Dreams of kegging......

Just finished up a bottle marathon of four batches over 3 days......four batches, nearly 20 gallons of finished product - I will keg someday, I will keg someday, I will keg someday, I will keg someday :)

A few photos of the fruit beers pre-bottling and over the samples. Huge color difference obviously from the fruit treatments. All the pulp and fruit mush gave me some trouble during bottling/siphoning, esp. all the pulpy mango and peach. They both smell and taste great - in three weeks I'll know for sure!!

Bottling of brett beers

Date - April 4, 2010

Bottled both brett beers today in part b/c I was thinking of entering them into the Puget Sound Pro-Am and needed some carbonation if I wanted to do so. Because the brett takes hold of anything plastic or porous, I used old equipment here and it will be set aside for future brett beers only. It was kind of time to replace some stuff anyways, so I purchased new hoses, siphons, bottling wand, etc. for all regular beers.

Nothing else really different here compared to other bottlings, but I was concerned about carbonation and possible bottle bombs w/ the brett. For a few weeks, I put the bottles in a big plastic bin and then left in my shower during the day to contain any possible mess.

1. Saison de Deux Médecine w/ Brett

• 1.006 at bottling ~ 6.55% ABV and 89.3% attenuation
• the brett took it from 1.014 to 1.006 FG and 75% to 89.3% attenuation
• last time I used ~ ½ cup of sugar for just over 2 gallons of end product and it turned out quite over-carbonated; so ¼ cup per gallon is a little high
• so this time I used closer ~ 1/5 cup of sugar per gallon (slightly under ½ cup total) and the end product (based on bottle filling) was 2.25 gallons
• carbonation still seems like kind of a crap shoot to me though and is something I need to try to understand better in terms of volume of CO2, etc. that you want for certain styles and how to achieve that based on sugar and OG/FG
  

2. Rêve de Wallonia w/ Brett

• 1.008 FG at bottling ~ 8.7% ABV and 89.2% attenuation
• the brett to it from 1.010 to 1.008 FG and 86.5% to 89.2% attenuation
• less impact of the brett (in terms of numbers) in this beer
• same approximate sugar amounts used here

Bottle Time - Heavy Things & Wallonia

Heavy Things - bottled on October 24, 2009

• 1.028 ~ 7.6% ABV with 67.5% attenuation
• clear, light brown
• candy rich, malty with a sticky woody note to it
• sweet caramel with dark fruits and quite nice overall
  

Rêve de Wallonia - bottled on October 25, 2009

• 1.010 ~ 8.4% ABV with 86.5% attenuation
• in the end the attenuation is quite good, but had hoped for lower (and drier)
• dense dark orange
• fruity and quite sweet
• thicker texture and mouthfeel than anticipated
• nose has a husky zing to it with tropical fruits and lots of dry spice

Bottle Conditioning - Russian Lullaby

April 13, 2009

So this was the day I finally got around to bottling Russian Lullaby, my first Belgian Strong Golden Ale. With this beer I tried to do several things to improve and bring out the traditional BSGA character. The final step would be in my bottling and conditioning where I would add yeast along with sugar directly into the bottling process (the same yeast used during fermentation).

Here's a little rundown on bottling condition Belgian ales:
http://www.byo.com/stories/techniques/article/indices/14-bottling/1212-on-the-yeast-guide-to-bottle-conditioning

With some help from my buddy Colin, I was able to target my between 3.5 and 4.0 volumes of carb. This would mean that in addition to the yeast, I would also be using quite a bit more sugar than my normal bottling process. I would end up with about 16 oz. of sugar (1 cup).

Process:

1. Boil sugar for 5 mins. as normal
2. Let cool to approx. 75 degrees
3. You want to mix yeast and sugar solution at same temp)
4. Mix yeast and sugar into the bottling bucket
5. Continue bottling as normal

Another key here was to try and store the bottles around 70 degrees (or more) for at least 3 weeks to allow the yeast to do its thing. I did this next to a heater with a cardboard barrier.

All in all the process was quite easy and I am just pumped for this beer. Attenuation was fantastic and it came out to 7.5% ABV.

First taste from sample: Color was crystal clear gold (my lightest brew) with aromas of grass and apples; mildly sweet with lemons, flowers and yeasty notes; almost cidery in the uncarbed form; yeah!!!!


Photo of the sample:

First Bottling Day - oh yea!!

Date - November 25, 2007

So, four weeks in and I'm one more step to finishing my first beer!!

I don't remember too much from my first bottling experience, except for being obsessed with sanitizing. This seems to be the step where if you're not careful, you can ruin a whole batch of beer in no time.

A dishwasher here is very handy and in fact, bottling beer is the only time I use mine!! In general I use 22-oz. bombers to cut down on the amount of capping, but more and more I use 12-oz. bottles to allow for easier testing during the carbonation phase.

All in all my first day of bottling was quite smooth. Took me about 1.75 hours from start to finish and no major issues to report. That won't always bee the case...haha.

So, three weeks to carbonate - can I wait that long???

My general bottling procedure:

1. Sanitize dishwasher
   
2. Sanitize bottles - soak in bath of sanitized water; drip dry in dishwasher
3. Sanitize bottle caps and small rack for drying
4. Sanitize siphon, tubing, sample tube, bottling bucket, filler
5. Let everything have a little time to dry
   
6. Boil 5 oz. of corn sugar in 1 pint of water for ~ 10 mins.
7. Dump sugar in bottling bucket
8. Siphon beer into bottling bucket
9. Fill bottles
10. Cap bottles
11. Clean up and label caps
    

Sanitized bottles drying in my dishwasher



Getting ready to fill them up



Red Barron Capper



Two cases of beer!!!!



Sample and hydrometer