What do you use for bottling?

I just bottled my first beer and I was not impressed with the bottling equipment that came with my deluxe kit. It sucked are at both hose connection points. I also learned that you can open the spigot up all the way as it creates too much pressure and when you press down on the bottler inside the bottle, it splashes inside the bottle.

What are some of you more experienced guys using to bottle your beer? …other than kegging

when i bottled, i used the same equipment that you are using with no problems; you may have some faulty fittings or something…i’d check the tightness levels first, you could be over or under tightening.

i preferred the bottle filler without the spring and used a table mounted capper.

[quote=“darthmorgoth”]when i bottled, i used the same equipment that you are using with no problems; you may have some faulty fittings or something…i’d check the tightness levels first, you could be over or under tightening.
[/quote]
It also sounds like your tubing might be too big. I’ve used that setup for over 100 batches and haven’t had issues like that.

I have always just used a bottling bucket, a short length of tubing and this filler:

http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/revi ... tegory/80/

I also have a stainless steel filler - but this one has always worked pretty well. On occasion it will stick open, but overall, it has done the trick for well over 100 batches of beer. I probably need a new one though and will likely go with the following as the reviews all seem very good:

http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/brew ... iller.html

oops - this is the first link - the one I have been using:

http://www.northernbrewer.com/shop/brew ... iller.html

An autosiphon and that bottling wand that Braufessor linked to.

I just checked the inside dimensions of my tubing and it is 3/8 and i have the fermtech wand, so I’m not sure what would be going wrong here.

I mainly only bottle big beers, but use that same spring tip bottle filler as others with a bottling bucket and haven’t had issues. My original gravity valve filler would stick on me.

[quote=“darthmorgoth”]when i bottled, i used the same equipment that you are using with no problems; you may have some faulty fittings or something…i’d check the tightness levels first, you could be over or under tightening.

i preferred the bottle filler without the spring and used a table mounted capper.[/quote]

^^^^ this. last 5 years and no issues.

There are no fittings…the tubes just slide onto the spigot and the bottle filler. I will happily add some fittings if it will help, but that is a fine line you walk when dealing with plastic.

5 gallon bucket,
3/8 spigot from NB, hooked to spring tip filler with 1 1/2" piece of tubing.
Bucket sits on counter, I sit in chair.
Bench capper.
~400 bottles in my bottle stash.

My spring tip was sticky for a few batches and I rememmbered that I still had the one that I retired after warping it in the dishwasher. The spring in the old trusty one was slightly different than the sticky one. Swapped the spring and it worked like a champ the last batch, didn’t stick once.

I have 22oz bottles and all I did was put the red spigot into the bottle neck at an angle so the beer does not splash and kinda runs down the side of the bottle and open open to spigot full. Worked great.

When I was bottling, years ago, I just used a piece of tubing the height of a bottle and shoved it onto the bottling bucket’s valve. Tubing went to the bottom of the bottle, beer to the top, then removing the tubing gave perfect headspace. You have to manually operate the valve, so you need both hands, but I always bottled with a partner capping, anyway.

If you’re using the deluxe kit bottle filler, with the slightly larger diameter tubing I found that it easily slides on the first of the two spigot flanges. If only left there, quite a bit of air will enter, you will need to force it over the second flange for a tighter fit.

Hmm, my bucket spigot as well as the bottle filler do not have any flanges. They are just smooth.