Yesterday I bottled the Light Ale. It had been in the Mr. Beer fermenter for 2 weeks now. I guessed we were done with fermentation. The Mr. Beer fermenter has a spout that I took a sample from and measured with the hydrometer. It was the same as last week. So we were good to go.
Step 1. Clean bottles. I went to the recycle bin that we have just for bottles that was in the back yard. It works good as a stopper for the gate. This ensures that the dogs won't escape even if the gate is not completely locked. It's works great. Since I've been using the bin as a stopper the dogs have not escaped. Anyhow I grabbed about 20 or so from the bin and put them in the sink. Some of these 20 have noticeable mold right on the top lip of the bottle. I put them in the sink with some Oxiclean and hot water. I be sure to fill all the bottles with the cleaning solution so they sink to the bottom. And then I wait for an hour or so. I think Ellie and I ate pizza and watch some American Idol.
After an hour or so the labels came right off. I peeled the labels off and put them in a plastic bag next to the sink which I threw out when I had all the labels off. I used a sponge to get the glue off the bottles. I then shook the hell out of the bottles with a little cleaning solution in the bottle and put them to the side. At this point there is no noticeable mold on the tops of the bottles but I held a couple up to the light and saw some in the bottles themselves. So after I got all the labels and glue off, I emptied the sink, filled it back up and mixed in more Oxiclean, and put the bottles back in to soak another hour.
While they were soaking I took the time to gather all the equipment I would need for the bottling process and start cleaning it all. I intended to use my bucket as a bottling bucket. I also intended to siphon the beer from the fermenter. I've never done this so I spent a few minutes figuring out how to use the starting wand. It's pretty cool. You put the thing in the fermenter with it about halfway pull out and just start pumping like hell. Soon, the liquid starts to flow and your good. I used this method to siphon sanitizing solution through the tubing. I started cleaning stuff with hot water and Oxiclean. I cleaned the bucket, the bottle capper, the sampler taker, all the tubing, etc.
I mixed up some sanitizing solution in the pitcher I use to fill the dogs' water bowls with. It looks to fill about a gallon or so. I some of the solution in the spray bottle for later use. I started to put things we were going to use in the pitcher. Things like bottle caps, sample taker thingy, etc.
Ok. So now I take the bottles and run a bottle brush through each of them and then rinse, shake up, and empty. They looked and smelled clean. I figured we were good to go. So, I looked at the MoreBeer instruction which call for 4oz of sugar for 5 gallons of beer. We've got 2 gallons so I figure 2oz should be good. The instructions called for 2 cups of water to be mixed with the sugar and boiled for 5 minutes. So I got 1 cup of water from the filtered tap and got it up to a boil and added 2oz of sugar. 2oz of sugar = 1/4 cup. I used a measuring cup. Then I stirred it up and let it boil for five minutes.
It on now baby. I opened up the fermenter. I attached tubing to the auto siphon. After putting the fermenter on the kitchen island I put the bottling bucket on the floor. The tubing was laid into the bucket and I put the siphon into the fermenter and pumped the wand a couple of times until the beer was a flowing. Since the priming solution was still hot I wanted until a half gallon or so was in the bucket before adding it. I didn't have enough hands here to do it right. I basically poured the solution from where was I standing and it splashed into the beer. Bad. No aeration at this point. I tried to put it out of my mind and steer the siphon to glory.
After the beer was transferred I set the fermenter and siphon aside and put some aluminum foil over the bucket to keep evil germs from my beer. I attached the tube from our siphon (after a rinse and sanitize) to the bottling bucket and attached the other end to the bottling wand. This thing is cool. It has a spring in it so that when I push the wand into the bottom of the bottle the beer flows. When I lift the wand a spring pushes forward and cut the flow off. So, first bottle up.
At this point the tubing is too long. So, it's awkward. I end of putting the bottles on the floor and pushing the wand into it. This makes a little mess with each bottle that aggregates into a large mess that I spent a lot of time cleaning later. Anyhow, the wand is great because if you fill the bottle completely full and then remove the wand, the volume displaced is perfect. I got about 20 bottles filled. I then set the bucket and tubing with wand aside in the sink to be cleaned later.
Now I've got the cap these suckers. The caps have been sitting the in the pitcher. I spray the capper and grab a cap and cap my first bottle of beer. The crimping doesn't look perfect. I wasn't sure at first if it really even worked. I tipped the bottle upside down to see if any would leak out. None did. So I guess it made an ok seal. Whether it was good enough to keep gas in there I don't know. I guess we'll see. I checked the first few that I capped. All seemed well. So I capped them all. Ellie helped a little toward the end.
Ellie's peeps were coming to town so I wanted to move the beer out of the spare bathroom. Since I had some sanitization solution I figured while I was moving the fermenters I would take a gravity reading. This also meant I could taste the beer. First up was the Trippel. It smelled horrible. Like urine. I guess adding too much yeast is not good. It tasted ok. But, I wouldn't invite anyone to drink that beer. No way. If it doesn't improve by the end of next week I'm going to throw it out.
Next I moved the Altbier. The air lock blew on this beer. I expected that it might be spoiled. I tried it. Not bad. The only thing bad here is that the beer had made a mess in the guest bathtub. There is a noticeable brown ring in the tub and it bothers me. I makes me feel like I ruined our beautiful guest bathroom. It's blue with pretty tiles. Well, it's not so pretty anymore. I think I'll put some effort into cleaning it later.
Lastly, I move the Bodacious Brown. I intend to keg it next week. It was clear. And good. Can't wait.
Then I start to clean up. I clean the bucket, the tubing, the fermenter, etc. I then move all the beer brewing equipment to the garage where new space has been allocated for it by the wife and I by moving the couch to the backyard. The more I think about it the more I like a couch in the backyard. The weather is getting perfect for it.
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