Love it!
Bottling on Sunday, same regime as my previous post!
MrsAles working so she will find me zonked in the garden again when she comes home.
If it is inclement weather I will be found zonked in the house.

WA

Im bottling next week, i have a bottling bucket with tap, a bottling wand and starsan! Boom!

[orlando]

Alternatively, bottling from a keg has a lot of advantages. I use a Pegas, black tap looking thing to the right.