First bottling - never again!

[Oggy' Bar]

I'm asking for a pressure barrel for Christmas.

My advice as a tight arsed cheapskate...Don't bother with the barrel...they're OK, but by the time you've splashed out for the S30v/vs and several HB cylinders and ruined a few brews because the lid seal leaks...you might just as well have bought a cornie from Norm £30, a beer font off e-bay £5 and hired some pub gas £10 for 6 months (or 12 months if you don't leave it on leaking)

Take it from me..you will do this eventually...so why not just cut out the barrel

P.S and why stop at ONE

[craigmtc]

Oggy Bar

The Corni's are 4 Gallon and mosdt kits are 5 gallon. Is that right. Also howo do you keep them chilled?

Cheers

Craig

[Dill]

As always, you can make do, but having the right kit really helps.
And filtering out the shite bottles makes a huge difference.

Isn't your tap a little high in your bucket?

[Oggy' Bar]

Oggy Bar

The Corni's are 4 Gallon and mosdt kits are 5 gallon. Is that right. Also howo do you keep them chilled?
Cheers Craig

Sorry, caigmtc...I though you were doing all grain which of course you can tailor to your keg size. You can of course do this with a kit (making a stronger brew) or you can fill a few bottles with the gallon that is left.

As for keeping it cool, then you have 2 options...An old fridge or freezer in which to keep your cornie or a beer chiller. Fridges/freezers you can get for nowt. Beer chillers I guess are likely to make the set-up more expensive (usually around £50-70 unless you're lucky)

I concede that the above does make thinks a bit more cumbersome.

[Prozac]

As always, you can make do, but having the right kit really helps.
And filtering out the shite bottles makes a huge difference.

Isn't your tap a little high in your bucket?

Yeah thanks.... I figured that out on the first bottling.... I didn't want the bottom of the tap lower than the bottom of the bucket.

I over come it with a Jug......

[Pav]

I agree bottle choice has a big effect.
The Wilco Youngs Capper worked well on most bottles I used. See the sticky for details!

[True Amateur]

Just bottled my first extract, and was quite happy with my hammer/capper. Completely agree about Hobgoblin bottles, out of the 30 bottles I used every single one appart from the Hobgoblin successfully but on the first tap the hobgoblin broke and nearly a pint of lovely barley wine slipped down the sink...