I figure that I’ve bottle at least a dozen batches of beer so far. Even though I use a keg, there are certain occasions that I need to bottle. Here are a few set-up tips that may help you on bottling day.

Like, for instance a barleywine. Barleywine is style of beer that tastes better with age…a lot of it. While I was bottling my barleywine today I figured I’d share a few tips that I’ve used over my time bottling that may help you.

NOTE: This is not the be all and end all of bottling, this is just my opinion.

If you can, move your batch to it’s final resting place the night before. This allows for the sediment to settle down:

If your dishwasher has a ‘sanitize’ cycle USED IT. Turn your hot water heater up to the hottest setting and let it stew overnight.

Before you go to bed, load the dishwasher. Remove the utensil tray. We’ll use that later.

Turn the spigot on your bottling bucket so that it’s askew. This way you don’t have to worry about cracking the bucket on a flat surface.

Remember the utensil tray? Well use it to hold your caps while you sanitize them. This way you don’t have to fish around for them.

Use cookie trays on the floor (& countertops) so this way you don’t get beer all on the floor. Also a small chair will help your back.

This is how much beer that DIDN’T spill on the floor when I was bottling. Easy clean-up

There is still some beer on the bottom of the bottles. Trays work here great too.

Fill a bottle, squeeze it so there is no air in it and cap it. When it expands and you can’t squeeze it…it’s carbed up!

Listening to Cake makes things even better.

Before you start capping put your caps in a shallow dish and then pour some sanitizer in the dish. This will help the caps stay cleaner, longer.