This can be one of the most frustrating things in homebrewing. Your beer is all done and ready to be bottled and during the bottling process, you start to get clogs in your spigot.

Bottling is already one of the most monotonous things about homebrewing, but when you run into issues during bottling that makes it worse.

When are brewing a beer that has a lot of additives such as hops or fruit or you are just brewing a big old beer that creates a large layer of trub it can sometimes clog your spigot.

Here are a few tips and tricks to help prevent that.

This first would be to use a hopsack. If you are adding a large amount, like a few ounces of hops add them to a hopsack. This will help keep the all contained together and if the hop sack gets in the way of the spigot it is easy to grab that with sanitized tongs.

The second would be to prop up the front of your fermenter during fermentation. If you put a small book or something just to prop up the front of your LBK it will help all the trub and sediment settled to the back of the fermenter and keep the spigot clear.

The third thing you can do is cold crash your beer. This is putting your fermenter in the fridge for 24-48 hours. This will help all of the sediment settled and solidify in the bottom of your fermenter. This is also a great way to help clear up your beer.

If you really want to make sure your spigot does not get clogged them prop up the front of your fermenter while you are doing the cold crash. That will help everything settle to the back of the fermenter and solidify with the cold crash.

Cheers, 

Robert