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wildoates

wildoates

NewBee
Registered Member
Mar 22, 2009
2,373
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0
Elk Grove, CA
Today my two daughters and I either racked or bottled all the mead in the house (that wasn't already bottled, of course). We washed approximately 47 million bottles and filled approximately 37 million of them--at least it felt that way.

I need to get some more going, though--all I have left unbottled is the lingonberry (which will be ready to bottle next time) and the chocolate, which is way to young to even think about bottling. Soon I won't have much left to fiddle with, and that'd be a shame.
 
ahh I have alot still bulk aging and I fear the day I decide to bottle them, but im sure it will be satisfying to see them neatly bottled, labeled and put on the wine rack :)
 
So far ours is all boxed up and stashed in the garage, as it's way too much for my bottle rack. :)

I've all my adult Christmas gifts, though!
 
Whereas the dozen or so gallon batches I have bulk ageing under the stairs are crying out to have something done with them....

They're all traditional, so I'm thinking of blending them to standardise the flavour then I can decide if its ready or not.....

regards

fatbloke
 
I hear ya! I need to do some serious bottle cleaning. I've got 5 gallons of beer that need smaller homes, then the cacao mead and the orphaned 1/2 gallon of mead I forgot about until just now (I should go make sure the airlock is still wet!). I've got 2 cases of bottles donated by a friend, but they aren't exactly clean. I think tomorrow I'll spend some time at the sink with a bucket of PBW.
 
Now here is a thread I can identify with!

20 gallons of Cider, 26 gallons of Zinfandel, 3 gallons of Cyser all closing in on that time to bottle?

Yeesh!! :BangHead:

TB
 
I have just one word for all of you "Kegs"

I now have 11 of them stashed away between mead, old ales and 10 gallons of a Samichlaus clone I made. I don't even want to consider bottling that much.
 
Why not? I actually view bottling as the culmination of all the hard work we've done to create something we'd like to share with others. And it's hard to share when it's all in one 5-gallon container.

Besides, I never end a bottling session sober! ;)
 
Kegs are great if you drink it all yourself, but I give almost all of mine away. For that you need bottles.

It's not the bottling itself that's a pain, it's the washing the used bottles. And de-labeling. Every time I'm tempted to just head up to the semi-local shop and buy new bottles. :)
 
wildoates said:
It's not the bottling itself that's a pain, it's the washing the used bottles. And de-labeling. Every time I'm tempted to just head up to the semi-local shop and buy new bottles. :)
Click to expand...

Amen to that one!! I am now to the point where if I soak a label and determine that it's one of the nasty gummy ones that require chemicals to remove, I don't bother scrubbing, it goes to the recycle pile... I was trying to make room in the basement winery to move more stuff down into it and ended up returning about three cases' worth of "aww, mannnnn..." bottles, and all the ones where the label is printed directly on the glass (people try to be helpful and save me ALL bottles)... sometimes it really is worth it to just go buy fresh new bottles...
 
wildoates said:
Kegs are great if you drink it all yourself, but I give almost all of mine away. For that you need bottles.

It's not the bottling itself that's a pain, it's the washing the used bottles. And de-labeling. Every time I'm tempted to just head up to the semi-local shop and buy new bottles. :)
Click to expand...

Ahh, I see. My wife and I have found a way to deal with this: clean your used bottles well in advance, then seal em up in boxes so all ya gotta do is pull them out, rinse and sanitize. Makes bottling day more focused on the fun part :)
 
The way I figure it, I can spend $12.95 on a new wine bottle...or I can visit Trader Joe and pick up a bottle of three buck chuck, enjoy that, then break out the elbow grease.

GooGone is my friend...
 
Ahh, I see. My wife and I have found a way to deal with this: clean your used bottles well in advance, then seal em up in boxes so all ya gotta do is pull them out, rinse and sanitize. Makes bottling day more focused on the fun part
Click to expand...

I always mean to do this, but usually just stick the boxes of donated bottles in the garage and fergit about 'em 'til it's time to bottle. :)

I do actually have some bottles that have been washed, dried, and covered with foil to keep the dust out. Just not all of them. :)
 
wildoates said:
I always mean to do this, but usually just stick the boxes of donated bottles in the garage and fergit about 'em 'til it's time to bottle. :)

I do actually have some bottles that have been washed, dried, and covered with foil to keep the dust out. Just not all of them. :)
Click to expand...

Haha! I'm the same. I am down to 7 pre-cleaned and foil-capped bottles to hold 7 gallons of stuff. Don't think it will fit. Meant to bottle clean yesterday but played Wii instead. :p
 
I don't even take the labels off 99% of the time, too lazy. Also, I've stopped washing and sanitizing them - when I'm done drinking whatever was in the bottle before I just immediately triple rinse it with hot water (or let it soak full for a bit if I didn't get to it right away) then let it dry and back onto my wine racks it goes. Then, when it's time to bottle I sometimes sanitize or rinse, but honestly I just fill them as they were a lot of the time... bad practice I know, but I haven't had any problems yet!
 
I'm too paranoid to not scrub and sanitize at least once, and to bottle wet. :)

I tend to say I'm not going to take the labels off the next batch of bottles, but when it comes down to it I just can't admit to the laziness it implies. I'm darned lazy, sure, but I'd be embarrassed to give mead in a bottle with an old label on it.

Hee hee
 
I remove labels when I have the energy. Lately the labels stay on unless they fall off of their own volition. But I do soak in PBW and almost always I will give the bottle a short scrub with a brush. Too paranoid!
 
wildoates said:
I'm darned lazy, sure, but I'd be embarrassed to give mead in a bottle with an old label on it.

Hee hee
Click to expand...

Yep, again, what WildOates said...

I can pay about $13 for a case of new clean bottles. Or elbow grease. Some days it's a toss-up.

I have found that wine bottles keep best if I drink their contents and then put the cork back in, the residual alcohol doesn't get fuzzy like I've found water does if it's not drained out when it's been rinsed... Once bottles get de-labeled (or if I know the label comes off easily, ie, it's either water-soluble lick and stick or it's one of my own gummed shipping labels), they get to sit in a cardboard wine box, open-end up, box is closed to keep out the spiders. Once they've been scrubbed inside AND out, they get put upside down in the box, then it's just sanitize and go...

I have a bucket that fits 7 regular bottles, so I fill it with bottles, put a little soap in each one and a bit for the bucket, fill each bottle and the bucket with hot water, set the timer and go play computer games or read gotmead for 15 min... come back, scrub 'em all with the bottle brush and then one at a time, pull them out, de-label them and either put 'em back if they need another soak, or empty the soapy water into another bottle to soak, rinse with bottle blaster and decorate the bottle tree, when the bucket's filled with a fresh load, set the timer again... lather, rinse, repeat...
 
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