Gudger & Ferguson

Gudger & Ferguson
Gudger & Ferguson toasting at the first bar

Sunday, November 18, 2012

A Couple Bottling Tips (Just bottled my Bride Ale)



These are just a few ideas to help with the bottling process.  If you've bottled a few times then you probably won't need these, but they're great if you're new to it.  Enjoy!



Tip #1:  The Easy, Inexpensive Bottling Gun.

I learned this tip from Paul Young at My Old Kentucky Homebrew.  Take a plastic tube which fits into a portable keg dispenser faucet and enjoy!  I add the boiled sugar water into a keg, blanket it with CO2, push it with 5 psi, and dispense through the homemade bottling gun.  I've used the Blichmann bottling gun on hundreds of growlers at my first brewing job and this works perfectly.  The obvious benefit of the Blichmann bottling gun is that you can blanket the bottle with CO2 through the gun, but when you're carbonating with sugars you have to have air in the bottle for fermentation anyways.





Tip #2:  Holster the Gun

This is something I learned from my first brewery.  Keep a bottle of sanitizer so that the bottling gun has a sanitary holster as you move about your bottling processes. 




Tip #3:  Dishwasher Tray

Bottling trees cost money and take up space.  As long as someone else in your household won't stab you for it, simply roll the bottom rack out of the dishwasher and make sure it's off of its wheels.





Tip #4:  Put the Caps in Sanitizer

This is another trick I learned at my first brewery with growlers.  You don't know where the caps have been or what bacteria may be lurking in your bottling area.  Use just enough sanitizer to cover the caps and be sure to dry any unused caps when you're done so they don't rust on the edges.








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