bottling it up ....

I spent half the night bottling beer. This was my second batch and it is a European bock this time.

The first batch was an easier process since it was bottles that were bought from the Homebrew store. All that had to be done with them was to sanitize them. I used the dishwasher on rinse cycle to accomplish that task.

This time however, I was using bottles from store-bought beer and had the fun of removing all the labels. That part was done last night. I had 60 bottles to remove labels from. It took forever!

Anyway, I got all them removed and cleaned and earlier today set them in the dishwasher to do a mock sanitization.

I made up the priming sugar (to assist in carbonation) and added it to the bottling bucket. *This* time I actually did it in order as I put it in first, instead of AFTER racking the beer to the bucket.

There was very little trub in the bottom of the secondary fermenter, which was good. So little, in fact, that it all was set in the recessed "ring" that borders the edge of the fermenter at the bottom and the raised center part was clear of everything.

The "beer" was clear and had a light brown, amber-ish color and I didn't notice any particulates flowing through the tube as it was racked into the bottling bucket.

I set aside enough to sample it and put the rest in the bucket. It tasted malty and even showed signs of carbonation already.

The rest of the process went pretty smoothly and I wound up with 50 12 oz. bottles of beer. Now I will have to wait two weeks to find out how it turns out.

Tomorrow I will attempt to brew my first IPA. I can't wait, should be good.

As an aside, and somewhat comical story, last night Dad and I were drinking some beers from the first batch I  brewed. It was an English brown ale.

It had a complexity and smoothness that left you wanting another sip before putting the glass down. It was really good. Anyway, I had only put 10 in the fridge and that meant 5 for each of us.

By the time I ran out I had to switch to Icehouse. Icehouse is a bold lager and one of few domestic non-craft brews I really like.

However, after sipping on those smoooooth brown ales all evening, that first sip of Icehouse seemed horrible! It wasn't really that the beer was that bad, because it isn't, but that the difference in styles of the two beers was rather drastic. It had my tastebuds "dancing".  ; )