Filling

The point at which a controlled batch becomes several hundred independent products, and the point at which most contamination is introduced.

The contamination step

Everything upstream was in one closed vessel. At filling the product meets air, tubing, a filler, an operator and several hundred containers.

In a pasteurized product that matters less because the kill step is behind it. In an unpasteurized one the filling room is the last thing between the batch and the customer.

Cold, fast, clean

Cold, because everything grows slower and carbonation stays in solution.

Fast, because a batch standing warm while you work through it is a batch changing as you fill it.

Clean: sanitized tubing and filler, sanitized containers, and a filling area separate from where raw fruit and dry goods are handled.

Containers are not sterile as supplied. Rinsing and sanitizing bottles before filling is normal practice in this category and is frequently skipped by new producers.

Fill level is a safety number

Unusual to this property. Headspace is where gas expands, and an over-filled carbonated or live bottle has nowhere to put the pressure.

Too little headspace and a warm bottle is a burst bottle. Too much and there is more oxygen against the product, which shortens shelf life and oxidizes flavor.

So the fill level has a target and a tolerance for a physical reason rather than a cosmetic one, and it is checked rather than eyeballed.

Checking a run

Fill weight on bottles through the run, not just at the start.

Carbonation at start, middle and end.

pH on the filled product, which should match the bulk.

Seal integrity on a sample.

And pull retained bottles: some to refrigerate and some to hold warm, which are the only evidence about pressure and about the alcohol line.

References