Post 8/19/2012 describing events of 8/11/2012
Equipment
The new pieces of equipment in this step are the bottling bucket that has a spigot, the bottle caps, the bottle capper, the bottle filling tube, and the yummy snacks from the garden. The big tomato is a "Mr. Stripey" or "Striped German," and it is just stellar with coloring like a peach and a sweet peachy flavor. Amazing.
Because I found it rather difficult later on to take pictures as I am actually doing this process (bottling day is always fun and chaotic, and I'm doing this alone so there is no one else to hold the camera for me), I'll show you how these new pieces of equipment work now rather than later.
Pressure Bottle Washer
This piece of equipment screws down onto a standard garden hose:
I like to keep the hose in place by tying it to a kitchen cabinet over the sink with a piece of pink yarn from my attempt at knitting a tank top. Here's how the bottle washer works (more on the pink tank top another time):
When you put a bottle over the end, the lip catches on the rod perpendicular to the one-way valve, opening the valve and releasing water at high pressure into the bottle:
Bottling Tube
This tube also has a one-way valve that works the same way.
The valve closes when you pull the tube out of the bottle due to the fluidic pressure of the beer, and opens when you hit the bottom of the bottle with the bar attached to the plunger of the one-way valve. This tube is sized such that you leave the proper 1.5" headspace at the top of the bottle for pressure build-up during natural carbonation.
Bottle Capper
This is kind of hard to explain, but if you saw one and operated you would figure it out pretty quickly. Here is the basic structure:
Here's how it works! First, you attach a bottle cap to the magnet:
Then you place the bottle inside the bottle cap:
You wind up with a perfectly capped bottle!
Admire the View
An essential part of any experience with here at Life and Science.....
Preparation
Unless you want to keg your beer, which I have never done (yet), we will need about 4-5 12-packs of bottles (~48-60). I've preferred to re-purpose Samuel Adams bottles for this, because the labels peel off quite easily and I love the Sam Summer ale (brewed with lemon peel and grains of paradise!). New Belgium bottle labels also peel off easily, so I use them very occasionally. Their Ranger IPA is pretty stellar.
This step starts by soaking the bottles for 5-10 minutes in hot soapy water:
After they've soaked, the labels peel right off. A simple wipe with a normal dish sponge around the exterior removes the water-soluble glue, and a scrubbing of the inside with a bottle brush removes any nasty from the bottom that has grown on the dredges of the beer because you were too lazy to rinse the bottle before storing. On this note, it's essential to make sure that you hold the bottle underwater with the open end slightly raised to allow the air to escape and soapy water to enter. Otherwise the nasty at the bottom will stay dry and intact.
After a good rinse (3x):
My dish-rack holds approximately a 12-pack of bottles, so I repeat this step 5 times. This is a time-consuming step, but essential. If you forgot to rinse out your bottles before storage, expect to find large chunks of mold in your drain:
This is completely disgusting, but pat yourself on the back for getting that nasty out of your bottles and therefore your baby beer.
Corn Sugar
This last little dose of sugar is what carbonates the beer naturally in the bottle. We have to make sure that the sugar is pretty sterile before adding it to our beautiful beer, so first we measure in about 3/4 a cup of corn sugar into a small saucepan and add in a cup of water.
This we apply high heat to, stirring all the while.
When all the sugar is dissolved, the solution turns clear.
Now we turn off the heat and let this return to room temperature.
Sanitizing
As always, all the equipment must be sanitized. Let's look at things sanitizing in front of a really pretty window first.
Ahh, lovely. Now let's look at it in the nitty gritty:
Yep, every single bottle must be sanitized. Note the two "floater" bottles. There are not being sanitized properly right now, because they are not completely filled and immersed in sanitizing solution. The bottles further down are. FYI.
All those bottles need a good rinse, and that is accomplished with the pressure bottle washer. About 3 2-second bursts is all they really need, but I typically apply 5 5-10-second bursts, just to be sure. Sanitizing solution is not good drinks! I lay these out on the turtle towel to dry. I got too lazy to take good pictures at this point, and I promise to do a better job of documenting the bottling process at some point in the future.
Actually Bottling the Beer
This step starts by moving the secondary to a table top or other elevated location:
I'll quickly run you through the following steps, and update with a better photodocumentary when I get a brewing buddy to help out.
1. Autosiphon from secondary into bottling bucket with a spigot. You saw how this worked in the last step. Practice your yoga - the all-glass carboy for the secondary is a lot heavier than the plastic of the primary bucket.
2. Move the tubing from the autosiphon to connect the spigot with the bottling tube, and move the bottling bucket up a level to the table.
3. Put down a large baking sheet (with high edges), put a bottle in this, put the bottling tube in the bottle, and open the spigot.
4. Scream in frustration when you realize you opened the spigot too much and the bottle fills in 2 seconds and starts spurting beer all over the kitchen. Turn the spigot down and get a new bottle.
5. Wail in frustration after waiting five minutes for the bottle to fill, and turn the spigot back up a little.
6. Scream in frustration again when the bottle fills the rest of the way too rapidly and starts spurting beer all over the kitchen. Turn the spigot down and get a new bottle.
7. Repeat steps 5 and 6 until all bottles are filled.
8. Mop the floor, and be glad you waited to do this until after bottling!
Storage
Move all your bottles to the one room of the house you keep closest to the 60-75 F temperatures that beer loves. If you're in New England, your basement is the best spot year round. If you're in Oklahoma, your living room is best in winter, and your bathtub wrapped in a wet towel is best in summer (your storm cellar is still probably over 90 F most of the summer). If you're in Los Angeles, anywhere is fine in the winter. If it's summer in LA, choose a room, turn the AC on in that room, and put the beer in there.
After a couple weeks it should be good drinks at last! I can't wait to taste this beer! I hope my husband likes it, he always likes lambics (which this one was for a little bit), and he also always likes blueberry wheat beers. I'll update with a "tasting" post.
Cheers, and happy brewing!
P.S. If you read this and find anything useful or humorous, please comment!
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