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FAQ-Bottles

Question: It has been 2 weeks and I have no carbonation in my beer?
Answer:

We recommend agitating each bottle and/or moving to a warmer temperature, say, 70+ °F. If you added the sugar it will carbonate. Some styles will take longer to carbonate than others, and temperature can play a big role in carbonating a beer as well. It is not unusual for a beer to take 2-3 weeks to carbonate. Just open a beer each week until the carbonation level desired is achieved. Then place the beer in a cool location (below 55 °F) to prevent over carbonation....Click to Read full Answer

Question: How often do I need to replace the rubber gaskets on my Grolsch-style swing-cap bottles?
Answer:

Each rubber gasket should last 5 or 6 uses....Click to Read full Answer

Question: What equipment do I need to bottle?
Answer:

1) Be sure you are using the non-twist-off type of beer bottle if you are going to be capping standard 12 or 22 oz bottles. A 5 gallon batch of beer will require about 48 -54 12 oz. bottles or 26-30 22 oz. bottles. 2) Caps- All our caps will fit any standard non-twist-off variety bottle. The caps will not properly seal if crimped onto a twist-off bottle. The only difference in our caps is the print, except for the oxygen absorbing caps. These are only really required for long-term storage beers to prevent oxidation and staleness due to oxygen’s presence in the headspace of the bottle. 3) A capper is needed....Click to Read full Answer

Question: How many bottles do I need to bottle a 5 gallon batch?
Answer:

48-54 12 ounce bottles 32-35 16 ounce bottles 24-26 22 ounce bottles 16-18 32 ounce bottles...Click to Read full Answer

Question: What is the ideal storing temperature for my ales and lagers?
Answer:

Your main concerns here are heat and sunlight—both bad for your brew. Heat can cause oxidation, which results in a stale, cardboard-like taste. If your house does not have air conditioning, we suggest storing your beer on the floor of your basement during the summer months, or in the refrigerator. Most people keep their house at around 68 °F, which is fine for storing your beer. Just keep it out of direct sunlight. You may also store your brew in the refrigerator, if you have the space, ideally between 34 and 40 °F. Lagers, on the other hand, should always be refrigerated if possible. For the first two weeks after bottling, they should be kept at the same temperature you had it at for primary fermentation, so that the carbonation can take place. After that, the colder the better, so long as its above freezing. It's a good idea to keep your beer at constant storage temperature, so as not to take your beer through a roller coaster ride of extreme temperatures. As a happy medium, 50-55 °F is a good long-term storage temperature range for your ales....Click to Read full Answer

Question: Why is my beer over carbonated?
Answer:

Typically a beer over carbonates because it is stored in too warm of a location for too long. Yeast will continue to ferment if left to its own devices. Once a beer is carbonated (typically 2 -3 weeks) make sure to move the beer to a location below 55 °F for storage. At this temperature the yeast will hibernating and stop creating CO2. Other possible causes are either too much priming sugar was added and/or the beer was bottled before fermentation was fully completed. In order to ensure a homogeneous mixture of your beer and your priming solution one can use a sanitized stainless steel stirring spoon to gently (careful not to add oxygen) mix the beer and priming solution together....Click to Read full Answer

Question: Can I bottle my homemade soda like I would my beer?
Answer:

No. If you put soda into glass bottles, you run the risk of having them explode on you. Midwest suggests putting homemade soda into either 2 liter plastic soda bottles, or using the 500 ml P.E.T. and plastic screw caps available in our catalog or on our website....Click to Read full Answer

Question: How do you bottle beer?
Answer:

Bottling a beer can be a little time consuming, but easy enough to do. You want to make sure that all of your bottles are free of debris inside, and you have sanitized them just like you would any of your other equipment. Transfer your beer from fermenter into the bottling bucket. This transfer will allow you to add you’re priming sugar without mixing up the sediment. Bottling buckets make the bottling process much easier to do because all you have to do is take a small piece of tubing, attach one end to the spigot, and the other end to your bottle filler. When you are ready to bottle, turn the spigot on, and start filling your bottles. You want to use 2/3 of a cup of priming sugar for a 5 gallon batch of beer. It isn’t a bad idea to mix the priming sugar with 1 cup of water, boil, and then cool the mixture before you add it to your bottling bucket. This allows the priming sugar to dissolve better, and you will end up with a consistent carbonation level with all of your beers....Click to Read full Answer

