Home Brew How to - Part 2

It's Bottling Time!

Ok, you've been resting on your laurels now for almost two weeks while the yeast has been doing the hard work in the carboy.  It's time to get busy and bottle your home brew.  As in any worthwhile endeavor, there is some prep work to be done in order to have a successful bottling effort.

Start by washing and sanitizing the equipment you will need and at least 48 pry-top bottles. For the bottling process you will need your brew bucket, siphoning tubes (a long length of flexible tubing which you will attach to about 18 – 24 inches of hard, clear plastic tubing), a bottle filler, the bottles and caps and a bottle capper. Use B-Brite cleanser to wash your equipment and bottles and an amberdyne solution to sanitize them. Place your bottle caps in bowl of amberdyne solution.

In order to get the carbonation you want from your bottled beer, you need to give the yeast something to work with in the bottle, a process called secondary fermentation. Many recipes will call for ¾ of a cup of corn sugar to be added prior to bottling. Boil the sugar in a cup of water and pour the solution into the brew bucket. Be careful not to add too much sugar at this stage; too much sugar means too much carbonation. Now you are ready to transfer the beer from the carboy into the brew bucket.

Place the carboy on a table or counter with the brew bucket positioned on the floor in front of the carboy. Attach the flexible tubing to the piece of hard plastic tubing. Prime your siphoning tubes by filling them with water (hold your finger over one end to keep the water in the tubing). Insert the straight tubing into the carboy and let the liquid begin to flow by releasing your finger. Allow the priming water to flow into a pan before shifting the tube into the brew bucket to allow the beer to transfer from the carboy into the brew bucket.

Try not to allow the beer to splash too much during this process. As the beer pours into the bucket, the sugar solution will be distributed throughout the batch. There will be an inch or two of sediment in the bottom of the carboy, try not to transfer too much of this into the brew bucket.

 Once all of the beer has been transferred into the brew bucket, you are ready to begin bottling.  This process will be much easier if your brew bucket has a valve at the bottom. In this case simply place the bucket on the counter or a table and attach the sanitized bottle filler to the valve with a short piece of tubing. If your bucket does not have a valve, you will need to rinse your siphoning tubing, attach the bottle filler and siphon the beer out of the bucket. Open the valve on the bucket and insert the filler into the first bottle.

Pressing the filler against the bottom of the bottle releases the liquid. Fill the bottle all the way to the top. When you remove the filler the bottle will be filled to the proper level. Place one of your sanitized caps on the bottle and seal it with the bottle capper. Repeat this process approximately 47 times.

Store your bottled beer in a cool dark place. In about ten days to two weeks it will be ready to sample. Your beer really won’t get better with age so enjoy it while it’s fresh!