So haven’t posted in a while, and today I wanted to share with you a little hack that has made my life a lot easier!
I recently returned to brewing beer. My first attempt a few years ago after attending a beer brewing workshop ago wasn’t very successful, with the bottled beer tasting like beer does but completely flat and un-carbonated. I felt pretty discouraged and didn’t touch the equipment again until last week, when I decided it’s time to get down to business and give it another try. I purchased a “make your own beer” starter kit on amazon and voilà! it seems like this time around it may actually work (: This time around I went with a 1-gallon (approx. 5 liters) carboy instead of the 5- gallon bucket (approx. 20 litters) just in case the beer turns out flat again…
So back to our topic, I read it’s really important to properly sanitze the bottles used for the home brew, and read that the most popular way is to buy a bottle draining tree with a bottle rinser on top. However most options I looked into we’re a bit expensive and also didn’t offer a solution for storing the beer bottles before rinsing them.
That’s when I thought about the IKEA KUGGIS box – what’s great about this box is that it’s sturdy, comes in a variety of sizes, and most importantly at only $7.99 definitely a steel compared to the other bottle drying options.
The only catch is, you need to have some extra equipment at home to make this hack. It’s called a FIXA hole saw set – and it enables you to create holes in the KUGGIS plastic (this isn’t the original purpose of the product, but it definitely works).
Most of the credit here goes to my hubby who actually drilled the holes (:
Here’s what you need for a DIY beer bottle dryer/sanitizer:
- KUGGIS box – I chose this one for my project but If you plan on brewing more than 1 Gallon/5 Liters go for a bigger size.
- FiXA hole saw set
- White paper masking tape
- Tape measure, pen, utility knife
I started by measuring the Diameter of my beer bottles. According to my calculation the KUGGIS lid had place for 20 bottles since each bottle was 2.4~inches/6 cm in diameter. This was perfect since my 1 gallon carboy produces about 12 bottles of beer.
Each X marked where to place the center of the hole saw.
Next, using the smallest saw from the IKEA set ( the 1 3/8″ or 35 mm saw) my husband drilled 20 holes into the KUGGIS lid using a wooden block beneath to protect our outdoor table.
He then carefully used a utility knife to smooth the edges of the plastic holes.
I soaked 12 used beer bottles in soapy warm water for 2 hours using the KUGGIS box. The labels came right off with the help of a kitchen sponge. I then emptied the bottles and drained them through the holes.
The same process can be repeated towards bottling the beer. Just fill the KUGGIS box with sanitizing solution and empty beer bottles, and then let them drain before you fill them with home-brewed beer.
Pretty cool right? I thought this was a fun practical little project that will definitely make beer brewing a lot easier.
let me know how yours turner out.