Bottling home brew

[TheLastColdBeer]

Couple of brewing friends have moved on to kegging & co2 injection, but I still prime & bottle my homebrewed beer. With years of collecting bottles, I still don't have enough of the same type to fill a five gallon batch. Always have a batch bottled & aging, and another on the secondary waiting to be bottled. Most of the people that enjoy beverages want 12oz bottles, so I don't use the 22oz I've collected. I've chucked out all the Sam Adams & everything else that's embossed, that leaves a majority of non-descript long necks, and squat Sierra Nevadas. Local restaurant has started saving Modelo Negra bottles for me, because I love the size and shape (beer isn't bad either). Also have 24 swing-top Grolsch, but they'll only cover half a batch.

Anybody else still bottle? How do you disinfect, and what's your favorite bottle for use? If I ever had all by bottles empty at once, I could fill one batch in the same containers.  

[TBB]

Bottle?? Bottle???   You should be drinking it as fast as you make it!!!

[ChknFngr]

well, im about to bottle my first homebrew batch.

the beer is on the last week of second fermentation.

So i'll bottle in like a week or so

 

i collected a few bottles and i too have all kind of bottles lol

 

i first cleaned them all with hot water, soap, and some with baking soda.

 

but of course before bottling them, i will sanitize them all into star san solution.

 

the kegs with CO2 will be for the future, but i will certainly go that way one day or another.

 

 

oh yea and some bottles labels are really hard to remove, so what i do is making like a pasta with half olive oil and half baking soda.

apply this on the glue of the bottle, then clean that wit ha good sponge, and it really works great

 

Edited January 11, 2015 by ChknFngr

[TheLastColdBeer]

I run them through the dishwasher (on sanitize) after flushing, brushing and de-labeling. Oxi-clean does a wonderful job of dissolving label glue. Thinking about just tossing them in the oven for an hour or so @ 300. That ought to kill any nasties. Never had a problem yet though, so I'll probably continue.

@@TBB, I'll sample a couple of ounces from my graduated cylinders, after taking hydrometer readings, just to see if it's palatable. Hard to get enthused when it's still on primary fermentation. All you have to do is clean the gook out of the bottom of a primary to kill your appetite. I've let beer sit on the secondary for two months before bottling, and it was great. You just can't get in a hurry w/this stuff.

The boys are trying to talk me into kegging, and it's wonderful, but somebody ought to keep bottling, just for the portability. Anybody have ceramic caps for flip-tops? All mine are plastic, and I just don't like them. 

[eidolonFIRE]

I miss brewing     I used to brew with a buddy that had all the equipment.

[ChknFngr]

Anybody have ceramic caps for flip-tops? All mine are plastic, and I just don't like them. 

mine are all plastic too, long time i didnt see ceramic ones :/

[little_old_man]

I don't make home brew but my nephew does. He started only 5 years ago and won second place in the county last year, and we have hundreds of micro breweries around here including a little one you may have heard of called Lagunitas Brewing Co and their famous IPA, as well as Russian River Brewing Co which makes a seasonal brew called Pliny the Elder which has gained a reputation around the world. He grows his own hops and bottles everything in standard brown bottles and caps them himself.  He sterilizes the bottles much the same way people prepare canning jars in a hot water bath. Other than than I don't know much else about the process. He makes mostly IPA's which I don't drink much of, but from what I understand those who do say it's the best.

[TheLastColdBeer]

It's just another of those hobbies that consume time & money. Very satisfying when you get the process sorted out, and produce product that people enjoy. If you can follow (or create) a recipe, you can roll from there. Put a small hop field on our place a couple of years ago, with Cascade, and it has thrived.

Going to Madison WI next weekend for the beer & cheese festival. Hundreds of vendors there, great excuse to sample ourseves stupid. Hotel is attached to the center, so all we have to do is walk, or stumble, to our rooms.

Folks think brewing is difficult, it's not. Yeast does all the work. Make the yeast happy, you'll be rewarded.

[moonpie]

I run them through the dishwasher (on sanitize) after flushing, brushing and de-labeling. Oxi-clean does a wonderful job of dissolving label glue. Thinking about just tossing them in the oven for an hour or so @ 300. That ought to kill any nasties. Never had a problem yet though, so I'll probably continue.

. 

 ^ This

 

I will say that I've moved on to mostly kegging, but I will bottle the occasional cider since I don't drink it as fast as the beer.  If you clean them out really well after you drink them, then store them well (upside down to drain), they may not actually need the full sanitation route every time.  You can just rinse out the dust, check the bottom for particulates (if you see mold/mildew it could require bleach), and then spray with starsan or your favorite no rinse.

 

I spent a long time drinking Sam Adams and a couple of local breweries (like Sweet Water) because those bottles are great, easy to cap, and nice thick glass.  I agree that the embossing sucks for Sam Adams.   I used to use flip-tops, but those were really hard for me to get fully clean, store, and make sure the seal stayed good use after use. I just went back to capping then on to kegging. 

