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Semi pro bottle filler

Started by Boycott, September 07, 2014, 10:58:29 AM

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Boycott

Just came across this bad boyhttp://www.homebrewwest.ie/semi-professional-automatic-bottle-filler-with-3-heads-4125-p.asp

Im struggling to see how this can work? It looks potentially great. Can't see any video etc of it working. Anyone have any ideas?

Looks like you let it fill the basin with beer which is enough for 3 bottles but then what? You need to apply a suction to each outlet

DEMPSEY

There is a float valve in the bowl like what you have in a toilet cistern that will allow beer from your main tank only flow into the bowl to a certain hight. the filling tubes first have to be primed by siphoning. A small piece of tubing is used for that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KA3LlPQmsuI
Dei miscendarum discipulus
Forgive us our Hangovers as we forgive those who hangover against us

LordEoin

wouldn't that oxygenate the beer both on the feed line and to a lesser extent the unpurged bottles?

DEMPSEY

Its for doing bottled conditioned beers only.
Dei miscendarum discipulus
Forgive us our Hangovers as we forgive those who hangover against us

LordEoin

Yeah, but you're still going to be splish-sploshing the beers around into that relatively open trough.

donnchadhc

Not if the inlet tube is below the level of beer in the trough (i.e. from the bottom up) and the flow rate is low. Siphon are no different from an auto siphon

LordEoin

It doesn't look or sound like the inlet tube on that guy's bottler is below the level of the beer in the trough

Garry

The inlet to the trough is at the top and feed through a ball-cóck (fúck you word censor). So there would be a fair bit of spishing and splashing.

Any oxygen that would be introduced into the beer should(?) be consumed by the yeast during bottle conditioning.

donnchadhc

Bit of tubing would fix that, no?

DEMPSEY

A bit of tubing fitted to the float valve should do the trick  :) Fairly basic piece of gear is this and a few Microbrewer's use them for their bottled conditioned beers.
Dei miscendarum discipulus
Forgive us our Hangovers as we forgive those who hangover against us

Garry

I don't think it's a problem, as Demsey said, there are plenty of micro's using these. But for homebrewing I don't think one of these is going to make bottling day any faster. Unless you have 100+ bottles to do. It's just another piece of equipment that needs to be cleaned and sanitised.

When you think about it, filling the bottles is actually the fastest part of the bottling process. The sickening part is getting all the gear together and cleaning and sanitising and cleaning and sanitising. And then sanitising. And when you're finished you need to mop up the floor and clean everything again and put it all away. Filling the bottles is the most relaxing part if you ask me.

Boycott

Its the worse part for me, sanitising and draining are fine for me. The annoying part is opening and closing the syphon to fill the bottles and having them overflow. It means im bending over and covering the floor and me in beer for 20/30min. If this fills the bottles to the correct level and saves me bending over the whole time id be up for it.

Anyone know how it knows when a bottle is full? I guess the bottles would all have to be the same size too.

Boycott

Cheers for the video dempsey, its convinced me to buy one. Ill put a review up after i use it.

Garry

Try a bottle stick at the end of your syphon first. It's €3 well spent IMO ;)

My understanding of how this filler works is the bottle tilts forward as it's filling until the filling arm hits the bottom of the trough. You would need to adjust the support bar that holds the bottle neck until you hit the goldilocks zone of fullness. I'd say all your bottles would need to be the same. See my detailed sketch for a peak into my deepest thoughts  :P

There was a tread about these on Jim's Beer Kit but I can't find it now. It was 50:50. Those who got it to work loved it but there were others that just couldn't set it up properly and ended up leaking beer all over the kitchen.

If you do bite the bullet, keep us updated  :)


Garry

Sorry, it wasn't Jim's Beer Kit. This is where I saw it. Read the reviews at the bottom.