Originally posted by revnatscider
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4 head bottle filler for $275
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Beejay
Pipeworks Brewing Company
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how many bottles/hour can you bottle (with how many people?)
BTW, someone on homebrewtalk maybe a cheap DIY hydraulic capper.
Is it necessary to weigh the bottles filled to ensure you do have at least 22oz for weights and measures?
Can I add if you don't mind (or ignore otherwise ) what you sell your bombers for (self distribute or wholesale?) and what they sell retail. I came to the same conclusion for my small brewery plans (not operating yet)--that is to bottle singles and not get into wholesale kegs much.Last edited by greenmtnbrewer; 08-08-2012, 03:11 PM.
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Johnny here is the link that shows his plans. I just ordered the cylinder and a foot pedal this week.
Its not like my bench capper was all that slow or required that much effort, but after all I am an engineer and if something can be done with power (or in this case pneumatics) well then it's a must right? I'm also fortunate enough to have access to craploads of spare parts like air cylinders...
I'm on it right after I build the $14 labeler and hybrid Texas/Ubiquitous CPF.
Jim Taylor
Sloop Brewing
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Racks
Originally posted by johnnymaxI spent a lot of time hunting parts, but ended up finding a better deal for one that was already assembled from more beer.
Then all I had to do was mount them so it would be hands free.
http://morebeer.com/view_product/182..._Bottle_Filler
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We now have our bottling machine working pretty good. I really need to stop and take some video of how well it is working now and explain everything. Yesterday I was filling 270 bottles an hour, so today, my head brewer Robert ran the bottler and he was bottling 288 bottles an hour
As far as the rinser and racks, we got them from more beer. We rinse with ice cold water, because it reduces foaming going into a cold bottleLast edited by johnnymax; 09-05-2012, 05:59 PM.John McKissack
Texas Big Beer Brewery
Newton County, Texas
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You are using Saniclean in the ice cold rinse water?
On Morebeer they also say you can use the rinsing/purging base to do a gas purge of the bottles. I'm guessing you don't do that and just use the counter pressure filler to purge them before filling right?
Thanks
JimLast edited by Admiral; 09-06-2012, 09:04 PM.
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Sorry, I am CRAZY BUSY, but here is a picture I snapped a couple of weeks ago of the new design.
Construction:
Back - Plywood
Bottle rest - 2x4
Filler supports - 1x3
Fillers are mounted to small blocks of wood with copper tubing straps (maybe, I just walked through the hardware store trying stuff)
Those blocks are mounted to the cross 1x3 with hinges that allow the filler to swing out, so you can load and unload bottles with one hand, allowing the other to grab the next bottle.
Last week we fine tunes the system pressures (we bottle at 15 psi) and we fill a little over 280 22 oz. bottles per hour.
That is about 8 barrels in 5 1/2 hours, plus breaks.
We also bottle in an air conditioned room in the mid 60's and rinse the bottle in ice cold sanitizer. This eliminates any chance of foaming allowing us to bottle a little faster.Last edited by johnnymax; 09-09-2012, 07:36 PM.John McKissack
Texas Big Beer Brewery
Newton County, Texas
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high pressure
we just switched from the Blichmann beer gun, which rocks, to this one in anticipation of settup up our 3 head bottler. it is SOO different in use. its taking us some time to get used to it. but the pressure thing is the BIG difference! you guys use 15PSI, we have not gone above 11PSI yet as we are doing it by hand and the bottler shoots out at that pressure!
we started witha 10 foot beer line like on the blichmann but went to a 6 foot one and it worked a bit better.
about how long is the hose from keg to the system?
do you maintain the 2 psi ABOVE in the bottle than on the keg like the instructions say? we have the one with the gauge and it seems we have to keep the bottle 2 PSI BELOW the keg pressure in order to have it work at all.
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We are coming off an 8 bbl bright tank through about 10' of half inch line. We have our beer carbonated at 15 psi at about 37 degrees. The line from the CO2 is split with one line going to the bright tank and the others going to the bottler. We bottle in the cooler with the temp in the 60s and we chill our bottles with cold Sanitizer water. We get some foaming but that is desired so that we can cap on foam to keep O2 out of our bottles. This works for us, but you may need to work out setting for your conditions.John McKissack
Texas Big Beer Brewery
Newton County, Texas
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