Bottling it! (with pictures)

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CrownCap
Hollow Legs
Posts: 476
Joined: Fri Jun 15, 2007 8:17 am
Location: Crawley, West Sussex

Re: Bottling it! (with pictures)

Post by CrownCap » Fri Nov 05, 2010 6:51 am

Use crown caps for anything at high pressure or to be kept for a long time.

As you say, it likely that the plastic caps stretch a bit after first use and so may not seal as well. Also, being polyethylene (i'm guessing they are) they will allow slow gas exchange through them that will slowly loose the pressure and then potentially allow oxygen in. A friend of mine had been using plastic caps and was getting the odd off bottle after a couple of months. He's now switched to crown caps and is getting much more consistent and stable results when bottling.
Next Up : Something for the summer
Primary : Nothing
Secondary / Conditioning : Nothing
Drinking : Mosaic IPA

Bayerd

Re: Bottling it! (with pictures)

Post by Bayerd » Fri Nov 05, 2010 11:18 am

Great, that'll do for me!

mdex

Re: Bottling it! (with pictures)

Post by mdex » Fri Nov 05, 2010 1:36 pm

Just bottled my first full 23l batch for a long while yesterday. No problems just all the hassle of cleaning/sanitising the bottles.

Have a bottle tree, bench capper and a bottle filler which makes it a lot easier.

Have been looking at the beer gun as i'm planning on bottling a lot more but £60 sounds like a lot of money.

Andris

Re: Bottling it! (with pictures)

Post by Andris » Tue Dec 07, 2010 7:54 pm

well, I discovered non-rinse sanitizer (starsan). when you start to recycle bottles, they come clean and need mebbe slight rinse and sanitation, I have invested in bottle rinser (one where you put liquid in and push bottle down the nozzle and liquid from jar goes in) and bottle tree - to sanitize 45 bottles, caps and all takes about 15 minutes tops. I have to say that lately I became really lazy and stopped transferring beer into bottling bucket - I cold crash my brews for few days in garage prior to bottling and bottle directly from fermenter (yea, got tap drilled in). So, all and all, I can manage whole process from clean kitchen to clean kitchen in about one and half hour.

NIL

Re: Bottling it! (with pictures)

Post by NIL » Fri Jan 07, 2011 7:32 pm

Hey guys, newbie to the forum and brewing. Happy New Beer, etc

I'm sure you get these kind of posts quite often but I have had a read through various posts and haven't found an answer to what you guys are likely going to think are some fairly stupid questions.

I got a kit for christmas, pleased as punch, but I didn't know what I was in for and like most guys I start following the instructions without having read them through already... stupid I know.. This is when I happen upon having to measure the gravity of the wort before adding the yeast, obviously this threw me a little (I honestly thought it would be a case of adding some water to some mixture, leaving it for a few weeks than scoop it out, I know..) so I just chucked in all of the yeast and what not and leaves it to brew. Anyhow, I think I'm reaching another critical stage (albeit without having the correct equipment to tell) after reading elsewhere about a brew that had taken nine days. I'm about this stage now and I'm likely about to do something very stupid, but before I do I thought one of you brewers might have some tips for; being able to tell when it is ready to be bottled and how to bottle, whilst buying as little as possible?

Hey it's a recession, and I thought this was going to be easy!

Geezah

Re: Bottling it! (with pictures)

Post by Geezah » Fri Jan 07, 2011 9:04 pm

When your hydrometer is giving you the same reading over 2-3 days and it's below 1014 your ready to bottle/keg your beer.
If you dont habe a hydrometer, get one, they are only £2-3
Otherwise, you take your chances bottling up and creating potential bombs!

NIL

Re: Bottling it! (with pictures)

Post by NIL » Fri Jan 07, 2011 11:09 pm

cheers yeah, just found one for £2.59... with £7 postage!

Is it very unwise to just use any old bottles I've collected, cleaned of course?

Geezah

Re: Bottling it! (with pictures)

Post by Geezah » Fri Jan 07, 2011 11:49 pm

Try http://www.thethriftyshopper.co.uk/
get another kit and some malt also, to offset the postage cost (or spend over £40 for free delivery- trust me you soon will)

I get bottles from local pubs (usualy try to get Magners bottles) and they are quite happy to save them for me (landlord usually asks for a sample, which is ok, cause you get some good feedback)

Magners bottles have been good for everything I have bottled so far (incuding lagers and ciders- which like extra co2 levels)

I wash all my kit with Soda Crystals (available in all supermarkets cheap as chips) and sanitise all my kit with Lidl thin bleach @ 1/2 a cup per 20 litres - 70p per 5 litre tub.

NIL

Re: Bottling it! (with pictures)

Post by NIL » Sat Jan 08, 2011 3:17 pm

Cheers mate, I never thought of asking at my local for their empties!

kebabman
Piss Artist
Posts: 284
Joined: Thu Jun 24, 2010 8:36 am

Re: Bottling it! (with pictures)

Post by kebabman » Sat Jan 08, 2011 6:05 pm

I think Wilkinsons sell hydrometers, if you have one near to you.

ash1

Re: Bottling it! (with pictures)

Post by ash1 » Sat May 28, 2011 12:35 pm

hi , could i use my keg instead of a second fv? i want to do some larger for christmas and got loads of bottles from work, if its not too much of a pain i think i will start collecting some more bottles so i can have a rolling stock, any one recomend a larger kit ? i was thinking a coopers as the ipa from them was really good

Simon7

Re: Bottling it! (with pictures)

Post by Simon7 » Sat May 28, 2011 9:55 pm

ash1 wrote:hi , could i use my keg instead of a second fv?
Yeah your keg will do the same job as a second FV.
ash1 wrote: any one recomend a larger kit ? i was thinking a coopers as the ipa from them was really good
I can heartily recommend the Coopers Cerveza. I am currently supping the stuff, made with a vodka lime extract (found the idea for this on this site somewhere) but you've already narrowed it down to a Coopers so you can't go wrong whichever you choose :)

Jabberrwocky

Re: Bottling it! (with pictures)

Post by Jabberrwocky » Sun May 29, 2011 3:34 pm

MIght want to try using milk instead of PVA glue to stick the labels on. Holds 'em firm, but washes off easily when you want to rinse the bottle :D

Barnsley_Brewer

Re: Bottling it! (with pictures)

Post by Barnsley_Brewer » Mon May 30, 2011 11:00 am

You could even use a thick mix of cornflour and water, rather than milk as that won't smell once it's dried and will soak off the
bottles no problem !...

Did I miss where the bales come from ?

Cheers

undeadjed

Re: Bottling it! (with pictures)

Post by undeadjed » Tue Jul 26, 2011 10:42 am

ash1 wrote:could i use my keg instead of a second fv?
If thats the case can you just leave it in the keg without a second ferment into bottles or another keg?Sorry for noob question :D

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