Quote:
Originally Posted by Hawkney911
Thanks for all the help!
Ordered my first set up and ingredients from austinhomebrew and its on its way to me now.
Shuie - the link you provided was a great read into what to expect before I ordered the kit.
The next question I have is on bottling. Everything I have read says kegging is the easiest but I think that is more of a down the road option. Im guessing the first few batches will be sub par.
So what beer bottles work the best? I cant use twist off with the wing capper provided and I don't think I can stomach or afford 2 cases of grolsch.
Im guessing any brown pop top with a thick lip would work right?
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Any pop top bottle will work (no screw offs). I've noticed that the Bass ale bottles tend to give me a problem getting caps to seal, but beyond that I've had no problems.
As long as you get a comfortable system set up - bottling isn't nearly the headache everyone makes it out to be. For removing the labels - oxyclean and hot water are your best friends. Use a butter knife to scrape, then hit the glue with a metal scrubby and rinse. I can de-label about 100 bottles inside of an hour.
For the bottling itself - a jet washer and a
vinator are worth their weight in gold. And if you are using iodophor or star san - they are contact no rinse sanitizers - no need to soak, a spray will be sufficient.
Use a 2 inch piece of siphon hose to connect your bottling wand to the spigot, then you can simply push each bottle up onto the wand rather than having to balance the wand and bottle together.
Using this set up, bottling a full batch takes less than a half hour with a friend of mine.
www.homebrewtalk.com is a great resource - very friendly and an amazing amount of knowledge.