First bottling - never again!

[beam beat]

Bloody hell, that took a while. In addition to the cleaning, sterilising, siphoning etc I had problems with putting caps on hobgoblin and bombardier bottles (admittedly I should have checked this first) and then my cheapo bottle capper from Wilkinsons started breaking on the first use - just managed to nurse it through to the end. Took about four hours all told, and a fair bit of mess.

I'm asking for a pressure barrel for Christmas.

btw, is there a preferred place to store the bottles while I wait for them to mature? light/dark? warm/cool?

[Andy]

Dark and warm (not the airing cupboard!) to start with (to allow the yeast to work on the priming sugars - assuming you used some). And then dark and cool after a few weeks.

[sandy115]

see norm for the cornies,you know you want to

[Pav]

oh cheers beam beat!!

having just set myself up with a 2nd bucket, bottle stick, bottle drainer and capper I am commited to bottling my current brew... or at least I should be. i hope I have better luck than you!

Still it will be well forgotton in 4 weeks.

[Jim]

Probably a bench capper would make life a lot easier.

[Ditch]

I'm with Jim on the Bench Capper. Not because I'm a crawly bum lick ( ) But because I too started off with bottles. Only, things being tight, I got myself one of those hand held things ye put over the cap and tap with a hammer.

Know what? I never did have a bottle break on me. Nor did a cap ever pop off or otherwise leak. But is was So 'trying'! I always dreamed of a nice, proper piece of kit, Bench Capper. Something made to take the job seriously.

In the end, I bought a Rota Keg instead. And That piece of crap was Really Trying!

[alefric]

If i bottle i use a twin lever capper......no probs on Taylors Landlord Bottles.......could take nearly a week to collect 40 though!!!

[beam beat]

I should take that piece of crap double lever capper back to Wilkinson - the half-rings that are meant to catch under the rim on the bottle neck buckled within a few minutes. I probably can't be arsed to chase it up but I would recommend other people avoid them.

I could get a better bottle capper, but the bottling would still take three hours I reckon, and while I don't have a job at the moment there are still things I could do with three hours that would be a lot more fun. And a keg will cost about the same as a good bottle capper I guess, so I'll probably just go for that.

Any advice on what to go for/avoid with a keg would be welcome

[alefric]

I have 5 King Keg bottom taps and up to press all have been reliable.

[BlackBag]

When I started brewing this summer I got myself an Emily capper. What a horrible time of it I had with the first few bottling sessions. But, like everything, once into a routine things now run a lot smoother. A simple tip I picked up on here was to sit on a firm chair, put the bottle between your legs, then cap. The bottle can't slide everywhere and the cap should go on a lot smoother. As you've now discovered some bottles don't lend themselves to well to a twin handled capper (Wychwood and Batemans being 2 examples), unfortunately this kind of discovery is usually made when the bottle is full of ale and you have no other bottles to hand. In the past I've got really frustrated and on a couple of occasions some beer has even mastered the art of flight. Easier said than done but it can pay to try out any new bottles before hand just to make sure they will cap. Some bottles though will always be a hit and miss affair, such as the J20 soft drink bottles which are ideal for TC. Most of these cap no problem but in every batch of bottling with these that I've done there's always been the one rogue one that no matter how carefully you do it, it just won't cap.
Even with all these niggles I still prefer bottling. If not for the simple fact that I can quite easily put a selection of my brews into the fridge ready for supping. With Christmas fast approaching a bottle of your delicately made elixir of life would make the perfect gift. A barrel of the stuff? Think of the cost of the wrapping paper!

[fivetide]

Swingtops

Cleaning and sanitising is still a bloody nightmare though.

[Darrinfella]

I guess I'm a bit of a sicko, but I enjoy bottling day. I'm in Australia, and I've set myself up in the shed with the essentials.
The whole washing/preparing thing IS a bit tedious, but it gives me an excuse to get away from the wife and kid for a couple of hours!
I very highly recommend a bench capper, on the right height bench. And a comfy chair. I've got a fridge full of previous brews within reach and a sturdy table for newly-bottled treasures. I just need a radio.
The process is Fill, add a Cooper's carbonation drop or two (depending on bottle size), squeeze the cap on, take a sip from a previous batch (appropriately chilled, of course), repeat. Fill, drop, cap, sip, repeat. Easy. Relaxing. Enjoyable.
The carbonation drops have got to be the easiest way to get the sugar into the bottle. I bottle with one of those valve tube thingy's, straight out of the fermenter, and the carbonation drops are little pellets of sugars that you just chuck in there. They disolve easily and there's no messing around with extra buckets and stuff. When the bottling's done, I wash out the fermenter straight away, and refill it to the brim with whatever sterilizing method I'm using at the time (usually bleach solution). Then it's usually time to slip into the warm spa with a few more cold ones and wait for the world to fade away into that fuzzy state of being.
Aaahhh.....I love bottling day....

[Prozac]

such as the J20 soft drink bottles which are ideal for TC.

I hope you're right fella...... J2o is a still drink so the bottles wouldn't have been specced to take internal pressure.

[Prozac]

Swingtops

Cleaning and sanitising is still a bloody nightmare though.

I agree re: the swingtops....... Grolsch bottles are the bollox .... my sister lives in Holland and has promised to bring me another 2 crates over at christmas

As for sanitizing.... after drinking the beer I rinse the bottles and then put an inch of sterilizing water in each bottle and either add the lid or cover them with clingfilm and give them a shake.


I just give them a quick dip and a rinse and that's it.

I think a bottle drainer tree doobry would seriously improve things.

As for the bottling and capping .... I can do it in under 30mins for a 5 gallon brew.
I use a 2nd FV ....


This makes the priming a piece of pish .....and a bottling stick really eases the bottling process.....



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

[chopperswookie]

can i just say thanks guys for this tread. i have always gone down the 2l pop bottle route because is easier but i do like a beer out of a glass bottle. i think there is nothing better than that initial pop,fizz. this thread has really got me thinking. the missus works in a pub so bottles would be no problem.