Fermented beer ready to bottle
We've brewed the beer, let it ferment, and now we're finally ready to get it into bottles. We're so close to having homebrew we can almost taste it! And in fact, we did sneak a little taste - for purely scientific reasons, of course. Take a look!
1. Fermented Homebrew - This beer has now been fermenting for three weeks - one week in the primary fermenter and two weeks in the secondary. In the last week, we've seen no activity at all (as evidenced by bubbles of CO2 in the airlock), so we can be pretty certain the yeast has finished consuming all the sugars in the beer. It's ready to bottle!
2. Sterilized Bottles - We begged empties off our friends and saved our own so we'd have enough to bottle. Five gallons of beer is more or less equal to two cases of beer. That's a lot of bottles to collect!
3. Sterilized Bottle Caps - Once again, everything needs to be completely sterile so no unwanted bacterias or wild yeasts get into the beer and cause off-flavors.
4. Priming the Beer - Before we can bottle it, we need to give the beer one last dose of sugar, called "priming sugar." This is the yeasts' last supper, and the carbon dioxide the yeast produces will carbonate the beer while it's in the bottle. You can use corn sugar, cane sugar, or dry malt extract for this step. (We went with cane sugar.)
5. Mixing the Beer and the Priming Sugar - You put the simple sugar syrup into a clean (and sanitized!) bucket and then siphon the beer into it. The beer will mix with the syrup as it fills the bucket. We had a surprising amount of bubbles in our beer, almost like it was already carbonated. This worried us a bit, but in the end we just crossed our fingers and moved on!
6. Filling the Bottles - We had a special attachment for the siphon hose with a one-way valve at the opening. We inserted the attachment into the bottle until the valve pressed against the bottom, then the beer would flow out and fill the bottle. We filled the bottles all the way to the top before pulling the attachment out. The displacement from the attachment leaves just enough head room in the bottle.
7. Putting on the Caps - It took a few tries before we were sure the caps were actually secure, but it went pretty fast once we got the hang of it. You put the cap on, position the capper, and then press down on the "wings" until you feel the sides of the cap give way under the pressure.
8. Counting the Bottles - It was extremely satisfying to see the table filled with bottled beer. Our bottled beer!
9. A Preliminary Taste - We kept a little fermented beer out for a taste test. The flavor was fairly sweet with not a lot of hops or depth, but it definitely taste like beer. Flat, room-temperature beer, but beer all the same!
What's Next?
Now we need to let the bottles sit for another two weeks (agony!) while the yeast carbonates the beer. If you've been following along, and if we haven't gotten our dates off by too much, this whole process from brewing to ready-to-drink beer takes 5 weeks. If we needed to, we could have let the fermented beer sit in the carboy for another few weeks before bottling without too much affect on the flavor.
Related: Good Product: Soda Siphon for Homemade Fizzy Water
(Images: Emma Christensen)
© 2009 Apartment Therapy
almost there!
view art's profile
Get a bucket with a spigot & valve at the bottom. You'll be amazed how much easier it is to use than siphoning it out of the bucket into each bottle.
And funny, my husband & I never needed to worry about gathering empty bottles... we have 3 cases empty right now ready & waiting for us to brew... Guess tomorrow I'll head to the beer supply store! Thanks for the inspiration!
view tallsarah's profile
you really should use a hydrometer to test for beer "doneness" rather than timing -- just like cooking a turkey, standard timing can be widely variable given the conditions.
when the beer's gravity hasn't changed for a good 72 hours, then you know it's done and can be racked to secondary or bottled.
secondary-ing isn't even really that required for a lot of beer -- i just leave mine in primary for about 3 weeks. autolysis doesn't start occurring for a good 5 to 6 weeks at the quickest.
view toddself's profile
A good old homebrew. I have not done this for a few years now but it is fun. Used to do whole grain mashes. The whole house would smell like malted milk balls during the boil ! 2 comments- I see no airlock on the carboy ? , most literature recommends priming w malt extract, not cane sugar.
Enjoy your brew !!
view dasmueller's profile
@dasmueller, OP - cane sugar would be fine, as would DME.
I definitely also noticed the lack of an airlock on the carboy. Whats up with that?
A great way to store bottles of beer is in big cases with the dividers (like corona cases - my bf's dad goes through them so theres always empty corona cases around for us).
How was the butterfly capper? A bench capper might be nicer on your arms.
view arielg's profile
Please tell me you didn't wash your bottles in the dishwasher to sanitize them. I don't want to sound preachy like in my other comments regarding homebrewing, but I suggest soaking the bottles in either OneStep or StarSan instead. Dish detergent will leave a residue in the bottles that can impede the beer from forming a nice foamy head.
I second the recommendation for a bottling bucket with a spigot. I can't imagine doing bottling by myself with just a siphon.
I have a pale ale that I'm bottling tomorrow and I have a Rogue Dead Guy Ale clone that I'm moving to the secondary fermenter. Homebrewing is the greatest hobby.
view HomebrewMeister's profile
I recommend sanitizing bottle caps by just soaking them in a little light rum while you're fiddling about in the kitchen. Then you have a nice celebratory drink of rum after you're done bottling.
Use 22 oz. bottles if you really get into the hobby. It really cuts down on the time spent filling bottles.
view HomebrewMeister's profile
we've been trying to brew cider, never done it before and don't know anyone who has. looking for tips!
view mrhenry's profile
@ mrhenry:
Here's a blogpost about brewing cider that I bookmarked earlier this summer as something to try:
http://www.savvyhousekeeping.com/?p=680
I still haven't got around to trying it, but it looks easy enough, and might be a good starting point for you.
view Grumpy Girl's profile
We're making wine for the first time this year (blackberry) and I'm wondering if there's any reason (other than aesthetics) that I can't just put it in quart jars when it's finished its final fermentation (as opposed to wine bottles). I'm not really keen to invest in a cork-er thing, and I have lots of canning jars. Anyone have any thoughts about doing that?
view marisab's profile
You CAN sanitize you bottles in a dishwasher, just leave out the dish soap..
view springsyeti's profile
I made cider this year and it was super easy.. I used all natural raspberry/apple concentrate (17 of them) and poured them into glass carboy and then added the appropriate amt of water listed on the cans, bloomed the yeast and let it ferment for about a week. Racked to secondary for more clarification for about 5 days. Made 3 qts of simple syrup 1:1 ratio and then took it all to my local brew shop for stabilization and force carbonation. Once the stabilizer was added I added the simple syrup in steps until it tasted sweet enough. The stabilizer will stop the fermentation process so the bottles do not explode with all the sugar you will add. Then it was placed in a cooler to chill and then force carbonated. I know have a keg set up and can do all of this at home. My local brew shop only charged me 10 bucks to stabilize and force carbonate the cider. They also let me make a bottling mess there for no extra charge. I do not have the recipe with me but if anyone is interested just shoot me a message at springsyeti at geemail dot com and I will send it to you. I made this for my wife and I must say it came out really good, I sneak a bottle from time to time..
Cheers,
Greg
view springsyeti's profile
Looks great! Still looking for a great cider recipe? I just made this easy German Apfelwein for less than $20. http://www.homebrewtalk.com/f25/man-i-love-apfelwein-14860/
You should also get some BrewToppers beer bottle caps!
view potterfamily's profile