Have you got the Bottle to Bottle it?
So after barreling my first beer I decided that I would do a lager as most of my friends aint beer lovers. So as it was a lager I thought I would try my hand at bottling it so that they could be put in the fridge. So it was time for another shopping trip to my local home brew store. Where I got another fermenter, 48 500ml beer bottles, a hand capping tool, some crown caps and best of all a bottle filler.
So first up I had to seterelize all the new bottles this was harder than I thought due to finding space to put them all but Imanaged to fit them all in the containers I had, just. I simply half filled the storage container and fermenter with solution and then dropped the bottles in and let them fill with the solution. Once that was done I rinsed them out a good 2-3 times with fresh water. This has to be the most tedious and boring part of bottling it was never ending but had to be done.
Job done
While the bottles were in the solution I began syphoning from my fermenter into my other fermenter/bottling bucket, this reduces the amount of sediment that can go into the bottles and allows an even mix of the sugar (for carbonating). I could have added a teaspoon of sugar to each bottle then the beer but sod that for a game of soldiers I was bored of just cleaning them never mind doing that.
So after that was all done I moved into the kitchen to do the actual bottling. which was a piece of cake. I just popped the bottle filler onto the end of my syphon tube and off I went. Well no, if only it was that simple, as you will notice from the pic below I have a wad of tape around where the tube and bottler meet that is because the 2 parts were the dame diameter. So after much mumbling I focused on the solution and not the problem (we had a team talk in work recently) and that solution was cut the tube a bit and then half a roll of tape to make it hold.
This may be low tech but it worked so who am I to complain. It was then time to cap them all which is yet another soul destroying job but all I was thinking was how satisfying it would be to open your own bottle of beer. It is the simple things in life that keep me sane you know!!
Then move to a warm area to let the lager carbonate
Then into the fridge for 3 weeks to let it clear
I just found out that to let the beer clear it must be kept as cold as possible after the first week of carbonating that will be why the first brew was cloudy, drinkable but cloudy. So I am anticipating a nice cold crisp clear lager in a couple of weeks.
Much thanks goes out to CrownCap over at Jims Beer Kit forums whos great bottling guide put a few of my fears at ease. It really is well worth a look if you are going to bottle for the first time.
Much thanks goes out to CrownCap over at Jims Beer Kit forums whos great bottling guide put a few of my fears at ease. It really is well worth a look if you are going to bottle for the first time.
hey, i enjoy following your homebrewing adventures.
fyi, the link to the glasgow beer and pub project is not working, the link should go to:
glasgowbeerandpubproject.blogspot.com
Thanks for reading Eric I have linked to the Pub Project direct at the top of my sidebar. Its good to see that someone is actually reading this.
Somehow I have deleted your comment as well. I am just learning home brewing and blogging !!