Almost Ready!

I drank the first brew last week and another last night. We have a good beer! It's got some great flavors going on. Needs to age at least one more week to get a tad more carbonation and let the bitterness subside. Right now we have quite the bitter aftertaste, but aside from that she's a winner!

Bottling Day! 12/16/09

Here are about 50 sanitized caps, ready for battle.

Boiled my priming sugar (5 oz. in 2 cups water)

Here is my bottling station. The tray with papertowels has my caps, bottling hose and wand...

About halfway through the siphoning from secondary fermenter to bottling bucket. Giddyup.

And here is my yield. 45 12 oz bottles and 2 22 oz bottles. After it's all said and done, my batch cost about $0.98 per bottle. Not too shabby for what should be a tasty, high abv IPA.

Next stop.... Chilling and tasting!

Happy Holidays!

Samuel Smith's Imperial Stout, Rogue Hazelnut Nectar, Santa's Butt and Samuel Adams Holiday Porter.

Collecting bottles...

Here are quite a few bottles I've been collecting here and there. We've got awhile yet, but getting a few ready at a time makes for an easier task than having to peel/clean off labels 50+ times in one day!

Transferring to the secondary fermenter...

Here we are 4 days of fermenting in the primary. We had bubbling in the airlock very quickly after we pitched our yeast, and it slowed way down to about every 45 seconds. Per the recommended procedures in my kit, I elected to transfer to the secondary...

I took my original gravity on brew day 11/29 and this is a pic of me taking my SG, or specific gravity. Things are right on track!

Siphoning from primary to secondary, moving cleanly and quickly to make sure no outside microbes or anything bad gets into the brew... Was pretty easy to keep things clean I thought. We'll see how the finished product reflects that!

Here is the bottom of the primary fermenter. That's spent yeast cells and proteins at the bottom... The use of a secondary helps deter this bi-product from integrating into the brew.

I did a chilled taste test last night and found it extremely bitter! This is completely normal, since we have just started the conditioning process. I'm hoping to get a static 72 hour FG reading by the end of next week and we'll bottle this bad boy. Woohoo!

Here is the IPA with a nice amber hue after 24 hours in the secondary... Coincidentally, this carboy and airlock were used by my wife's Grandfather in making various types of wine. Very cool!

This is a view from the top. A few CO2 surface bubbling, indicating that there is still a bit of fermenting going on. Per instructions in my kit, this is right where we want to be!

Here is a view of even more sediment collecting in the secondary. No harm in this, as it's exactly what happened in the primary. All we did was transfer from one vessel to another to help with pure flavors and clarity. Our next step will be transferring this into our bottling bucket, bottling and capping. It may not sound like a great time, but I'm having a blast learning all of this stuff!

Choice Brews

Some choice brews that we've had recently... Southern Tier Creme Brulee Stout - Sweet and full bodied. Dogfish Head Punkin - Very high on our pumpkin beer list! Sierra Nevada Pale Ale - Always a great ale... Samuel Smith's Organic Strawberry brew - Unusual, not great but Old Tadcaster always brews well. Honey Moon, - Pretty basic, very unique honey after taste. Rogue Chocolate Stout - chocolatey goodness, great bomber. Abita Pecan Harvest - Excellent fall seasonal that we always look for. Finally, Carlsberg german lager. Not a great way to round out the table, but not too shabby.