Before I kegged, I bottled. Bottling is tedious (so is cleaning kegs). I came up with a time saving solution to bottling which someone might find useful. I’m also wondering if anyone else has any time saving bottling tips to pass on.
I started using wide necked stainless steel drink bottles. I liked them because with the wide necks I could wash them with the dishes in the dishwasher at the end of the evening, and on bottling day I’d sanitize them in the dishwasher (on sanitize setting) with a slosh of bleach. John Palmer has a concern about rinse aid affecting the head on the beer. I’m not sure if that is only a theoretical concern, but our dishwasher never has rinse aid in it as we have those soap tablets with the rinse aid in them. I’m also not sure how much good the bleach did as it degrades in hot water, but I never had any infected beer. I still put beer in those bottles from the kegs when I need to take some somewhere, or use them to send beer home with people (sometimes that’s the only way to get people to go home, once they’ve had a taste or two of your beer). The drink bottles take a lot of pressure and there is no risk of exploding glass. They also hold pressure well as they have a silica gel washer on the lids. I can’t comment on long term (several months) pressure retention as it was American IPA, and all got drunk before a month was up.
For the priming sugar, I used to heat it in water in the microwave (to sterilize and dissolve it), let it cool enough, and then used a sterile medical syringe with cc markings on the side to squirt a measured amount into each stainless steel bottle.
Bottling Shortcuts
Post #1 made 11 years ago
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Guinges
maybe 
Yesterday I was cleaning up from brewing. I found myself sitting at this computer wondering why my legs were wet and covered in salt??? Apparently because of the melting ice I slipped and hit my head on the driveway. I don't know how long I was unconscious because I didn't remember falling or getting up?? The last thing I remember was dumping the trube out in the snow. I guess I must have gotten up and continued cleaning because the keggel was put away (dirty)! Various other equipment is strewn around (still).
