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Bottling

Once the final quality of the beer has been achieved, it is ready for packaging. The packaging of beer is one of the most complex aspects of brewery operations and the most labor intensive of the entire production process.

Filler Bowl Operations

The filling unit or filler bowl should be cleaned and sanitized before bottling. To prepare for filling, the beer lines, hoses, and filler should be cooled down using cold water. The water should be blown out before beer is introduced into the filler. The system is then pressurized, and beer is supplied to the filler bowl from the bright beer tank. Some brewers will vent the bowl pressurizing gas prior to the introduction of beer to lower the oxygen contact with the incoming product. It is better to fill the bowl from the bottom to reduce turbulence and air pickup. Brewers usually slightly overcarbonate the beer to compensate for any loss of carbon dioxide during the filling operation.

Crowning

After filling, the bottles are capped as soon as possible by the crowner. The caps have a sprayed-on, hot-pressed PVC-based sealing insert or a cold-pressed sealing insert not containing PVC. The caps are conveyed to the crown hopper by means of a magnetic belt or a pneumatic crown feed, or they can be dumped manually directly into the crown hopper. Whatever method is used, the crown hopper should be kept only half full of caps. This is to lessen the possibility of crowns becoming packed and not feeding into the chute fast enough. In addition, when the caps become packed, the possibility of scratching the cap finish increases.

Bottle Drying

Before labeling, it is absolutely essential that the bottles are dry and free of condensation. This is especially important with pressure-sensitive labels that use non-water-soluble glues. Wet glue, which is typically used as an adhesive in glue applications, is much less sensitive to residual water on the bottle. An air knife can eliminate virtually all of the surface moisture on the bottles after rinse-off. If the beer is tunnel pasteurized, an air knife is still needed to remove moisture, although the warm bottle greatly aids in the drying process prior to labeling.