Semi pro bottle filler

[Boycott]

Cheers garry, ive gone through a good few bottling sticks but they always seem to malfunction (either way too slow filling orhuge leaking out of the bottle) if i got a premium made one id consider it but these cheap plastic jobs don't seem to like me. Still have to hold it constantly.

Ive thought about a beer gun before but what with the co2 cyclinder etc it seems like too much work. I currently use a large auyosyphon with a small tap at the end but its very finicky to open and close to to tiny valve but its better than the sticks imo. It actually disturbs the beer much less than the sticks. The sticks can flow at high speed when working properly and seem to cause alot of bubbles at the start of a bottle fill. Zero with my tap.

Anyway i can definitely see this causing a few problems and who knows the quality of this particular model but i think ill give it a go!

[Boycott]

So i finally got my filler! As promised I did a review of it. I feel garry was correct in what he said about it.
First video review made so its not great editing so sorry about that.

http://youtu.be/lHaVXsOX5Fw

[RichC]

Thanks for the review DC. I'd wondered about these but I have to say it's not a very impressive system. There must be some way of using the third filler without an extra arm? I use this system with a dip tube on one spigot and there's little or no waste. http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/double-barrel-bottling-now-twice-fast-257264/

[DEMPSEY]

The bottles should hang free by themselves  when filling .

[johnrm]

Good review DC.
Is there any adjustment possible on the bottle grip? One of the selling points is bottle grip, I see some wing nuts there, are these adjustable?
You could squirt a bit of CO2 into the reservoir to minimise oxidation.

[LordEoin]

an easier way to minimize oxidation might be to tilt it back for the first bit to get the inlet tube submerged faster

[Garry]

Nice review, thanks for posting.

Oxidation shouldn't be a problem when you are bottle conditioning. The yeast needs oxygen as it's eating the priming sugar.

I'd have thought that the bottles should hang on the v-grooves and automatically stop filling when the bottle is full. You could try do some adjustments using water instead of beer?

It does appear to fill the bottles much faster than a bottle stick. You'd think someone would come up with a bigger bore bottle stick?

[Tom]

You were cocky, doing that in your socks!

Thanks for posting that. Was looking at one of these, so it's REALLY helped the decision. Cheers.

[Boycott]

I did expect the bottle to hold in place but they just dont. (on 1 weird shaoed bottle i did get it to hang actually) and there is no way to adjust them. I would say it does fill then faster but i think you would want to be filling more than one 20l batch for it to be of net benefit.

My socks act as a mop on brew days 

[DEMPSEY]

Now why did I not mention the socks . These bottle fillers are suppose to hold the bottles while filling and also only fill to the neck and not overflow so you can take your time removing them and putting another bottle on
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA3LlPQmsuI

[Boycott]

Yeah thats what you would expect and what i was hoping for

[Tom]

Not for fifty quid though. I think that model there is 500...

[Garry]

That stainless model looks like this one. It's 192GBP + VAT. (Anyone else think the Leek Brewery guy looks like Steve Coogan?)

There's a 2-spout model for 110GBP + VAT.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqyZRQ_Jvas

[Tom]

Sweet, Garry, thanks. Reduces my start-up costs by €250!

Even fucking sounds like him (albeit with a slight headcold).

[HomeBrewWest]

So i finally got my filler! As promised I did a review of it. I feel garry was correct in what he said about it.
First video review made so its not great editing so sorry about that.

http://youtu.be/lHaVXsOX5Fw

DC, the oxidation stops as soon as the beer level rises above the fill tube outlet. But the bottles should stay in the holder without support. I wonder if tightening the springs means that the weight of the empty bottle is no longer sufficient to keep it in the holder?

I haven't tried these and we may be out of stock now so I'm not sure that we can test one until we get them back in. One of the things I love about this forum is great feedback like this on new products.

We will get back to the manufacturers as soon as we can get a feeling for what is wrong with your unit. It might be a balancing act with the springs between drips and over tightening.

Can you try it with water and some glass beer bottles, but loosen the springs to their factory setting again. Dripping won't be a problem once you start bottling (assuming the bottles now stay in place by themselves) since there should always be a bottle on the tube.

You will always get some drips anyway since the outside of the tubes will be wet and will drip as you change bottles.

I'm thinking with Oxbars, you would need the hold them in place until they fill enough to stay in place by themselves, but it should still work very well.