Although it’s possible to keg your homebrew beer, homebrewers usually bottle it because it’s easier and bottling is a better option for beginners.
If you are sure your homebrew has successfully finished fermentation it is time to get to the bottling phase. However, if you are unsure whether the fermentation has finished or not, I advise that you check it again with the help of my article.
Unfinished fermentation can result not only in poor homebrew but also in broken bottles in case they explode during conditioning.
In this article, I will show you the easiest way to bottle your homebrew which will require the following equipment:
- Bottles
- Caps
- Capping machine
- A siphon or a pipe
- Priming sugar
- Sanitizer
1. Preparing priming solution
Unless you want your homebrew flat as is the case with some mead, you’ll need to carbonate your bottles with a second fermentation.
This priming sugar will wake yeast from the dormant phase and trap the Co2 within the bottle, so go and prepare some priming solution in advance. You can either add raw corn sugar into the bottle with the help of the measuring spoon or create a liquid mixture by boiling some water and sugar for 5 minutes.
In this guide, I used to add 0.14 oz or 4 grams of corn sugar to each bottle, but you can use less or more depending on your recipe.
To find the desired amount of priming sugar for your recipe, refer to my priming calculator.
Although you can add priming solution directly into the fermenter before bottling, bottle by bottle is my favorite method because I find it the safest and it’s also easiest for beginners. Adding priming mixture to the fermenter requires you to open the seal and stir the mixture which makes room for mistakes and air contamination.
2. Cleaning and sanitizing
It’s important that the bottles are completely free from any visible dirt. If your bottles have noticeable dirt on the walls, it’s important that you wash them before you can proceed.
Sanitizer won’t magically make the dirt disappear and it’s only used for killing the invisible gems that could infect your brew. If the bottles you use are terribly dirty, you can try to soak them in hot water and detergent overnight and use a bottle brush to clean them.
A bottle brush is another useful tool when you reuse bottles because there will always be some dirt left in them unless they are new.
Before we can start with bottling, it’s important to sanitize everything that will get in contact with our precious brew. This includes bottles and caps, the spigot, the pipe or siphon, even the capping machine, and anything else you may use that will get in contact with the brew.
Prepare a mixture of sanitizer and water in a vessel and make enough liquid that you can easily submerge minimum a of half of a bottle in it.
Throw in the caps and a couple of bottles, we’ll pick each one individually once we start bottling.
You can bottle either by using a pipe that connects to the spigot or through a siphon that drains the beer from the open fermenter and uses the vacuum principle. Either way, it’s important that you sanitize literally everything that will get in contact with the beer.
I also like to use a spray bottle and put some sanitizer in it so I can easily sanitize the spigot and other equipment that is difficult to approach.
Once you sanitize equipment, do not place it on non-sanitized tables, chairs, mops, etc. Keep everything in the vessel or out of the possible contaminating environment.
3. Let’s bottle
I recommend that you organize a protocol in advance, so you automatically take the already sanitized bottle out of the vessel, pour priming solution in, stick the pipe or siphon in, fill the bottle, place a cap on it, use a capping machine, and put a finished bottle in a corner.
If some Star San foam remains in the bottle you do not have to rinse it, it’s not dangerous and it’s perfectly normal ( rinsing with water would only compromise it), so simply get rid of the liquid and put the bottle on the side.
1. Add priming sugar
Add the desired priming sugar in the right amount straight into the bottle.
It’s important to add the right amount because the lack of priming sugar will under-carbonate the bottles and the opposite may make them over-carbonate or even cause bottle bombs.
In this instance, I added 0.14 oz or 4 grams of raw corn sugar straight into the bottle, but you can do the same with the sugar/water mixture. Perhaps, a syringe would be a better option then, but you can still use a measuring spoon.
This is the safest way to end up with perfectly primed bottles in my opinion.
2. Fill the bottles gently and cap them
Stick the pipe or a spigot to the end of the bottle and slowly fill it to minimize the oxidation which is bad for beer.
Try to be consistent and avoid splashing for the entire duration before you reach half a finger from the opening of the bottle at the top.
As soon as you are done, it’s suggested to take a cap from the vessel and cap the bottle so no more air, bugs, dust, dirt, or any unwanted create enters.
I still use this beginner capper machine which is far from ideal but works great for homebrewers. There are also better capper machines that can automate the process and make it easier because this machine occasionally makes you miss and you have to take a second or even a third try to succeed.
4. Conditioning
It’s time to let your bottles age and become a real deal.
During this time, you’ll first let the bottles stay at room temperature for 10 days because this temperature will help the yeast awake and eat sugars.
Then you’ll transfer the bottles to the fridge and let them continue conditioning. During this phase, the beer will truly become the beer and the flavors will kick in in the right way. It’s also important that bottles stay in the fridge for some time because it helps the Co2 to stiffen within the bottle, so when you open it doesn’t disappear.
If you want to track how your beer tastes during the conditioning phase, I have written an article on it and it will also help you understand this stage better, so check it out.
I recommend that you open a beer from time to time to check the progress and learn about the changes your beer will go through with time.
Recipes differ, so some beer will take longer to become what it’s meant to be while some will be great the next week.
Keep the patience up and you shall reap the rewards of your homebrewing craft soon!
Final words
Bottling is in the opinion of many the hardest state of homebrewing as it takes so much time to prepare the bottles, fill them, and cap them.
Moreover, you must be careful not to introduce extra oxygen when pouring the homebrew and must use the right amount of priming sugar in order to achieve the right carbonation levels.
For this reason, many homebrewers move away from bottles after they gain some experience and instead use kegs.
Kegging is super simple as you only worry about a single container which is easy to clean and you don’t need caps, and all that effort to fill a bottle per bottle and end up with the backpain.
However, kegs are a serious investment, so only do it if it fits your budget or you plan to do homebrewing in the long term.