Brew UK Forum | Brewing Tips
Displacement!
Not sure about you guys, but when fermentations finished and i go to bottle my beer i siphon off in to a separate bucket (FV) with a tap fitted, to reduce the amount of sludge i get in my beer (thanks for the tip, local brewshop!)
I then fit my little bottler to my tap, and away i go - that is until the last few bottles where the level reaches lower than the tap (maybe its just my fault for fitting the tap a bit high up!)
Okay - i could tip the FV to get the last in to the tap, but its hard work, bends the little bottler & nearly impossible to do on your own. I did this a few times and made a mess.
I could siphon it off, but we all know thats messy and not the most efficient. so my answer dawned on me in the way only ridiculously simple things do:
1) Get some extra large 'clip lock' (like zip-lok, but without the zip) resealable sandwich type bags from your local supermarket - you usually get a fair few in a box for a couple of quid, maximum. I use these to bag all my gear after use anyway, so had them on hand!
2) Fill with water, don't overfill and try to reduce any 'air pocket' as much as possible and clip locked - no water escaping. If you've got an airpocket, hold it upright, unclip the corner squeeze it out and clip closed again.
3) Spray down with videne solution to sterilise and rinse off - then carefully lower in to the bottom of the fv.
4) Voilà - bag sits at the bottom and the beer level raised back in to the tap. put another bag in if you're using smaller ones until the bottoms covered - back pain & beer wastage minimised!
finally pull the bags out carefully, rinse off, empty water & use them again to keep your gear clean in between brews 
Sam
Responses
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Interesting tip. I was also reading the other day about using glass marbles in your boiler to decrease the dead space between the bottom of the boiler and the tap.
Back on the topic of bottling from a barrel, I too have my little bottler attached to a regular pressure barrel. But instead of just fitting directly to the tap, I use a very short length of rubber hose, and have the keg on a crate on the counter. when it gets to the bottom, I can tip the barrel but still keep the little bottler vertical.
I'm liking your water bag idea though. Always handy to have another idea up your sleeve...
Posted 1 year ago by Member
There's no replacement for displacement.
Posted 1 year ago by Member
This is a really daft question...
I am seriously tempted to bottle my raspberry wheat beer i made and see whether that comes up trumps better than it has in the barrel it's in now.
My question how would i use the little bottler? Would you but the syphon in the barrel then clip bottler on to the tubing? Or put the little bottler directly in the tap and viola beer goes into the bottles as required?
Also am i correct in saying that you would put roughly 1/2 tsp of sugar in per bottle? If i've already put sugar into my ale would that then matter?
Apologies for hijacking this thread with my question i am just very curious when it comes to bottling.
Cheers all...
P.S it's beer o'clock time wooo hoo...
Neil
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Nice tip!!
BM - You attach the little bottler directly to the tap - although that may be a bit of a struggle if it's not the tap that came with the bottler. Probably not impossible but may take some doing with bits of hose n'stuff.
You can re-prime, but I'd take it easy with the sugar - don't forget that it will cause further fermentation and make the beer drier than it was.
First night off this week - just put the kids to bed and poured a beer myself! Nice!
(with grateful thanks to the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers and slightly adapted)
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Excellent tip! I was bottling on Thursday and I'm getting fed up of trying to tip the FV over and fit the bottle of the filler etc. etc.
I'll try this next time.
Fermenting:
Condtioning: Twibute Clone
Drinking: 100% wheat, Fixby Gold
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