Complete bottling guide: How to succeed in conditioning your beer

1. The key principles of traditional bottling

Before sealing your bottles, a simple yet rigorous routine must be followed to ensure clarity and proper carbonation:

• Transferring: Using an autosiphon or sterile silicone tubing, gently transfer your beer from the fermenter to a priming bucket (or bottling bucket). This separates the clear beer from the yeast cake (sediment) at the bottom of the fermenter.
• Priming: Since the yeast has consumed all the sugars in the wort, you must provide a small dose of sugar (generally between 6 and 7 g/L of table sugar dissolved in a bit of boiled water) to restart a mini‑fermentation inside the sealed bottle, which will create the CO₂.
• Homogenising: Gently mix the sugar syrup into your beer. To ensure each bottle receives the exact same amount of sugar, get into the habit of giving the wort a light stir every three bottles filled.
• Hygiene: This is the golden rule. All your bottles must be meticulously cleaned and sanitised before filling.

2. Choosing your bottle format and type

Your choice of container will greatly influence your workload and your tasting experience:

• Volume: The 33 cl format is the most convenient for individual consumption and easy to take anywhere. The 75 cl format is ideal for sharing at the table and for ageing beers. Additionally, using larger bottles almost halves the total time spent filling and capping your batch!
• Closure type: Swing‑top bottles offer maximum convenience since you don’t need any tools to close them and they can be reused indefinitely. Crown‑cap bottles, however, remain the industry standard, offering perfect long‑term sealing.

3. Pay attention to the neck: 26 mm or 29 mm caps?

If you choose crown‑capping, be careful with the dimensions! There are two neck standards in the beer world:

• The 26 mm standard: The most common. It fits almost all 33 cl bottles (Longneck format) and many 50 cl or 75 cl bottles.
• The 29 mm standard: This wider neck is found on many 75 cl Belgian‑style or champagne‑style bottles. Before buying your caps, double‑check the neck diameter of your reused bottles to avoid being stuck on bottling day.

4. Essential tools for smooth bottling

To turn a tedious bottling session into a clean and efficient routine, two tools make all the difference:

The bottling wand: The anti‑waste accessory

Instead of opening and closing the spigot of your bottling bucket manually for each bottle — risking spills and oxygen exposure — use a bottling wand. Equipped with a spring‑loaded valve that opens when it touches the bottom of the bottle, it allows beer to flow smoothly as you press down, and instantly stops the flow when you lift it. Clean, fast, and with minimal foam.

The capper: Emily or bench model?

To crimp your 26 mm and 29 mm caps, your choice depends on your regular batch size:

• The Emily hand capper: This two‑lever model is the most economical and compact solution. The Emily capper comes with two interchangeable bell heads (26 and 29 mm). It’s perfect for small occasional batches of 10 to 20 litres.
• The bench capper: If you regularly brew large volumes, the bench (table) capper offers unmatched comfort. Mounted on your workbench and adjustable in height with one hand to fit any bottle size instantly, it allows you to cap dozens of bottles in a row effortlessly and with perfect consistency.