Bottling

Last Sunday was the big day where we “opened our present”. We went to our fermentation bucket which contained the wort that had been patiently waiting for two weeks while the yeast digested the sugar, while increasing the alcohol content. This is a good thing! During this process, carbon dioxide is expelled inside the sealed bucket, and escapes through an air release at the top of the bucket. You know when the beer is ready to bottle when there is a lack of carbon dioxide produced.

When we determined that it was time to bottle, we raised the fermentation bucket onto the countertop, where we would siphon the beer to a bottling bucket which was placed on the ground. This was a tricky process! During the siphoning, the undesirable material of the wort (spent yeast, hops, barley, etc) is filtered out. Without this step, you probably wouldn’t enjoy your beer as much!

We did sample the beer, and it was GREAT! We were quite happy with our sample, although there was an absence of carbonation, as well as a need for priming sugar to add a bit more sweet flavor. All in all, we were excited!

When the beer was in the bottling bucket, we place it on the countertop. The bottling bucket has a spicket located near the bottom of the bucket on the outside, where you can open the spicket and fill the bottles you are using to store your beer. Our bottles were a collection of 12 oz, 22 oz, and even 30 oz bottles. We purchased the 30 oz bottles from Home Goods for about $2.50 each. These bottles are great because they feature the old style swing-top cap, which makes the beer Grolsch easily identifiable.

 

These bottles also help make sure that the caps don’t pop off when carbonation occasionally increases.  It also eliminates the step of having to “cap” each bottle, and allows you to pour out a portion of the beer, yet put the cap back on with an airtight seal.

Our next step depends on our wonderful wives, as they will be creating and printing the labels for our beer, which by the way, is in the process of being named! Any suggestions!?