Bottle Capper

[DRONE]

Have been using the twist on/off plastic type bottles for the last year , I think it is time to move up to glass bottles.
will the home brewers recommend a good solid capper.
Not sure if a bench top or hand held is best for a 5 gallon at a time brewer

[Porsche-O-Phile]

I've been using a hand capper for homebrewing for years - no issues at all.

[TimT]

I use hand held, like this one




However bottling is a pain in the butt....

You should get a Corny Keg

And keg half your brew, and bottle the other portion...

When I condition beer, it usually works out to one Corny keg, a few 22 oz bottles and a sixer of 12 oz bottles....

[mjohnson]

Buy right, cry once... Colonna capper/corker

Colonna Capper/Corker : Northern Brewer

Available elsewhere for under $60 - just search online.

Plastic but still quite heavy duty. So much more secure than the wing capper thing, and will do corks and bigger 29mm euro bottles too.

[sc_rufctr]

It may not look like it but these work really well.

[djmcmath]

What TimT said: The $20 capper from your local store is fine. But it'll take an hour or so to fill all the bottles and get caps on.

I started kegging a couple of months ago, and it is really all of that and a bag of chips. I spend a few minutes transferring beer into the keg, then I carbonate based on physics instead of guessing. And if I do physics wrong, I can adjust to get it right afterwards -- no more flat beer or bottle-bombs.

But yeah, I used the big red capper like TimT pointed out for my first 4 full years of brewing, and it works great.

[Porsche-O-Phile]

Yep - that one TimT shows is the same one I've got. No idea of the brand but it seems to pop up at virtually all homebrew supply shops. According to this site it's a "Royal" brand capper but look around. You don't need to spend a lot of money on this. If the capper can compress the outer edge and make a good seal between the inside of the cap and the bottle lip, you're good. I don't see the need for a $75 piece of equipment to do this. It won't do it any better than a hand capper like this one.

Beer Bottle Cappers : Northern Brewer

Kegging is fun but adds cost quickly - and gives you a lot more junk to sit around cluttering up your basement when it's not in use. It's very convenient if hosting (or bringing beer) to a party but not so much if you're giving out samples to people from work or whatever (I've brought in bottles and just handed them out - a lot easier for people to take home and try - plus I get to design cool / funky / fun labels that way or paint the bottles as I like to do - they make great gifts).

IMHO homebrewing is about innovation - simply buying a lot of expensive equipment will not make better beer. Better control of what you have and better ingredients will. Most of all, keep everything operating room sterile - that's the most important thing. I'm really particular about making sure my supplies are sanitized all the time and "if in doubt, throw it out". I also triple-ferment all my beers to help increase clarity but you don't have to do that necessarily.

Enjoy! It's Imperial Stout season!

[djmcmath]

Originally Posted by Porsche-O-Phile

Kegging is fun but adds cost quickly - and gives you a lot more junk to sit around cluttering up your basement when it's not in use. It's very convenient if hosting (or bringing beer) to a party but not so much if you're giving out samples to people from work or whatever (I've brought in bottles and just handed them out - a lot easier for people to take home and try - plus I get to design cool / funky / fun labels that way or paint the bottles as I like to do - they make great gifts).

Oh, it does add up. I probably spent about $1K getting my 5 keg setup up and running. If you go for el-cheapo used kegs from the local supply shop, they're "only" $60 each, and then there's the 20# CO2 cylinder, and all of the hoses and manifolds and everything. Oh, and nice Perlick taps? I'd much rather talk about how happy I am with my kegging setup than what I spent on it, haha.

[DRONE]

Well I guess I'm technically not a brewer, I use extract in my Coopers kit so no heat or mas h to deal with. I have access to a couple cases of 12oz bottles so a capper will work for now then move up to a keg.

[cabmandone]

I used the same one TimT suggests until I moved up to kegging my brew which only took about two batches for me to get tired of bottling. All grain brewing and kegging, great hobby.

If you decide to move up to kegging, look into a "keezer" build. I completed one a few months back and can serve two beers while cold aging and carbing two others.

[cabmandone]

Originally Posted by Porsche-O-Phile

Kegging is fun but adds cost quickly - and gives you a lot more junk to sit around cluttering up your basement when it's not in use. It's very convenient if hosting (or bringing beer) to a party but not so much if you're giving out samples to people from work or whatever (I've brought in bottles and just handed them out - a lot easier for people to take home and try - plus I get to design cool / funky / fun labels that way or paint the bottles as I like to do - they make great gifts).

My kegs are rarely not in use. If they are, I'm grumpy
As for giving your beers to others, I bottle from my keg using Grolsch flip top bottles and growlers. I have bottled off my keg capping too but rarely. The best is to buy one of the portable small co2 rigs and a party tap and just bring the entire keg with you!
I just finished brewing a coconut caramel brown ale this evening. In 3 weeks I'll be drinking that one. I use the keg as the secondary. For clarity, I add gelatin but I brew a lot of dark beers so I don't worry about clarity so much. When I do my summer Kolsch and Honey Blonde I will use gelatin but that's just for looks.

[TimT]

I started with 5 gallon extract, partial mash, then full on brews... then 10 gallon brews..

Hand Bottling 10 gallons is an effing pain in the ass...

Went back to 5 gallon batches.... heck I'm getting older... not drinking as much...

Now I keg part of my brew, and bottle the other portion... So I have party favors etc to share


Also got in on the Kickstarter which seems like it may implode at any minute... for 128oz and 64 oz SS growlers... that may be able to fit in the door of your fridge if they ever deliver...

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/mancanbeer/mancan-put-a-brewery-in-your-fridge-not-a-growler?ref=discovery


Anyway between a Corney keg and some bottles.... it not a pain like it used to be to bottle all the beer.....

[cabmandone]

Here's how I do it when I want to go portable. You don't get exact pour pressure but you bump the trigger and it gets a quick shot of Co2 when pressure drops. I've used this setup several times.
Compact CO2 Injector. Ball Lock Fitting Compact CO2 Injector. Midwest Supplies

Here's my setup at home.
The white one holds 4 5 gallon soda kegs. I'll have a 3rd tap for Nitrogen at some point but for now it's just 2 co2 taps and 4 co2 supply lines connected to two separate manifolds with 2 regulators so I can force carb and pour at different pressures.


The black one is my "beginner rig" One tap but will hold 2 5 gallon soda kegs. I've played with the idea of adding a manifold and another tap but with my Keezer build I really don't need to. The only reason the 2 keg is in use right now is that my keezer ran low on refrigerant. I'm remedying that today.




When I want to bottle, I have a short piece of hose that I connect to my tap, I turn the co2 pressure down and pour slowly to fill the bottle.