by ·0 Comments

So, the very next night after bottling I was telling my wife how the process went. That it was pretty easy and went off without a hitch. Then it hit me – I primed too much sugar. I had just made a case of bottle bombs!

The night before, rather than measuring out my sugar, I grabbed a pre-measured 5 oz. package that was in with my ingredients. I was trying to be quick and didn’t even think about the 2.5 gallon batch I was about to bottle only needing 2.5 oz. of sugar.

I searched over HomeBrewTalk and other sites. I was most definitely going to have bottle bombs. I waited 5 days and then uncapped two, easily and over the sink. A light hiss and nothing more. I quickly recapped them and let the entire lot sit for 3 more days.

A-Z Brown Ale I grabbed a new bottle from the case and popped the top. Again, nothing crazy happened. I poured it to a glass and it looked great. The beer was clear and had a nice, dark amber/brown color. The head was about two-fingers thick, probably from the over-carbonation.

I tasted a sip and it was pretty good. Not the best I’ve had, but way better than I expected for my first batch. It was bubbly, too much so. It had a malty and fruity taste to it, much like Old Speckled Hen. There was a slight hop finish, which could be a little stronger. The alcohol is prevalent in the taste. I should have let it sit longer before bottling and I hoping it will mellow as it ages, which it should. At 7.5% ABV, it’s definitely a sipping beer.

I went about my business and started working on some stuff around the house. Taking a sip now and then. As it sat, the bubbles worked themselves out and it lost most of the carbonation, making it quite a nice beer.

I’ll be trying one again in about a week to see how it’s different. I want it to mellow a bit more before passing a few out to my friends. We’ll see what it tastes like after it sits a bit longer.

by ·0 Comments

After brewing up my first batch of home brew on January 9, I patiently waited 2 weeks and started checking the carboy. I check the specific gravity and got the same reading over three days – 1.011. It was time to bottle. I had a few hours after the kids went to bed to get it all done and had previously washed some empty bottles a few days before. So I went and gathered up everything I needed and had a setup for bottling all planned out.

I don’t have a bottle tree yet, so I planned on using the dishwasher to drain and hold my bottles—just rinsed with StarSan. I had a bucket of StarSan to hold my other supplies and placed my bottle caps in a small tub of StarSan to keep the sterilized and handy. Over on HomeBrewTalk, I had seen a few brewers mount their bottling wand directly to the bottling bucket and I thought that was a great idea. I sterilized my bottling bucket and was ready to transfer my beer from the carboy to the bucket and bottle.

Transfer to Bottling Bucket Stirring in the Priming Sugar

First off, get an auto-siphon. It’ works great and I was transferring to the bucket in no time. As I transferred, I mixed in my 5 oz. of priming sugar—boiled in 1C of water—with a sterilized mixing spoon. It didn’t take long and the beer was transferred to the bucket and ready to bottle.

Bottling setup

I moved the bucket over the dishwasher, so the door would catch any drips. Which turned out to be a great plan. Since I didn’t have to worry about making a big mess, the actual bottling didn’t take long at all. As a matter of fact, I had everything bottled in about 20-minutes. It took longer to clean everything up than it did to actually bottle everything.

First 6 Ready to Cap

I would bottle six, cap and then repeat the process. I was a little nervous about using the capper, but after the first six, I sped up quite a bit. I stored the bottles in the closet, ready to wait another 10 days before I could try it.

However, that turned out to not be the case…stay tuned