Puttin' a cap on this batch ...

It has been well over a week now since I had racked my beer into the secondary fermenter and was now time to bottle it up. With all the reading and research I have done about brewing, I had dreaded this part. It looked to be the most labor-intensive and boring phase of the process.

I didn't really want to clean 48 bottles so I used the dishwasher on a heated rinse which was an option according to some of the stuff I had read. I then sterilized the caps, bottling bucket and valve, racking cane, hose, and bottling cane with iodophor.

I transferred the beer from the secondary carboy to the bottling bucket. It looked really clear as it flowed through the tube which made me quite happy. As it was filling the bottling bucket, I put my head down close enough to sneak a sniff of the aroma of the beer. Not only did it smell like beer, but it was rather pleasant. Cool!

I didn't get any of the trub from the bottom of the fermenter during transfer, so I must be starting to get the hang of this.   ; )    Next up, was to take a gravity reading, and of course to sample the beer as well. YAAAYY!!

EXCEPT -- that I forgot to make up the priming sugar. DOH! You are supposed to make up the priming sugar (this helps carbonate your beer while it is in the bottle) and put that in the bottling bucket THEN add the beer. Oh well, just did that out of order, but should be okay so long as I mix it well.

The final gravity showed to be 1.014, which is what it was when I transferred to the secondary fermenter. Then I tasted the sample. Last time it seemed weak on flavor and punch. It was more of a pilsner style and this is supposed to be an ale.

This time, it sure had the character of an ale and the taste was a bit more complex. There were various flavors that danced on the tongue. I think this is going to be a good beer.

Once the priming sugar had been added and mixed into the beer, it was a matter of filling the bottles. I have heard of people's beer that had blown it's top, so to speak due to not filling the beer to the right level. It's my understanding that if it is too low, then the carbonation builds and basically blows the cap creating a nasty mess and wasting potentially good beer. Well, I definitely don't want this to happen!

The DVD that came with the kit we got, said to fill it right up to the very top and once you remove the bottling cane the level should be right -- roughly one inch down from the top of the bottle. Well, it didn't work that way. Once I removed the bottling cane, it was nearly two inches below the top, so I added and brought it up to about an inch from the top and capped it.

This process went fairly quickly and wasn't near the headache I had anticipated. Now it's just a matter of waiting 2-3 weeks to see if we have carbonated, good-tasting beer.

Now it's time to get started on the second batch. However, the local brew supplier doesn't open until Tuesday though.