Bottling Tank

[Ben Framed]

What type of bottling tank do you use, is your tank pressurised? Do you bottle small or large amounts of honey?

[TheHoneyPump]

What size bottles do you y'all fill the most of?

[Ben Framed]

What size bottles do you y'all fill the most of?

Mostly 1lb designer bottles

[Oldbeavo]

We (well my partner Karen) fills 500g squeezies, 500g Plastic jars, 1kg pails, 1.5 kg pails and 3 kg pails. All out of a 20 litre bucket with a honey gate.
We market 4-5 varieties at farmer markets.

[Acebird]

I took a 22 quart pot and mounted a honey gate at the bottom.  I got the cheapest pot you can find where the metal is thin and conforms better to the honey gate.

[Oldbeavo]

like Acebird says the honey gate needs to seal, so if you use a plastic bucket you need to put the honey gate about 1 1/2" off the bottom to allow the wall to flex to get a seal.

[TheHoneyPump]

What size bottles do you y'all fill the most of?

And ... how many?

[Ben Framed]

I have watched a few videos showing several different systems. From pressurized set ups capitalizing on volume auto set and shutoff for the size container selected, such as the type Bob Binnie uses. The rate he can bottle honey for his operation is amazing. On the other hand, I have seen a simpler pressurized tank in use by Jeff Horcroff (with a valve as described by Oldbeavo), which allows the person bottling to simply eyeball and manually, with precision, shut the valve off when the bottle is full. The added small amount of pressure on the tank makes for a quick fill. Some smaller hobbyists use set ups like Ace described, or Jim described on another topic. I am simply interested in different ways some folks bottle their honey here.


 

[Ben Framed]

What size bottles do you y'all fill the most of?

And ... how many?

Mr HP not enough to mention at this point in my beekeeping set up. lol 😊😊  But I?m working on it! 😁

[Oldbeavo]

We package about 5 tonne a year to sell at markets, most popular size is 1kg Pail.

[TheHoneyPump]

We package about 5 tonne a year to sell at markets, most popular size is 1kg Pail.

That is quite a bit to be pouring off through a 20L bucket!  For that amount, have you considered investing in an auto dispenser and approx 150 kg heated bottling tank?  I am sure Karen would really appreciate it.  Think of all the extra quality time you will have together after the equipment is in place and she is no longer tied to a little bucket for hours and hours.

[Oldbeavo]

If you break it down where we do in non covid times, 6-7 markets per month, and then if we take 4-6 varieties of honey the amount per variety is not a lot.
Karen may do 30 kg of a variety at once and we put it on shelves. we don't want huge stocks ahead as it will start to candy and lose it clarity.
If it is recently packed then the customer has shelf life before it will candy.
Part of our marketing is to provide a range from mild to stronger honey. We also do pot set creamed honey and whipped honey as different texture honey.

[amymcg]

I use a plastic bottling bucket with a gate. Though I am eyeing a Lyson bottling tank because it pulls from the concave bottom and I would have to tilt it to get the last of it out.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk