Please click on an FAQ link below to view information regarding that question.   Question: What do I need to bottle?   Answer: First of all, be sure you are using the non-twist-off type of beer bottle if you are going to be capping standard 12 or 22 oz bottles. A 5 gallon batch of beer will require about 48 -54 12 oz. bottles or 26-30 22 oz. bottles. All our caps will fit any standard non-twist-off variety bottle. The caps will not properly seal if crimped onto a twist-off bottle. The only difference in our caps is the print, except for the oxygen absorbing caps. These are only really required for long-term storage beers to prevent oxidation and staleness due to oxygen’s presence in the headspace of the bottle. Finally, a capper is needed. The Red Baron capper works quite well, and is convenient when capping different heights of bottles. The bench capper may be a good option when you don’t need to adjust the height frequently for different types of bottles.   Question: How do I sanitize my bottle caps?   Answer: For any of the standard, non-o2 absorbing caps, you can either boil them in water for 15 minutes or soak them in One Step or Star San for 5 minutes. Use Iodophor or Star San to sanitize oxygen-absorbing caps, since they, unlike One Step, don’t need free oxygen to sanitize. Sanitize only the amount of caps that you will use. Wetting them will render the caps useless in terms of absorbing oxygen for any batch after the current batch being bottled.   Question: How often do I need to replace the rubber gaskets on my Grolsch-style swing-cap bottles?   Answer: Each rubber gasket should last 5 or 6 uses.   Question: What’s the deal with these oxygen-absorbing bottle caps?   Answer: The only time Midwest suggests using these is if you plan on leaving a beer sit for an extended period of time. This would include high-gravity ales and lagers, as these need to sit in the bottle for a long time to properly condition. The oxygen-absorbing caps absorb the oxygen left in the headspace of the bottle, reducing the chance of oxidation.   Question: My beer has a stale, cardboard like flavor to it. Someone told me this is oxidation. What is oxidation, and how can I avoid it? Can my beer be fixed?   Answer: Oxidation results in a stale, cardboard like taste in your beer. If you are expereiencing this, there are a couple of possibilities. If you have been storing your beer for an extended period of time, the beer may become oxidized. While the bottle cap does provide a nearly airtight seal, air may seep into the bottle over time. If you plan on aging your beer in the bottle for an extended period of time, this is where those oxygen absorbing bottle caps will come in handy. The other possible cause of oxidation is the beer being exposed to high temperatures. If you store your beer at room temperature, and you don’t have air conditioning, it is possible that your beer may become oxidized during the warm summer months. To avoid this, you can store it in your basement on the floor, where it may be much cooler, or simply refrigerate it. Once your beer has become oxidized, there is unfortunately no way to fix it.   Question: When can I bottle my beer?   Answer: Typically, you can bottle an ale 3 weeks after brew day with two-stage fermentation. This schedule would allows for 7 days for primary fermentation, and 14 days for secondary fermentation. Wheat beers are often bottled right out of the primary, as it's common to not worry about the yeast still in suspension. No one balks at a glass of hazy weizen. Lagers will require up to 14+ days in the primary and often 4-6 weeks in the secondary before packaging in bottles. In any case, when the beer's specific gravity has stabilized at it's terminal gravity and it has sufficiently cleared, it's ready to bottle. Other "big" beers can use some extended aging, possibly leaving in the secondary for several months to develop their complexities in bulk and to allow yeast, gravity, and time to round out the edges of the beer. For these extended aging beers, you may wish to add a little bit of yeast (1/4 tsp should suffice) to your bottling bucket to make sure there are enough yeast cells in suspension to carbonate the beer.