Saturday May 29th we bottled brews 2 and 3, The Brown ale, and the Irish Stout respectively. I'm a little bit embarrased to say I didn't take any pictures, nor did I take any gravity readings. Things were a little hectic in the house, the family was cleaning and such, and Jeff and I were just trying to get things done and stay out of the way.
The brown ale bottled fairly quickly and uneventfully. I believe we got 4 Growlers and 28 bottles? By the time we were ready to bottle the Irish Stout, we'd actually polished off a growler of one of BBC's brews called Steel Rail Extra Pale Ale, and I think a couple other bottles of something...
A Note... We bought a new sanitizer at the recommendation of a knowledgeable friend. We specifically asked if it was no rinse, and he said yes. He owns the store we shop for our supplies at, so we took his word on it. It's not that I doubt him, I just wanted to establish that this was another variable in these two brews.
Anyway, I'd gone upstairs, (as we were bottling down in the basement), and mixed up the priming sugar in a pan of hot water, let it dissolve, etc... Brought it down, and mixed it slowly into the Brew 2, as we moved it to the bottling bucket. Once that was moved, I ran upstairs, and mixed the next bag for Brew 3 into the pan and set it down to dissolve while we bottled Brew 2. We got Brew 2 all bottled and capped, and get Brew 3 set up to move to the bottling bucket, when I went to reach for the priming sugar... It wasn't there. Then I remembered I'd left it upstairs. I went up to get it, and found the pan over turned in the dishdrainer. Remember I'd said the family was cleaning?
Not the end of the world of course, as I know you can use powdered sugar as well. However, I didn't know how much. I tried to use around the same amount as what was in the bag of priming sugar from the kit. I'm hoping I didn't use too much, as I don't need any irish stout bombs in my basement...
Now, we did try both brews after we'd filled the bottles. We tried a little of what was left in the bucket, as much as we could get without it being clouded by the lees... Both brews tasted outstanding. The stout had the little bit of a bitter aftertaste as it should, the brown ale was slightly nutty... Perfect, says I. I'm very much looking forward to cracking these brews! They will make their way to the fridge this weekend for their final 2 weeks of fermentation.
I knew a guy who made his own wine; he's dead now but when he used to bring it round he insisted I tried it. I don't drink so was always trying to refuse but he never took no for an answer! It was like bloody rocket fuel. And it was usually Monday mornings when he came round!
ReplyDeleteCJ xx