Carboy

Them's the breaks

One bottle down, but 12 remain

From Carboy

A few days behind schedule, I finally got a moment to bottle my Belgian dubbel. With my wife having a rare Sunday evening work event and my urchins in bed, I seized the chance. I started by cleaning and sanitizing my bottles, which had been sitting dormant for almost a year.

I've been brewing beer for about three years, and one part of the process I've never quite gotten a handle on is priming. I'm always fumbling around for the right amount of sugar to boil, so I was excited to discover a handy priming calculator tonight that I wish I had known about when I started. Check out http://www.northernbrewer.com/priming. It's super easy to use, and (I hope) it gives an accurate measurement for the amount of sugar you want for the style of beer you're making.

 

From Carboy

As I ran my beer into the bottles, I took my final gravity reading of 1.010. That should work out to about 6 percent ABV when all is said and done.

 

From Carboy

While I was capping the bottles, I accidentally broke one of them. This was a first. I love this Austrian table wine called "Berger," because its one-liter green bottles are cappable. I was disappointed to lose one of the few I have left. But I was even more bummed to have to dump out a whole liter of beer because it was full of glass.

 

From Carboy

But I shook it off and finished off the night. Now, I just have to wait two more weeks to drink it.

 

From Carboy

Why is my beer in a garbage bag, you ask? Because the first time I bottle conditioned a beer in a closet, I had two bombers of chocolate maple porter explode on the top rack, soaking and staining all of my clothes. Now whenever I put bottles in a civilian closet, I try to make sure it'll be easy to clean up if the worst happens.

By Tom on 03/24/2013

Stage: Bottling

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