Bottling!

I got to bottle my pale ale last night! Bottling is very exciting, because it is just one step closer to drink your brew! Unfortunately now I am very anxious yet I cannot touch my bottled beer for a few weeks, while it is conditioning.

I made this process easier by following my pre bottling checklist (look at previous blog), but just to be safe I sanitized the bottles again. My brew was in a carboy, bottling out of that can be tricky at first but it is actually very very easy, all you really need is a siphoning tube, with the pressure in the carboy and gravity both being used to my advantage; the process took roughly 30 minutes. My girlfriend helped me cap, which also helped my time. (I am going to make a video soon, because it is the easiest way to show peeps how to bottle)

I had a little problem: 5 gallons of beer and only 30 beer bottles. After bottling as you can imagine, I had some beer left over. It is not easy to dump beer, that I spent a great deal of time making. My fix was to use a 2 liter coke bottle, after some research although not recommended it does the job.... And I am using it as my guide for how carbonation is going. I will let you know how it worked out in a couple of weeks.

Before I forget, you need to mix a teaspoon of corn sugar in about a court of water, boil it while mixing and let it sit to cool down. Add this to your wort and mix well to blend it in. This will be the yeast food while carbonating, therefore it is a very important step!!!

Keep in mind that when it comes to bottling, bottles have to be designed to hold pressure build up. Beer bottles work best, and they are free because you can just take your friends empty bottles, clean them and cap them (caps are cheap). Stay away from mason jars, they vacuum seal but will not handle the pressure produced by the process of natural carbonation. Also stay away from hard alcohol bottles, such as; sky, jack etc... Unless you want a messy little explosion that will waist a LOT of your beer!

CHEERS!

A few pointers prior to bottling.

      You might still have a few more days before you are ready to bottle, but a head start is always helpful.  Go through a few checklist items:

                1. Bottles (unless you will be using a keg), make sure the bottles are ones that are

                    designed to handle pressure build up. Yeast is what will carbonate your beer    

                    during the conditioning process, so empty beer bottles will work best. Do not 

                    use twist offs because that will make capping a pain. Do you have enough bottles???

                2. Sanitize, there are many ways to sanitize your bottles such as boiling them, using

                    substances etc... You have gone too far to ruin your beer!

                3. Corn Sugar, you can purchase this at your local Home Brew Shop. This is needed in order to

                    dissolve and then add to your wort, must be used for conditioning and carbonating  A process 

                    that takes place when you bottle.

                4. Do you have everything you need for bottling? Tubes, spicket, caps, capper (I will post

                    pictures in my next blog).

                5. (Optional) Do you have an extra hand? A friend or significant other to help you? This will make

                    your life easier during bottling!!

      Having a few days to go through this checklist, and other items you might add to the list, will be helpful. Knowing what you need beforehand will eliminate having to make an emergence trip to the store.