Beer Bottles, Fillers and Washers
Bottling home brewed beer isn’t difficult, but if we are being honest, is pretty boring. Racking 5 gallons of your latest brew into what seems like hundreds of tiny bottles is tedious. So, use larger bottles! The less you have to fill, the less you have to sanitise, cap and store.
Whilst bottling your brew is tedious, it is also rewarding and enables you to keep your beer fresher for longer, store it in the refrigerator and easily take it along to parties and BBQs.
Lets have a look at some simple tips when bottling your beer.
Have the correct number of bottles lined up and ready to go.
Sanitise everything that will come in contact with your brew.
Calculate correct amount of priming sugar, and mix it with you batch before bottling.
When it comes to choosing which bottles to use for your homebrew there are a number of things that you should consider.
They should be thick. Most bottles marked as returnable should be ok. If you want to know why ordinary bottles that you get Miller lite or Bud in are no good then have a look at the video below.
If you want to know why you shouldn't use the thin bottles that some popular commercial beers are packaged in then watch this video....
They should also be coloured glass. This is because when light hits beer it transforms the iso-alpha-acids from the hops into a sulphur type ‘Skunky’ smell (3 -methyl-2-butene-1-thiol)
The tops should be plain, unchipped and the ready for use with a crown cap. Screw top bottles are just not suitable for homebrew beer.
And they should be as large as possible. 22 once bottles are ideal. A standard batch of 5 gallons will fit nicely into 29 bottles.
In order for homebrew to carbonate, you will need to add additional sugar just before it gets bottled. The small amount of yeast that is still in suspension will consume the extra sugar and produce the necessary CO2 in your beer. The most important thing to remember is to use the correct amount of sugar. Not enough and your beer will be flat, too much and your bottles will be gushers or your even explode!
There are lots of suitable bottles, together with bottle fillers and bottle washers available to buy on Ebay.
