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4 head bottle filler for $275

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  • #61
    Originally posted by greenmtnbrewer View Post
    One more question, is the hinge (per Reverend Nat's Hard Cider) setup practical? do you spill any "product" when removing the bottle at an angle?

    I am thinking ideally the filler would come down onto the beer bottle and lock into place so it doesn't pop up when you are filling.
    The hinge setup is what allows the filler to lock in place in the bottle. When it is rotated into place the bottle is held firmly between the drip tray and filler. Nothing is spilled when removed. You pull the bottle outward and as soon as it is angled past the drip tray it is taken down and off. I've been to beejay's brewery several times while they are bottling and it's an incredibly efficient process to see in action.

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    • #62
      Love this thread, Ill add my design....

      I built this CP filler before i saw this thread with the more beer fillers, otherwise i would have seriously considered doing what Beejay and John did.

      From cp filling in the past i know that it can be a huge pain. My number one concern was simplicity, so i decided to link 3 CP fillers together. I built this thing back before we started our brewery and when we thought we were going to get into bottling. We ended up starting the brewery in a very very small location and bottling wasnt an option. We've since started taking action with an expansion. Now that bottling is an option, i started looking at the small commercial 4 head fillers again. However, the same thought process went through my head as before. The bottling lines available commercially are just too expensive when you can make one yourself and bottle at a good rate like these creative gentlemen have showed.

      Now im working on mounting my design to a stand for easier operation. Its kinda clumsy doing it by hand.

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      • #63
        What about Cans??

        I love this design -

        Has anyone seen this style of homemade counter-pressure filler made for can?

        I suspect it could be done if the correct size bung was used?

        I have a seamer.

        If you have seen one or have any thoughts, send them my way!

        Thanks

        Rob

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        • #64
          What pressure do you all use on the keg and release valve?

          I tried to do this and just made a mess. Way too much foam. I release pressure from the keg and adjusted it enough to push it out. Bottle pressure on the release valve was around 2-4 psi.

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          • #65
            5 psi works perfectly for me.

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            • #66
              Thanks--not enough pressure could be the case. I was worried about blowing up a bottle in my face.

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              • #67
                we purge at about 17 psi and fill with 15 psi on the brite
                Beejay
                Pipeworks Brewing Company

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                • #68
                  This thread is awesome guys. We are looking for ways to cut costs for our nano-brewery plan and this is a huge cost saver!

                  Is there a thread out there on other ways to save cost at initial start up?

                  Beejay, next time I'm up in Chicago we will have to visit your brewery! Very excited to see how far you guys have come. (We are in Springfield area)

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                  • #69
                    Originally posted by sok454 View Post
                    This thread is awesome guys. We are looking for ways to cut costs for our nano-brewery plan and this is a huge cost saver!

                    Is there a thread out there on other ways to save cost at initial start up?

                    Beejay, next time I'm up in Chicago we will have to visit your brewery! Very excited to see how far you guys have come. (We are in Springfield area)

                    Stop on by brother. We've grown a lot since our opening.
                    Beejay
                    Pipeworks Brewing Company

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                    • #70
                      CO2 Purge

                      Looking at building one of these setups for use with 12oz bottles, but am a bit worried about Oxygen pick-up and Oxidation. I can appreciate that it's not going to be as good as a double evac system, but what kind of shelf life are people getting on beers bottled with this setup?

                      What's the average time people are purging with CO2?

                      The rinsing base JonnyMax showed in his video is also able to purge with CO2, does anybody use it like this? or is it unnecessary?

                      Cheers
                      Zac

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                      • #71
                        three words zac,

                        cap on foam.

                        the oxidation on these systems is very minimal, and IMO probably not worth a whole lot of worry.

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                        • #72
                          beer manifold

                          How does the beer manifold work?







                          Originally posted by revnatscider View Post
                          Here are some pictures of the system I put together based on this design.



                          A couple things to note:

                          I used PVC soffit board from Lowes. It cuts like wood and glues with PVC solvent. I recommend it over plywood. The other option is HDPE board from US Plastic sells sheets, #46039.

