First time bottling... HELP!

[fretlessman71]

Hey... I'm going to bottle some ROOT beer in the morning, and this is my first time, so I was going to ask what you thought of my process that I was going to use. See, I'm not very good at organizing my thoughts OR my actions, and I often end up doing twice the work I need to. So, here's what I was going to do... let me know if you think it's going to work. The sanitizer is called OneStep.

-Clean double sink really well; set up sanitizer in one side
-Sanitize a 1/2 gallon jug to pitch yeast
-Heat water, pitch yeast, add extract, add to plastic carboy and fill to 4 gal. mark, place in other side of sink
-Sanitize small hand pump designed for 5 gal. water carboys (which is exactly what I'm using; I realize I won't be able to really use it for REAL beer after this)
-Install pump
-Set up bottles on countertop with capper
-Set caps in small bowl of sanitizer off to side
-Sanitize clean bottle, fill, cap, set aside
.... and lather, rinse, repeat!

Whaddya think? I'd really appreciate a response as soon as anyone reads this. Thanks!

(Oh yeah... fuji600, I got your other response... thank you!)

[chris1kanobi]

A few things I do to make great root beer:

Use only about 80% table sugar, and 20% honey, molasses or other sweetner. Just sugar has a real boring, flat taste. Heat the sugar, water and extract to 180'f for 10 min. to pasturize and kill any wild yeast or bacteria. Use ale yeast, not lager, wine, bread etc. Because you want to stop fermentation. Use plastic bottles. Glass can explode or break if carbonated too much. When the plastic bottles are firm, put all the bottles in a cold place to make the yeast go dormant (fridge). Drink all of the rootbeer within a few months, it can get infected especially when using One-Step.

Just a few pointers that I have picked up and used succesfully.