 

Oh, and you could split the difference.  Buy some smaller kegging equipment like a party pig or a star tap.  That would allow you to have a portable keg and still bottle some...    One of my best beers was when I took a whitbeer to a halloween party inside a party pig along with some random bottles I had laying around. Lots to drink and some sampling to be done then.

[TheLastColdBeer]

Yeah Moon, one of my neighbors apple trees produced like mad a couple of years ago. I made juice (never again!) out of the apples, and hard cider from the juice. Must have mis-read my hydrometer, but I added cinnamon to the batch & bottled it. Turned out more like apple champagne, can't believe the bottles (I was using PET back then) didn't explode. Live & learn.....

[moonpie]

well, im about to bottle my first homebrew batch.

the beer is on the last week of second fermentation.

So i'll bottle in like a week or so

 

i collected a few bottles and i too have all kind of bottles lol

 

i first cleaned them all with hot water, soap, and some with baking soda.

 

but of course before bottling them, i will sanitize them all into star san solution.

 

the kegs with CO2 will be for the future, but i will certainly go that way one day or another.

 

 

oh yea and some bottles labels are really hard to remove, so what i do is making like a pasta with half olive oil and half baking soda.

apply this on the glue of the bottle, then clean that wit ha good sponge, and it really works great

 

 

 

Nice, what are you fermenting?

 

Also, just make sure you get that soap out really well - tastes disgusting if you don't get all the soap residue.  I'm a huge fan of using Oxi-Clean instead of soap (oxi-clean will also delaminate the labels - for wine & beer lately, i've been putting the bottles in the oven at 300 for around 5min, the labels come right off).

[ChknFngr]

its an IPA, im really not sure at all if it will be good, coz its the first time im doing this, and i took some samples at different stages and they all tasted really different but the smell is nice now, i will wait the end of this 2nd fermentation to taste it.

 

yea i rince all the soap, dont worry, and i sanitize everything before and after use. should be ok

we dont have oxy clean here. for labels most of the bottle i use are really easy to remove, like just 10 min in hot water and its done. but some brands decided they gona use a fkn strong glue, but yea the mix of oil and baking soda was the trick, it really worked well, and its all food grade and natural.

[moonpie]

Yeah Moon, one of my neighbors apple trees produced like mad a couple of years ago. I made juice (never again!) out of the apples, and hard cider from the juice. Must have mis-read my hydrometer, but I added cinnamon to the batch & bottled it. Turned out more like apple champagne, can't believe the bottles (I was using PET back then) didn't explode. Live & learn.....

  Ha, yeah, those PET bottles are very resilient (just thew away the last of mine).

 

Guessing you basically ended up making Ed Wort's Apelwine....not a huge fan of that one - takes a good 6 months to mellow and I'm very impatient.  I'm a pretty big fan of Dave's Caramel Cider during the winter.  Doesn't need to mellow since it is back-sweetened.  The only frustrating thing about the process is stove-top pasteurization...but that isn't too bad unless you get the water too hot and end up with bottle bombs -

 

I just finished making Graff....it has an interesting and tart taste.  Worth a shot if you have yet to dip your toes into grain brewing.

[TheLastColdBeer]

Thnx Moon, I'll check those out. If I ever make cider again, it'll be from orchard bought juice. That making your own apple juice from apples is a pain. Had an idea to make some sorghum molasses beer, but several folks said once the sugar is gone from the molasses, it doesn't taste that wonderful. There's enough successful recipes out there to keep me happy.

[moonpie]

Interesting....there is a beer down here made from sorghum that I used to like called Red Bridge.  Don't have a clue how they made it though.  And @@ChknFngr, I'm really interested to hear how your beer comes out.  I'm guessing IPAs are your favorite style?

[ChknFngr]

i like IPAs, but i like all kind of beers

and it all depens the situation too, in winter i like more darker beers, in summer i want some fresh stuff, IPA, Ale or w/e

now my favorite style at this very moment is Imperial Stout. So of course i'll try to make one soon or later.

But i will profit from the weather conditions and my next one will prolly be a belgian abbey style or something. i'll start this one next week.

 

for now i brew with malt extract as i dont have the equipment to do all grain, so what i can do is a bit limited. but it doesnt mean i cant experiment, for ex this IPA i did added some hops in the proccess and i think it made a big difference.

but the plan is to get more equipment soon or later.

[TheLastColdBeer]

Bottling day for an ale that's been on secondary for several weeks. Friend from work has been busy swigging Grolsch, so I now have 48 swing tops. That should cover this batch. Lot of time involved disassembling wire clips & washers. Boiled all the bits after washing, some had a black mold under the washers, and I don't want that risking my brew. Cruised ebay yesterday, and bought two bags of Kilner ceramic caps for $12. Should fit, and that'll cover one case with porcelein caps. We'll see.

[TheLastColdBeer]

oh my poor thumbs. I can see why folks shy away from swingtops. 48 gaskets to put on and 48 wire bales to re-assemble.