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Reddishflint

Reddishflint

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Hi. New member here and first question. Just been browsing the web for a bottle tree. The bottles I use are Newcastle Brown bottles which are 550ml crown top bottles. Are these trees ok for these bottles? Also, are they that necessary? Haven't brewed for a few years now and back then never used any steriliser, only Fairy washing liquid and a thorough rinse out after. Never ever had a bad taste on the final brew only the taste of what it was meant to taste like. If I do go ahead and buy one can anyone recommend one. If not it's back to the Fairy liquid......... tried and tested and happy :drink:
 
I have an 80 bottle tree** (though only use it as a 50) that copes with a wide range of bottles. I have quite a few Sam Smiths 550ml bottles which are quite heavy, and also some almost weightless PET bottles. As long as I remember to distribute the heavy ones around the base it seems fine. Even if I end up taking most of the bottles from the one side, the wide base keeps the tree upright - though it wouldn't take much to knock it over at that point!

** One of these - http://www.home-brew-online.com/equipment-c40/bottle-drainer-tree-80-bottle-p616
 
I have an 80 bottle tree, it tales all types, I put wine bottle on it.

I clean the pet caps and leave them on the base to drain so everything's together



Scaff
 
I've got the same 80 bottle one dbg400 linked to. Copes with everything I have thrown at it from 300ml budweiser bottles, through 500ml beer bottles and on to the 600/660ml larger bottles you can get with Morretti, Cobra and Budweiser. No problem with any of them - to be fair I normally only have up to 40 bottles or so on it at any one time.

Each level is removable so I set mine up with 5 levels normally which makes it a bit shorter in height (obviously).
 
That looks useful. I've got a couple of bits of wood with five or six nails knocked in so after rinsing the bottles out as I drink them, I can prop them up against the wall on my drainer so they can drain. Didn't cost me 19 quid though so obviously not as good! :lol:
 
Thanks fellow brewers for the advice on the bottle tree. I'll have to contemplate buying one of them. Probably buy one on-line after a few pints when my defences are down :-( Just finished bottling my first brew in years, 40 pints of Geordie Mild. This is the brew which I enjoyed the most years back. My next brew though is going to be Woodfordes Wherry. Wilkinsons are selling it for £19 and 105 cracking reviews on it. One thing I've been really disappointed with was the capping I just did. I don't know if it's the quality of the topper or the crown tops themselves. Out of a pack of 50 I lost 9. That's unacceptable! lol The topper and the tops were the Wilkinsons brand.
 
I had a Young's crown capper that looked identical to the Wilko one. I thought it was great at first but when I used it with Shepherd Neame bottles it struggled so I bought one of these: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Crown-Cap...=100011&prg=11472&rk=2&rkt=10&sd=231017775162
as recommended in this thread (post 7): http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=50390&highlight=crown+capper
It also isn't so keen on the Neame bottles but it gives a much lower fail rate, think I lost only 2 caps out of 38.
 
BruinTuns said:
I had a Young's crown capper that looked identical to the Wilko one. I thought it was great at first but when I used it with Shepherd Neame bottles it struggled so I bought one of these: http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Crown-Cap...=100011&prg=11472&rk=2&rkt=10&sd=231017775162
as recommended in this thread (post 7): http://www.thehomebrewforum.co.uk/showthread.php?t=50390&highlight=crown+capper
It also isn't so keen on the Neame bottles but it gives a much lower fail rate, think I lost only 2 caps out of 38.
Click to expand...

I recently bought that metal capper in the ebay link. Not had it long but it handled 60 bottles which were a right mixture of different sizes/types with no issues at all. It seems much more robust/reliable than the youngs one I had used previously.
 
I checked that link out for that capper/topper. Used to have one like that years back. I can remember struggling with it and even having blisters on the palm of my hands from it. It didn't use to grip good at all and had to apply pressure both sideways as well as pushing down on the levers. Hard to explain really but definitely hard work on the hands. Can't remember ruining many caps with it though. And DoctorMick, I still stand by what I say about Fairy washing liquid. If it's good enough to do the household dishes it's got to be good enough for cleansing home brew equipment. As long as the bottles are thoroughly rinsed a few times I can't see the problem.
 
Edit, thought it was cheaper in their online store but hadn't noticed the bottle rinser was included in the ebay link you hve posted
 
I have just been given a rinser like that for my birthday - I rinse under the hot tap when I drink a bottle and then wash them in some soda crystals. I plan to use the rinser to, er, rinse each before putting them back in the box and again when I need to sterilise them. I think I now need a tree too.

Reddishflint - I'd get a stand capper if I were you, any crown cap and bottle will work with a decent capper.
 
I plan on buying the tree and rinser first Just. I'm building up my kit from scratch. Only so much I can afford so it'll have to be bit by bit. Priced that capper you're off about and it's varying in the £30 mark. I'm ready to start my Woodforde's Wherry brew. I've got one batch of 40 Geordie Mild bottled and was short on bottles for this next 40. I was on 29 bottles this morning. I only collect Newcastle Brown bottles. There's no way I'd pay for new empty bottles so went out today and bought 12 Newcastle Browns. Luckily Asdas are doing them 4 for £5. Two birds with one stone, down the Newky and empty bottles sorted. If I was to start the brew today I'd have to bottle roughly Christmas Day. Decisions, decisions :-(
 
I know what you mean, plus the space to store everything. I've had a Razorback kit for my birthday too and hopefully Santa's got me a Smugglers kit too.

By the way - your wherry will be two weeks in the bucket despite what the instructions say and even 2.5-3 weeks may be best, so you can chuck that on now and not be bottling until the new year. I have found it likes 2 weeks warm and then colder once bottled too.
 
About to order that bottle rinser and bottle tree from that home-brew-online-shop on Ebay for £36.45. The no rinse steriliser/cleaner sanitiser on the same page as the tree is 240grams for £5.95. Is that value for money or is there better deals out there? Going ahead Just and knocking up that wherry brew today :-)
 
Bit of a cock up on the wherry brew :-( After mixing the contents of the two cans with 6 pints of boiling water, topped up to 23 litres with cold water but............ used the shower part of the tap and it was that powerful caused a lot of froth. When that froth went back to liquid the volume passed the 23 litre mark a considerable amount. Next time I will fill with a measuring jug....... lesson learned.

2014-12-19 15.12.06.jpg
 
Didn't take a reading MyQul. Bad excuse but I just didn't have the time. Another lesson learned is to only do a brew when the time allows you to do it. I seem to be learning the hard way all over again :-(
 
If I'm correct in thinking you have only added 1L I don't think it will affect things too much.

Making some assumptions (and going by figures I found on forum posts) and using some calculators:

If your wherryis supposed to be say 4% abv. Giving you a starting gravity of say 1.041 and hopefully finishing at say 1.010.

Adding 1L of water gives you a SG of 1.0039 with a FG still of 1.010 gives you 3.8%ABV.
 

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