Last Thursday the 18th I bottled the Beamish Stout clone I made. So, since some of you have never bottled your own beer, let me walk you through the experience.
To bottle properly, you need to:
1) Sanitize all your bottles and your bottling bucket. I like to get my bucket full of sanitizing solution, then dip the bottles in the bucket until all surfaces have been sanitized, then dry the bottles. Some folks have invested in a bottle drying stand. Well, I have a perfect bottle dryer that came with our apartment:
First, I sanitize the dishwasher with my sanitizing solution (with a spray bottle), then I dry the bottles in the dishwasher.
2) Sanitize every piece of equipment that will touch the beer. This means your auto syphon, plastic hose, the bottling wand, the bottle caps, and your stirring spoon and measuring cup. Measuring cup? Yep. Trust me.
3) Syphon your beer out of the fermentation vessel into your bottling bucket (after emptying it of sanizer). Now this part was weird at first, until I realized how to properly use the auto syphon. I start out by attaching the hose to the auto syphon, putting the other end of the hose into the bottling bucket, then pumping the auto syphon like crazy until a good, solid flow of beer is travelling through it. After that, it should be a simple matter of gravity taking care of the rest.
4) Take your final gravity. Now, given that I never do it at this point. I add the 3/4 cup of corn sugar in the bucket, syphon it and stir it, then when bottling it I take the final gravity. The problem with that is that I just added corn sugar, which will change the final gravity. I’m not sure by how much, but it does. I had this realization after adding the corn sugar to this batch and realizing that I should take the final gravity first. Oops! Guess I’m still learning things even after 19 batches of beer.
My final gravity was 1.016, which I will round down to 1.014, given my late addition of the corn sugar. This will give me 3.15% alcohol by weight, or 3.94% by volume. The beer you use to take the final gravity is normally discarded. But, since I sanitized the hydrometer and the measuring tube, I was able to put the beer back in my bottling bucket.
A Note: When syphoning the beer, leave the bottom sediment and some of the beer in the fermentation bucket. You will lose some beer, but your final beer will gain clarity and have less sediment in the bottles.
5) Attach the bottling wand to the bottling bucket, throw a towel on the floor below it, and begin filling bottles. I found if you fill the bottle almost to the top, once you remove the wand from the bottle it will have exactly enough beer in it. If you have someone to help, have one person bottle and the other person cap the bottles.
After you have bottled a few, take a glass (sanitized, of course) and put a taster of beer into it to sample. The flavors at this point will not accurately reflect what they will end up being, but it will give you an idea of what your final product will be like.
The Beamish clone turned out nice and smooth. It had some of the obvious stout flavors, similar to a rich coffee flavor, but those will get even more subtle as the beer carbonates in the bottle. My oatmeal stout did the same.
6) Cap the bottles. Now, all my bottle caps have been doused with sanitizer and have been sitting on a clean towel to air dry. Capping the bottles is something you just have to do. Have a steady hand, apply firm, even pressure on the handles, and on a regular bottle it will work smashingly! I have some old Guiness bottles that are a bit more tricky to cap.
7) Box up your bottles and wait 1-2 weeks.
This is the hard part… waiting for your beer. I’m a bit practiced at waiting, so I can handle it. My partner in crime in this beer making venture doesn’t even take delivery of his share until it’s drinkable.
There you have it. We have decided to name this batch “Lucky Stout,” given the Irish origins of this recipe. Can’t wait till Christmas day, as that will be the soonest this lovely stout can be sampled.
2 comments
Nice pictures. Well done. I like to use my hydrometer sample as my taster.
Merry Christmas
Thanks! Merry Christmas to you.
FYI- It’s not ready to drink yet. Need another week in the bottle.