Question: My beer has a stale, cardboard-like flavor to it. Someone told me this is oxidation. What is oxidation, and how can I avoid it? Can my beer be fixed?
Answer:

Oxidation results in a stale, cardboard-like taste in your beer. If you are experiencing this, there are a couple of possibilities. If you have been storing your beer for an extended period of time, the beer may have become oxidized. While the bottle cap does provide a nearly airtight seal, air may seep into the bottle over time. If you plan on aging your beer in the bottle for an extended period of time, this is where those oxygen absorbing bottle caps will come in handy. The other possible cause of oxidation is the beer being exposed to high temperatures. If you store your beer at room temperature, and you don’t have air-conditioning, it is possible that your beer may become oxidized during the warm summer months. To avoid this, you can store it in your basement on the floor, where it may be much cooler, or simply refrigerate it. Once your beer has become oxidized, there is unfortunately no way to fix it....Click to Read full Answer

Question: What kinds of cleaning equipment does Midwest carry?
Answer:

We have several products to help you when it comes time to clean up your bottles, carboys and airlocks. The most common cleaning equipment we arm our customers with are the carboy brush, the bottle brush, and the jet bottle washer. The carboy brush is specially designed to scrub the hard-to-reach sides of your carboy. This feature is invaluable, especially when using glass carboys as your primary fermenter, as the krausen leaves a lot of proteins clinging to the sides. The bottle brush is exactly what you’ll need to prepare for bottling day. Finally, the jet bottle washer is a great way to rinse your bottles and carboys. You’ll need the optional faucet adapter if your faucet has internal threads. It carries a life-time guarantee and conserves water, too!...Click to Read full Answer

Question: I'm out of priming sugar, what else can I use?
Answer:

If you can’t wait until your next shipment from Midwest, or you don’t have a brew shop near you there are many options for carbonating you beer with something else than priming sugar. Just about anything that has sugar in it could be used, but here are a few examples and the amounts that you need: Using honey- 1 cup for bottling and <½ cup for kegging. Using maple syrup- 1¼ cup for bottling and 5/8 cup for kegging. Using molasses- 1 cup for bottling and <½ cup for kegging. Using brown sugar 2/3 cup for bottling and <1/3 cup for kegging. Using cane sugar (table sugar)- 1 cup for bottling and <1/3 cup for kegging. It is a good idea to mix these with a little water and boil before adding to your bottling bucket. That way everything breaks down and the yeast has an easier time using the sugars. Keep in mind that these different sugars will also leave a different flavor in your beer. The sugar that you use can be just one more thing to make your beer different then anything else out there. Maybe try brown sugar with a brown or a stout? That little extra sweetness can make a good beer even better. ...Click to Read full Answer

Question: How can I get the labels off of my returnable bottles? I don't want people thinking I'm serving them Milwaukee's Best Light Ice??!!
Answer:

Label removal is made pretty easy with B-Brite. Just take your bottling bucket, fill it about three-quarters of the way with warm water and add 1 tablespoon of B-Brite. Pack as many bottles as you can into the bucket, submerging them in the solution as you go. When you have as many bottles as you think you can get into the bucket, top off with more warm water if necessary. Then, just leave 'em sit for a while. Overnight, or even a couple of hours should do the trick. When you remove your bottles from the solution, the labels will just slip right off of the bottles....Click to Read full Answer

Question: When can I bottle my beer?
Answer:

Typically, you can bottle an ale 3 weeks after brew day with two-stage fermentation. This schedule allows for 7 days for primary fermentation, and 14 days for secondary fermentation. Wheat beers are often bottled right out of the primary, as it's common to not worry about the yeast still in suspension. No one balks at a glass of hazy weizen. Lagers will require up to 14+ days in the primary and often 4-6 weeks in the secondary before bottling. In any case, when the beer's specific gravity has stabilized at it's terminal gravity and it has sufficiently cleared, it's ready to bottle. Other "big" beers can use some extended aging, possibly leaving in the secondary for several months to develop their complexities in bulk and to allow yeast, gravity, and time to round out the edges of the beer. For these extended aging beers, you may wish to add a little bit of yeast (1/4 tsp should suffice) to your bottling bucket to make sure there are enough yeast cells in suspension to carbonate the beer....Click to Read full Answer