It's been exactly two weeks since I boiled and fermented the then-untitled Ewan's Winter Ale (named in honor of my son, Ewan, born in August 2011), which means today it was time to bottle!
Yesterday I prepped the bottles by soaking them for several hours inside of a plastic bin filled with hot water and Oxiclean. After the soak, I removed the labels, checked each for gunk and other residue, and set them aside for sanitizing.
This morning I took the freshly cleaned bottles and put them in the dishwasher for sanitizing prior to bottling. As the dishwasher ran, I collected my supplies needed to bottle (auto-siphon, stir paddle, bottle caps, bottle capper, and bottling bucket) and started a batch of warm water for even more sanitizing.
On the stove, I set two cups of water to boil with the bottling sugars. Adding sugar to the wort prior to bottling is what gives it the necessary carbonation to produce a frothy head.
I racked the wort into sanitized the bottling bucket, poured in the sugar water (after it had cooled to room temperature), and gently stirred to mix.
Then, we bottled.
Kelley and I filled approximately 4.5 gallons of sugared wort into 48 bottles of varying sizes, leaving enough headspace in each bottle to minimize the chance of explosion.
The bottles will sit undisturbed for about 3 weeks before they're ready to go, but I couldn't help but try a few ounces on bottling day to see how it tasted. The verdict: it tasted like beer, sort of, but very weak, like it was from a can that had been sitting out overnight. I'll assume it will get better as I let it age for a few more weeks in the bottles. I hope.
Update:
After posting this on Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit, I got some good feedback. One, the bottles can safely be filled to the top -- didn't know that. Two, the best way to mix in priming sugars is to pour it into the bottom of the bottling bucket prior to racking, then rack into it. Makes sense. I'll be doing both next time.
Congrats on your new boy and your new brew!
ReplyDeleteI had some carbonation issues or the lack of the first 2 batches that I bottled because I didn't fill the bottles up enough (this from the picture of the clear glass bottle). I now fill them up to within an inch of the top, and have had excellent carbonation with no beer grenades,.. yet.
I usually sample the left overs of the bottling bucket to try and get an idea of what the finished product is going to taste like. The bottling and priming sugar are going to change the taste quite a bit from what i have found. I also found that the longer I let them sit (68 - 72 degrees) in bottling phase the better they turn out. I now let them sit for about a month & half now, but it takes more self discipline than I have to not crack a few of them open along the way,... If they don't turn out like you wanted them to,.. let them sit a little while longer. Cheers!
I usually pour the priming sugar syrup into the buket red hot and rack straight on top of it so you know it mixes up well. Racking the beer onto the boiling sugar does not do anything bad as the amount of wort reduces the temp straight away. Also makes for an even carbonation.. everyon does it different tho, which is good ;) so we all get different tastes from the same recipe.
ReplyDeleteI bet every baby wishes they had a beer named after them.
ReplyDeleteLove - Grandma