Ahhh, Bottling Day

The brewing, fermentation, and aging are complete. All that's left to do now is bottle the tasty brew. This is probably the most labor-intensive step of the entire beer-making process, but unless you keg your beer, you can't drink it without bottling it.

The first step, and you may actually want to do this one before bottling day, is to be sure you have enough bottles. Usually, I try to have between 48 and 52 bottles that are not twist offs. Often, some of these bottles are from commercially available beers, so I remove the labels. This can usually be done with a 45 minute soak in some warm water and a little bit of elbow grease.

Next, you need to sanitize all those bottles. I use the drying cycle on my diswasher, but you can also santize with a quick soak in some bleach water. If you do use this method, just be sure to thoroughly rinse your bottles and check to be sure you cannot smell any bleach in them before you fill the bottles with your beer.

After the bottles have been sanitized, and while you are waiting for them to cool, I siphoned the beer out of the secondary and into the bottling bucket. I also mixed in about 5 ounces of corn sugar to carbonate the beer in the bottles. This sugar allows the yeast that is still in the beer to have some consumable sugar. The by-product of the yeast consuming this sugar is carbon dioxide- which creates the carbonation in the beer.

After the siphoning is complete, simply fill your bottles from the bottling bucket with a bottling wand, cap, and move to a quiet place for about 10-14 days of conditioning. During this time, the beer will clarify even more and the carbonation will develop in the bottle.

Here's the beer after 1 week in the secondary fermenter. The dry-hopping hops have sedimented to the bottom of the carboy. This batch will probably sit in the secondary for another week before I bottle it. This will allow more of the hops to fall out of suspension in the beer and also to clarify a little before conditioning in the bottles.

Check back later for updates and the bottling process.

Into the Secondary

Well, I racked my IPA into the secondary this evening. This is my first attempt at this style of beer and it's my own recipe. The beer wasn't fully fermented, but I already had a specific gravity reading of about 1.044 for an expected abv of about 5.2%, and I wanted to get the beer off the sediment on the bottom of the fermenter.

Here it is right after the transfer:

It's a little darker than I thought it would be, but it should clear up after a week or so in secondary and another couple of weeks conditioning in the bottle.

This is also my first attempt at dry hopping. That's what the "pond scum" looking stuff floating on top is- 1.5 ounces of Sarachi Ace hops.

And finally, the beer has been moved into the cellar.

OK, it's really the bathtub in our second bathroom but it works and the beer doesn't seem to mind.

Getting Started

For me it all started on Christmas morning, 2007. My sister and her husband got me a homebrew equipment kit and a recipe kit for gifts. At first I was kind of skeptical: I had a Beer Machine in college and the results were less than stellar, and this think had all kids of stuff that I had only seen in chemistry lab in high school, but I figured I would give it a shot.

A couple weeks after Christmas, I had acquired a 20qt stainless steel brew kettle and read and re-read Charlie Papazian's "The Complete Joy of Homebrewing", I was ready. Using the recipe instructions and the small booklet that came with the kit, I cleaned, sanitized, cleaned again, and re-sanitized all of the beer making equipment I had. And then I started...

Am I glad I did!! This is turning out to be a very rewarding hobby. One that I whose "fruits" I can truly enjoy and share with others. I have even, perhaps unfortunately, turned into something of a "beer snob". I can't down a Coors Light anymore without wondering what kind of hops they use, or asking where the flavor is.

For anyone who is considering getting into this hobby, I say do it. Beginning equipment kits can be had for around $70 and recipe kits that can deliver excellent quality beer can be had for around $30. Give it a try and you may never have, or want, to buy beer again.

Humble Beginnings

I've started this blog in an effort to help other homebrewers like myself. There is no shortage of people who homebrew and most of those people are more than willing to help others with questions, brewing problems, or recipe ideas. The problem is that some people aren't willing to ask for help, and others don't live in an area where there are homebrewers, let alone homebrew shops, where they can get help.

Enter The Beermosphere. I am a fairly new homebrewer, but I have read quite a bit about the hobby and have brewed several batches of beer (I even won a subcategory in the brewing competition at the Indiana State Fair), most have which have even been drinkable. I am far from an expert, but I am always willing to learn and help others get started in the hobby.

Thanks for visiting and check back often to check on The Beermosphere and to see What's Brewing.