Bottling tomorrow 11/4

4.5 gallons in the bottling bucket will yield 48 - 12 oz bottles if you don’t spill a bunch and tip the bucket towards the last couple bottles. I normally end up around 50± 1 or 2.

Losses I commonly have during bottling:

  1. I fill until the beer starts overflowing the bottle, just barely, then pull up. A little cascades over the lip.

  2. I tilt the bucket, but still leave a few ounces behind that don’t make it down the spigot.

  3. there’s always the last bottle that gets 1/2 to 3/4 full. I drink it warm and flat.

  4. halfway through, I set the bottling wand down while shuffling bottles around. On a good day, the wand leaks. On a bad day, I put it somewhere where the wand plunger is engaged.

  5. every once in a while, the tubing slips off the spigot. Bad day.

  6. the day I didn’t close the spigot while racking. That wad a really bad day.

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I fill 6 bottles at a time and then cap those 6 bottles, and then repeat. I leave the wand in a 1/2 filled bottle and then turn the spigot off since the wand always leaks some beer. I seem to lose less beer doing this.

This is the set up I use for bottling. Rolling mechanics stool to sit on. Restaurant bussing tray to catch beer over flow from pushing all the foam out of the bottle. Rubber carpet runner under the bucket to keep it from sliding. I’ll fill six then cap. I increase the tilt of the bucket with my left hand at the very end to get the last of the beer into the bottle. I’ll have extra empty bottles close to my right hand for filling to keep the bucket steady with my left.

In this photo I had a clip at the top of the bottling wand. Had a void filled with air that would not fill with beer. I found the tubing connecting the wand to the spigot was too long. Shortened it and no more air space while filling.

Check the orientation of the spring inside the bottling wand if it leaks. The cross piece at the end of the spring should be pushing on the top of the small plunger. This will keep it straight. I had dripping once. I had reversed the spring after a cleaning

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That’s about how I do it, minus the dedicated space. The bottling wand attached directly to the spigot with a short piece of tubing is key, and any of you folks that are using a long piece of tubing should give this a shot. It really makes it easier, not having to juggle the wand while moving bottles around!

Also, the spring-loaded bottling wand really cuts down on the leakage versus the gravity-sealing ones.

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+1 to spring loaded wand. Mine barely leaks at all. usually just a drop which I can catch right in the bottle. Also A good time to get the wife to help. She likes capping

I like the short tube to the spring loaded filler…i usually fill a bottle and set a cap on top…then cap when finished.

A couple years ago, I made a quick and easy automatic bottling bucket tipper because wedging something on the back of the bucket makes it precarious and a few times caused it to tip over at the end. I took 2 pieces of half inch plywood big enough to cover the entire bottom of the bucket. I hinged the two pieces together on one side with two small hinges. This side becomes the front side. Then I drilled a 1/8" recess on the back middle and inside of each of the pieces of plywood, fit an 8lb spring in the recesses to hold it in place. I place this contraption on the counter with the the front hinge side facing you and on the counter edge. I set the full bottling bucket on this device which causes the spring to fully compress. When the bucket gets about 1/2 empty, the spring starts to push the top piece of plywood up thereby tipping the bucket forward. It keeps tipping the bucket until I have only 1 to 2 beers left at which point I tip it by hand to get the rest out. Since the entire bottom of the bottling bucket is always on a flat surface, it stays stable and doesn’t rock on its round bottom edge and tip over.

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Spring loaded wand is a must have. We bottle in the kitchen over the open dishwasher door. The wife fills them, and I cap.

When we’re done, close the dishwasher, no mess.

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+1 to the short tube. Learned that trick from @mattnaik. It’s nice, can even bottle standing up.

I’ve done #6 before haha. I was transferring in the basement and ran upstairs to boil my priming sugar. Hear the sound of liquid hitting the floor but I was able to stop it before losing too much.

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When I did it, I was mid transfer, lost probably a gallon out of a 2.5 gallon batch, not paying attention. That batch ended up super fizzy, for whatever reason.