Bottling Day

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Bottling Day

Ingredients

• Dextrose

Consumables

• Caps
• Bottles

Equipment - Bulk Priming:

• ~2L Saucepan
• Scales
• Thermometer
• Long Spoon

Equipment - Bottling:

• 12mm ID hose
• Empty Fermenter + Tap
• Bottle Filler
• Bottle Capper

Equipment - Cleaning and Sanitisation:

• Brewer's detergent
• Diluted Iodophor in a Spray Bottle
• Large tub or sink

Process

Planning:

• Check how much beer you have in the fermenter.
• You can save time by creating a simple excel spreadsheet to divide out the bottle volumes and volume of beer. You can then adjust the quantity of bottle so the remaining volume is 0 or a small amount negative.
• Divide the amount of beer by your bottles volume(s) to see how many you need.
  • I add one or two extras of each bottle type just in case of breakages.
  • I usually do 6-12 stubbies per batch - they are good as samplers over the first few weeks of aging so you can try the beer.

• Check the temperature of the beer in the fermenter.
• Using the Bulk Priming Calculator calculate the amount of dextrose required. Measure it out and put it aside.

Clean and Sanitise:

• Gather all equipment and disassemble where possible.
• Wash all equipment with brewers detergent solution.
• Leave to drain.
• Fill a large tub with water and add Iodophor so that the mixture is correct.
• Soak bottles, caps and equipment in the Iodophor solution for at least 20 minutes taking care to get all the bubbles out of the bottles.
  • I soak the caps in the solution in a colander to save having to fish them out one by one later. Just agitate them occasionally to get all the air bubbles out...
• Leave bottles, caps and equipment to drip dry.

Prepare Empty Fermenter:

• Fit tap to fermenter and close the tap!
• Begin heating 1L of water to the boil.
• Once boiled, remove from heat and add dextrose while stirring.
• Leave to cool, or cool in cold water bath down to below 25 degrees.
• Pour the dextrose solution into the empty fermenter. Minimise splashing while doing this so the solution is not aerated, this can be done by pouring the solution down the side of the fermenter.

Transferring the Beer:

• No-Matter which method is used, it's important not to aerate the beer. You can prevent aeration by coiling the end of the hose around the bottom of the empty fermenter. The beer will run out and not free-fall into the fermenter then.
• Gently Stir occasionally while transferring to make sure that the priming solution is mixed with the beer.

• Method 1 - Racking:
  • Using the Racking Cane + Hose or Hose, siphon the beer from the fermenter into the empty one.

• Method 2 - Draining: (Simpler)
  • Push the 12mm ID hose onto the tap so that it's snug and won't come off.
  • Slowly open the tap and run the beer into the empty fermenter.

Bottling:

• When all the beer is transferred, move the now full fermenter to the edge of a table or bench with the tap hanging over the edge.
• Assemble and Fit the Bottle Filler to the tap.
• Place a chair next to the table/fermenter.
• Gather bottles and caps to within reach.
• Start filling bottles by pushing the bottle filler stem into the bottom of the bottle to open it.
• If your bottle filler does displace it's own volume, fill the bottle all the way to the top, when you withdraw the bottle filler, there should be a pretty good gap between the top of the beer and the crown.
• If your bottle filler doesn't displace it's own volume, fill the bottle to 25-40mm below the top of the bottle, when you withdraw the bottle filler, the filling height will stay the same.
• Place the bottle out of the way.
• Place a cap on top of the bottle to stop debris falling in. This also allows some air to be purged from the bottle while the yeast is producing CO², so letting it stand without the cap crimped is a good idea

Capping:

• Starting with the bottle you filled first, crimp the crown seal on each bottle.
• If you are not labelling the bottles, mark the bottle cap with the brew type or date so you can tell what it is.

Maturing and Carbonation:

• Place the new batch in a cupboard out of sunlight at a similar temperature to what it was brewed at.
• After a few weeks the beers will be carbonated and ready to drink. Most beers will be much better after a couple of months though.