How I do bottling day.

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Or you could just take tap B out of the equation....suck on an open Tap A until siphon fills up then quickly close the tap before liquid reaches mouth. Move tap over the to the bottling bucket and remove the tap completely and liquid will flow out of the hose without touching your contaminated tap

Everyone's a critic :grin:
 
Thanks for the tips mate, have you been using 200ml's of water for priming as a rule of thumb for long? ive been using around 400ml! probably why it takes longer to cool down.

or does it depend on the size of the batch, ie 19l-23l
 
On the subject of bottling does anyone sterilize bottles the night/day before sanitizing and bottling to save time?:-?
 
I did a couple of videos in a series that covered how I do bottle and wand sterilising here http://youtu.be/v_sfagwRHxc

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v_sfagwRHxc&feature=youtu.be[/ame]

I also did a video on how I do bottling here
http://youtu.be/8iOsCA2t37c

[ame]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8iOsCA2t37c&feature=youtu.be[/ame]

Much easier than writing it all out [emoji1303]



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk
 
My slight deviation from the above method:

0) Cold crash for 24h, if nothing else it stops the beer fizzing so much during bottling. Before bottling mix 100g of sugar and half a pint of boiling water, pour into the FV and give the gentlest of stirs wit a sanitized spoon.

1) find an old clean FV with a tap and put a few liters of starsan in the bottom, just enough to keep the bucket sterile.

2) attach the bottling wand/tubing to the tap and rinse a few l of starsan through it into a jug and return to the bucket. Put the tubing/wand in the bucket. The main point of the bucket is it's sanitised and everything in it by this point, rather than having to keep going back to spray stuff with starsan.

3) Spray starsan liberally around the tap of the FV. My tap had a little bleed hole so I can fill the tube/want with starsan, attach to the tap and hold it over my head so starsan flows right up the tap and out the hole.

4) Sterilize bottles with starsan and a bottle washer, I rinse them out immediately after use and consider the starsan rinse enough to remove any dust that's gotten in. I don't have a bottle tree so they just go onto the floor at this point.

5) Caps go into a jug of starsan

6) Bottle, I do it in 4 rows of 10 with about 10" between rows. That way I can fill, place the cap on top, and do the lot, before capping them all without moving them (needs about 2m of silicone hose). Work back from the furthest bottle otherwise the hose knocks the caps off.

Got it down to about 60-90min, which is great as that's how long I have between getting home on a Friday and the OH getting home!

Not had an infection from bottling since cutting out the additional washing step, just make sure they're clean when they go away in the crates.
 
I have a selection of Adnams beers that will be consumed over the festive period. I plan to use the empty 500ml bottles to bottle my next batch of beer. Are bottle caps a standard size? I read an article talking about 26mm and 29mm bottle caps and I want to be sure I get the correct size.
 
I did a couple of videos in a series that covered how I do bottle and wand sterilising here http://youtu.be/v_sfagwRHxc

I also did a video on how I do bottling here https://youtu.be/8iOsCA2t37c

Much easier than writing it all out [emoji1303]



Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk




Great videos Hoddy, thanks.

I've been really struggling with bottling and losing too much to the floor. You make it look so easy pre filling the syphon with starsan, but when I tried it, I lost a lot of cider! After watching you do it, I'm going to have another go. I might have a couple of practices with water.

Anyway, thanks again for the great vids.
 
If you haven't already got one get a bucket clip (see Hoddys video) they make racking a lot easier, an extended racking cane also helps.
 
I tend to set 3 to 4 hours aside to bottle 23l. I steralise my bottles but they aren't dry before I start filling. So the residue of water aids the dissolving of the priming sugar.

Is there any disadvantages to not having the bottles dried?
 
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