Bottle cleaning...What a Kerfuffle

[hookylover]

Well, last night came the time to bottle up my second brew, a Midas Gold. Had the usual Muntons issue of a stuck ferment at 1020 even using SO4 yeast so took my LHBS advice and roused the yeast and lifted the temp to 27degrees. It now has fermented out to 1016 and been stable for a few days so I decided that I would bottle it up last night.

I had been collecting bottle for the past 6 weeks and had a selection of mainly Adnams Broadside, a few Cobra 660ml's and a few others. I had rinsed these out after opening them and supping the contents and placed them on a shelf in the utility room to await their use. So, last night I took them to the sink and filled a plastic storage box with hot water and mild bleach and submerged the bottles for 30 mins. I came back and found to my horror that there were one or two mould blobs that had risen to the surface having been sat in one or two of the bottles. I set to with a bottle brush and gave each one a good plunge and scrub with the brush before draining everything and refilling the container with a good striong solution of VWP. I submerged the bottles for a further 30 minutes followed by another good plunging with the bottle brush. Drained again then gave each bottle a good rinse and left to drain on the bottle tree.

Transferred the wort over to a second FV with 80g of light spray malt in the bottom and attached the bottling stick to the tap and filled the bottles. Sterilised the crown caps and sealed all the bottles. Started this all at 1900 and sat down to a pint of well earned Wherry at 2310, me thinks a second King Keg is required cos that was hard work.

Anyone got any advice how to speed this up, how to store bottles between use to reduce the sanitising time etc. No need to suggest cornies, that will come if (when ) I go over to AG.

cheers

Nigel

[Paddy Bubbles]

Well, last night came the time to bottle up my second brew, a Midas Gold. Had the usual Muntons issue of a stuck ferment at 1020 even using SO4 yeast so took my LHBS advice and roused the yeast and lifted the temp to 27degrees.

Nigel, I did a Muntons for my first kit and it stressed me out! Get yourself a Coopers kit and a kg of spraymalt for your next batch. You won't be disappointed. Ferments like a dream.

I came back and found to my horror that there were one or two mould blobs that had risen to the surface having been sat in one or two of the bottles. I set to with a bottle brush and gave each one a good plunge and scrub with the brush before draining everything and refilling the container with a good striong solution of VWP.

You need to be more fastidious about cleaning your bottles. If there was mold on the bottles there was obviously some sticky leftover beer on them.

that was hard work.
Anyone got any advice how to speed this up

Have a drink beforehand... I'm serious. A couple of bottles before you started bottling makes what is a bit of a tedious process, a lot more enjoyable.

On a practical note, invest in a bottle of StarSan - a no-rinse sanitiser. Will speed up your bottling day considerably.

[GrowlingDogBeer]

Clean and sterilise your bottles in batches of 10 or so as they become empty, once done cap them.

When you come to bottling day all you need do is remove the caps and if you want give them a quick rinse.

I have one of these which attaches to the tap, it is excellent for rinsing out bottles.

http://www.hopandgrape.com/public/detai ... OT20265482

[Hedgerow hoarder]

I've just now cleaned 32 500ml bottles from a fireworks party, put all them in the bath with hot water and bleach. Then rinsed with cold water( shook with a little cold water 3 times), then covered the top with cling film. Hopefully when it comes to bottling all I will have to do is pull the clingfilm off and a squirt with starsan and bottle! This seams the easy way . If anyone can speed this up would love to hear. Cheers hope this helps.

[far9410]

My missus drinks huge amounts of soda water( don't ask me why), I keep the 1 l bottles, don't even rinse em, 1 use only , works for me.

[Beer O'Clock]

Once you drink the contents, rinse the bottle with water from the tap. Then squirt StarSan into the bottles with a garden sprayer. Seal with reusable plastic caps (or clingfilm).

When it comes to bottling, all you have to do is up-end the bottle and refill. Simple.

It takes me just over an hour to fill and cap 38-40 500ml bottles.

[Cully]

This worked for me...

wash the bottles well after use and store in crates.

On the day, mix up a 1 litre batch of vidine and put it in my bottle washer. Skoosh each bottle with the washer then place on the bottle tree to drain, dont matter if it s not fully dry come time to fill.

Transferring your beer to a second fv is totaly unnecessarry and in my opinion doubles the chances of spoiling your beer, up to you what you do there.

Prime each bottle with sugar then fill from little bottler, all in all less than an hours work with SWMBO priming and passing the bottles, about an hour and fifteen minutes with me on my own. Never had a batch gone bad.