For Sale: Small Bottle Bottler

For Sale (115USD)




I did make this short demonstration video (my first video ever). It looks like it made it back in 1994 (based on production values).

The last counter pressure bottler design has been around for more than 20 years. This is the counter pressure bottler design for the next 20 years… Modular, affordable, safe. It has been in the wild for two years now kicking ass in the hands of some of the country’s best bar programs and home brewers.

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The product here is a counter pressure keg-to-bottle bottling device that can do any size of small bottle from 100mL San Bitter bottles all the way up to Champagne 375’s. The innovation here is that it creates a seal with a ballistic plastic enclosure (which is a high pressure water filter housing) rather than with the tops of the various proprietary bottles like other designs.

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This also makes bottling safer because if a bottle breaks while filling (which has never happened to me), it is contained in an ultra strong enclosure. If a bottle overflows due to operator error, the liquid is caught in the food safe plastic sump and can be recycled. Or, optionally, if you want to fill the negative space with chilled water, less CO2 will be used and the bottles will be kept colder, reducing bonding time and risk of foaming when releasing pressure.

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The design features all the valuable lessons I’ve learned from designing the Champagne Bottle Manifold which is basically to only use uncompromising stainless steel Cornelius quick release fittings. Hardly an innovation, but I use one ambidextrous quick release fitting going into the bottle. This fitting can take a gas line to flush the bottle and bring the bottler to the same pressure as the keg then be switched to the liquid line to fill the bottle. This differs from other death trap designs which use multiple hardwired lines preventing units from being used in an array or being portable (or easy to clean). True, you could probably whip this device up yourself, but by the time you ship everything from various suppliers and learn the machining techniques (drilling stainless ain’t easy!), you are way over budget or have made some errors, or compromised on fittings and will lose tons of valuable time operating your half-assed version of the device. The product is highly evolved and articulate for the task.

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This design evolved as a request for a small bottle bottler that could handle a diverse array of bottle types from glass to plastic. Most notably from hotels that want to bottle product for their mini bars.

IMG_4484The device is easy to store behind the bar, easy to clean & keep sanitary, and because of the chosen fittings, seamless to integrate into programs already using cocktail on tap equipment. To reduce inactive time and make bottling as fast as possible, they can be used in an array of multiple units on any counter top because the device takes up less square footage (that restaurants don’t have) than competing designs like the Melvico and its clones.

Operation:
1. Put in your bottle of choice and securely screw the top onto the sump with the down tube sticking down the center of the bottle (refer to pictures).
2. Connect the gas hose and release the side valve to flush the bottle of Oxygen. Close the side valve which also brings unit to the same pressure as the keg. Disconnect the gas line (you are probably only transferring at 20-30 PSI).
3. Connect the liquid line from the keg and slowly release the side valve to create a low pressure system drawing liquid into the bottle. Close the side valve at your desired fill level.
4. Disconnect the liquid line and let the bottle bond for 30 seconds so that it does not foam upon releasing pressure (at this time you could start working on another unit).
5. 30 seconds later… Release pressure using the side valve. Remove the bottle and promptly cap it.
6. Start a new bottle!

Feel free to ask any and all questions. Cheers! -Stephen
For Sale (115USD)

9 thoughts on “For Sale: Small Bottle Bottler

  1. Clever design. I built my cp filler using a brass pipe cross, vs. the pair of tees in the article in Zymurgy in the 90’s. It relied on a drilled rubber stopper as the seal between its short outer tube and the bottle.

    Since you aren’t using the second side port, I might suggest opening it up to put your vent valve on, and using a corny keg quick disconnect gas fitting on the gas supply port.

    The filter housing might also work to hold a bath of, e.g., ice water around the bottle.

  2. Hi Rex.

    The design only needs the one vent. Because the quick release at the top is interchangeable between gas and liquid, you also only need that one quick release. This makes the design more affordable and also requires less hoses to operate.

    I didn’t demonstrate it in the video, but you can fill the cavity with cold water and its works great. The design is definitely battle tested.

  3. Robert Gruber May 12, 2015 — 3:43 pm

    Hey there, this looks really interesting, have a little espressobar in vienna, and would like to carbonate small bottles of filter coffee. Do you think that works? Would it be also possible to send the SBB to Vienna? Thanks for your help and keep up the good work!

    Greetings Robert

  4. One modification to the design worth considering: I recently picked up some stainless carbonator caps (Chinese) on ebay that have the ball lock fitting machined to accept either gas or liquid quick disconnects.

  5. Hi there,

    Do you ship internationally? (Australia)

    Thanks

  6. yes, Australia is no problem and I’ve shipped before to Melborne, Taiwan, and Japan. There is an additional shipping fee but its not too bad.

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