clean bottles:

  • soak bottles in warm water, removing labels and rinsing out the worst of any remnants.
  • rinse bottles in oxiclean solution (1 scoop to 5 gallons of warm water), shaking to remove any hard-to-remove remnants.
  • sanitize bottles in a star-san solution and let air dry.
  • sanitize bottle caps, tubing, racking cane, bottling tip, and bottling bucket.

prepare beer:

  • boil bottling sugar in 2 cups of water for 5 minutes.
  • add sugar to bottling bucket, then siphon beer from the fermentor to the bottling bucket, taking care to minimize oxygen contact with the beer.
  • take a small sample of beer before it goes into the bottling bucket to check the final gravity.

filling bottles:

  • attach bottling tip and siphon beer into bottles.
  • cap each bottle with a bottle cap and seal with capper.
  • label caps to make it clear which batch it is (i number each batch i brew and write the number on the bottle caps with a sharpie).
  • leave bottles at room temperature or cellar temperature for 2 weeks, then chill one bottle and test the carbonation.