                          Using 3/8" to 1/4" reducing tees is not advisable. When you turn on or off a head, the neighbors go faster or slower so I'm dicking with the relief valves too often. I am going to rebuild it to use a buffer tank/manifold. Foxx sells one, #04C03-404.

                          I am also going to replace the straight out hose barbs that come with the MoreBeer fillers with elbows so the hoses go straight up and back rather than potentially interfere with their neighbors when swinging. Foxx part #04C03-133. I made the whole thing 42" wide, and with the elbows up, it can be narrower so the working area is more compact. It's a long way to grab a bottle from the sani when you're standing at the head farthest from it. Maybe 36"?

                          I have to run the CO2 line-in to the filler through a double regulator with a jumper because it freezes up bad otherwise, even with a space heater pointed at it. I need to get some heating wire, but I think the double regulator with a jumper is a must-have.

                          Today was the first day. Me on the filler and sanitizer and my guy on the manual capper and keeping the bottles queued up for the sanitizer. We did 10 barrels of 750 ml bottles in 5 hours. 750 mls is 25 ounces, so it's a little slower than bombers. I'm sure we'll go faster after a few thousand bottles practice.

                          I'm going to finalize this filler and do an open source hardware design and offer pre-built fillers for those who don't want to build it. I think I'm in about $500 all told, and $350 of that is the MoreBeer fillers.

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                          • #73
                            I have been using the original system I posted in the first post for two years now.
                            I opened one of our Big Texas Blondes that was 18 months old and there was no signs of oxidation.
                            Our Blonde is 10.55% ABV by the way, so it ages WELL.

                            When we bottle we use the rinser, then move the rack to one that purges with CO2
                            Then we set the rack of bottles into a tray with water and sanatizer.
                            That keeps the CO2 from flowing out and also sanitized the outside of the bottles rim.
                            Then when we pressure up the bottles with CO2 on the bottling system that purges the bottle even more.
                            It is very hands on and we have total control of the bottling.
                            We average around 300 bottles an hour.
                            Oh, and we lose less than 1% of our beer when bottling. I was told that you can lose up to 20% of your beer using the super expensive bottling lines.
                            Like I said, we adjust as we go and we are in control of the bottling.
                            Last edited by johnnymax; 01-07-2014, 05:24 PM.
                            John McKissack
                            Texas Big Beer Brewery
                            Newton County, Texas

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                            • #74
                              Originally posted by WorkingManBrew View Post
                              How does the beer manifold work?
                              We never used the Foxx beer manifold but I picked up a 4-way tri-clamp manifold which works like a champ.

                              We fill 280 bottles at 16.9 oz (one tier of bulk for us) in 45 minutes, day-in, day-out. Two weeks ago we did a big run of over 9000 bottles in three days. The MoreBeer fillers crap out after maybe 50,000 bottles each so we keep a set in reserve. They are quick to swap out.

                              I made a little platform for the base to work for different size/height bottles. We also fill 750 ml bottles on the same rig.

                              We added some little tubing to the bottom of each filler tube. We call them Precision Displacement Adjustment Devices. With the right amount of tubing, they create enough displacement to let you fill each bottle full, until it begins squirting out the PRV. Then when you remove the bottle, the displacement created by the fill tube and tubing makes for perfect fill heights. With some head pressure and a fast fill and we are capping cider on foam, which isn't the easiest thing to do since cider doesn't foam much (no proteins).

                              I am not looking forward to spending the money on a pro-made filler.
                              Nat West
                              _____________________
                              nat@reverendnatshardcider.com
                              503-567-2221

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                              • #75
                                Thanks so much to everyone who has contributed to this post.

                                I'm prototyping a filler based on this thread, I got one of the more beer fillers with the gauge.

                                I can't seem to get the pressure gauge to go up very high when filling, and with the valve on the filler fully shut, the bottle still fills very fast, too fast. There does not seem to be any back pressure on the bottle, it never really slows down while filling like the ones in the video in post 1.

                                I'm using Corny Kegs for the prototype. Kegs are charged and carbed at 10PSI. I've got the regulator set to 10PSI.

                                My question is should the valve stop all release of air/liquid one fully shut? Either I'm doing something wrong or I have a faulty valve.

                                Thanks

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