How to Bottle and Condition Your Beer

As a homebrewer, you have multiple beer packaging options. Bottling beer is one of the most popular ways (novice) homebrewers package their brews. Many veteran brewers also swear by this methodology. Here you will find a point by point protocol describing how to bottle and condition your beer.

A point by point guide on how to bottle and condition your beer

First, clean and sanitize everything you think will touch your beer (bottling bucket, tubing, spigot, bottles, caps, etc). We have some great resources here on why that is important.
Dissolve an appropriate amount of priming sugar in some water and bring it to a boil. Once boiled, add it to the empty bottling bucket. Transfer your beer to the bottling bucket. The transfer will mix the priming solution and your beer. It would be best if you transferred gently, trying to avoid the introduction of air.
Connect the tubing and bottling stick to the spigot on the bottling bucket and fill it up gently with beer.
Begin bottling your beer by inserting the bottle filler into a sanitized bottle by pushing it down. Try to limit bubble formation.
When the beer reaches the top (about 2 cm from the rim), you can stop the flow by lifting the bottle filler.
Place a cap on the bottle and carefully apply the capper to bend the edge of the cap down around the mouth.
You can either repeat all of these steps until you finish your batch. Alternatively, you can fill all the bottles first (covering them with a clean cloth) before capping them all in a final step.

Once you have filled and capped all your bottles, you can store them in a dark spot at room temperature. Conditioning usually takes at least two weeks, during which the yeast converts the priming sugar to CO2. After the conditioning stage, you can chill it and enjoy your brew with your friends and family!

Now you know how to bottle and condition your beer, why not explore our site and learn more about brewing better-tasting beer? Please visit and read our articles in the Homebrewing 101 series. If you want to learn more about the science of brewing, visit our partners at The Beerologist.