Dec 03 2005
Brewed Beer Bottled!
Well, I have reached the final leg of my beer-brewing journey. The beer has been lovingly siphoned into bottles, and now awaits carbonation. How did it go, you ask? I’ll tell you…
To begin with, allow me to say that if I have any say in it, I will not be using recycled bottles ever again. Why? The stinkin’ labels are a pain in the butt. Kim and I soaked the bottles in hot water for over an hour, and the labels were still a pain in the butt to remove…especially the Kilt Lifter bottles. The entire label removal and bottle sterilization process took a few hours, and we were ready to be done about halfway through. We still had not actually bottled any beer.
After the dishwasher finished sanitizing the bottles, we began setting everything up to transfer the fermented beer to the bottling bucket. We started boiling the sugary priming liquid that would wake the yeast up and get them creating carbon dioxide. Finally, we removed the bottling bucket, tubing, and bottling wand from the diluted bleach water we had it all sanitizing in. We affixed the wand to the tube, and the tube to the fermenting bucket, and we were ready to go!
Kim set up the bottles and prepared to cap the first filled bottle. We were all aquiver with excitement. Well…I was, anyway. I stuck the wand in the first bottle, and off we went. When I lifted the wand from the bottle, it stopped filling. Almost like magic. :)
For the most part, filling the bottles was pretty simple. Nothing much exciting happened. Everything worked as it should, for the most part. We capped the bottles and went to see a movie. YAY US!
When we got back, we cleaned up the kitchen, and noticed that I had filled a bottle that we had not capped. We marked it, and capped it. We’re thinking that it might taste a litte funky, but we’re keeping it anyway.
Now we wait. The bottles must age and build up some carbonation. They should be ready around Christmas, and I’ll definitely post my tasting notes.
I am drinking: McEwan’s Scotch Ale. A very nice example of the Scotch Ale style. Nice and sweet, but instead of being balanced by hops, it’s balanced by a great deal of alcohol. A very tasty ale indeed.
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