I bottled my second batch on Saturday. It was an english brown and it looked, smelled and tasted very nice!
I am fairly unhappy though with the performance of the bottling wand that came with the equipment kit I got. The tip does not seal and it drips quite alot, causing a bigger mess that I like.
This round, I did the “bottle on the open dishwasher door” trick and that saved the day.
First question, did I get a “bad” wand tip or do they all drip this much? I’m not talking a couple drops when moving from one bottle to the next…its a steady trickle.
There looks to be a molding flaw inside where the o-ring is supposed to seat but I’m not sure if this is common.
Second, Is the a better DIY alternative? I’ve seached the net but have not really found anything yet.
Last, I was at Lowe’s this weekend picking up parts for a cooler to mash tun conversion, and as I was leaving noticed the local lowes sells 5 gallon jugs of springwater in plastic carboys for $7.
To me, this seems like a no brainer for recycling as a secondary fermenter. Anyone using these type water jugs? Any cons to this? They hold drinking water so they must be foodsafe.
You may just have a bad bottling wand. I bottled on Saturday and in the 45 beers I bottled my wand dripped maybe 5 drops the whole time. My want is the cheapest one they had at the LHBS. I think it was $2.99. It sucks but for that price I suggest you just go pick up a new one.
I do not know if there is any real difference between a “better bottle” plastic carboy and one of the 5 gallon water jugs sold at stores. My guess is that you would need a much bigger stopper for the water bottle just going off of memory of what the opening in one of those looks like.
From personal experience the starter kit is just that. In two years I can’t think of anything from the starter kit that I still use except the bottling bucket, and fermenting bucket. Once you’re hooked you will want upgrade almost everything. In regards to the cheaper water bottles there are usually a lot of ridges and indentations that are hard to clean, and the most expensive beer is the one that’s dumped because of contamination.
I also remember someone posted here that the plastic used for the inexpensive water bottles is of a different grade,quality, and don’t block oxygen as well as the better bottle.
The biggest downside of the bottle will be that it’s plastic. If it gets the slightest scratch on the inside you’ll have to be paranoid about bacteria hiding inside it waiting to ruin your beer. Granted all you’ll have to do is drop another whopping $7, but still a pain none-the-less.
Sign up for the NB news letter. They had a BOGO sale on BB’s in October and again a couple days ago. Worked out to about $25 each after shipping to me.
I have a gravity bottle filler that dribbles a little. And a spring loaded one.
[quote=“Nighthawk”]Sign up for the NB news letter. They had a BOGO sale on BB’s in October and again a couple days ago. Worked out to about $25 each after shipping to me.
I have a gravity bottle filler that dribbles a little. And a spring loaded one.[/quote]
I had to toss my gravity filler and bought the spring loaded. It really works great!
