We’ve boiled our wort, cooled it, and put it in a fermenter. It’s done its thing for ten days, and the airlock has not bubbled in a couple of days. Everything seems to be going pretty well.
Note: From this point, it is helpful, but not necessary, to have an extra person to assist you. The extra set of hands will save you a lot of mess and will speed the process up greatly, but if you don’t have a helper, it’s not the end of the world. It just means you’ll have to work a bit harder.
First things first.
First, sanitize your bottles and bottling bucket (the one with the spout on the bottom) along with the bottling wand (if included), siphon, and hose. Don’t forget to sanitize your bottle caps. Your kit should have come with a packet of sanitizer for this purpose. Just follow the instructions on the packet.
Once everything is sanitized and ready, you can open your fermenter. You’ll be punched in the face with the aroma of fermenting beer. Sometimes it might smell a little sour depending on your yeast, but don’t worry. The beer will taste fine as long as everything was clean when you put it in the bucket.
How do I get the beer into the bottling bucket?
However you do it, try to get as little sludge from the bottom of your fermenter into the bottling bucket as possible. It won’t hurt anything if you get a little bit in there, but it can affect the flavor if too much is in your bottles. It’s generally the best practice to siphon the beer into the bottling bucket.
Siphoning is simply transferring liquid by using gravity. Start with your fermenter elevated so that its bottom stays above the bottling bucket’s top the entire time. This will ensure continuous flow. Then, we’ll prime and start the siphon. Whatever you do, don’t do this by sucking on the hose—you’ll infect your beer with bacteria. Instead, fill your hose with clean water and put one end in the bottling bucket and the other in the fermenter and let the weight of the water pull the liquid. Or, better yet, buy an auto siphon, which will save you many, many headaches. Don’t worry if you have a few issues getting your siphon started. If you don’t have an auto siphon, it can be very difficult.
Priming your beer
Boil the priming sugar (the little pouch of corn sugar included in your kit) in about a pint or so of water for ten minutes, and then pour it in your sanitized bottling bucket. One person can start this while the other opens the fermenter and siphons if you have two people present, but the sanitizing must be done before either of these steps. Keep in mind that, as long as you’re using corn sugar, it won’t boil over or anything, so you don’t have to watch it closely if you’re brewing alone. Some brewers use malt extract for this, though, and that requires a watchful eye. Most kits use corn sugar, though.
Once it’s siphoned in with the priming sugar, give it a good stir with your sanitized spoon. This will ensure the priming sugar is evenly distributed throughout the beer.
Once the beer and the priming sugar are mixed into the bottling bucket, raise the bottling bucket to a height that will allow gravity to fill the bottles. You can set it on a countertop and have the person filling bottles sit on the floor, or you can elevate it high enough to fill the bottles on a counter-top. Some folks put the bottling bucket on a refrigerator, and then fill and cap their bottles on a kitchen counter.
Fill ‘er up.
Attach the hose and bottling wand to the bottling bucket’s spigot and start filling your bottles. If you don’t have a bottling wand, I highly recommend getting one. It’s a lot easier than the “pinch the beer line” routine, and is a lot more sanitary than putting your thumb over the end of your hose.
Your bottles should be filled leaving 1.5 to 2 inches of space at the top. This will give your beer room to discharge the carbon dioxide and still build enough pressure to carbonate the beer. Be careful not to overfill your bottles, as this might cause some of them to explode. No one likes 12 oz hand grenades going off in their house. Once you have the bottles filled, you can cap them. Having two people here comes in very handy. One of you can fill bottles and the other can cap. However, you can just fill a bunch and then cap them if you are alone.
Ah, the work is done. Time for a cold one, right?
Not exactly. Once they are all capped, you’ll have to wait again. Keep them at room temperature for a couple of weeks to allow the yeast to consume the bottling sugar and create your carbon dioxide (which makes the bubbles). Then, chill and serve. Remember to always pour your homebrew in a glass. First, this allows you to leave the sediment in the bottle (it’s not harmful and is rich in vitamin B, but it will make your beer taste yeastier). Second, this is beer you made. Doesn’t it deserve a nice, clean glass?
A word of warning
If, for some reason, your bottles start to explode, don’t touch them. Let them all explode on their own, and don’t mess with them until they are done. If it’s only one bottle, it could have just been something contaminating that bottle, and you could be fine with the rest of them. If you have several blow up, remember that it’s a lot better to have to mop up dried beer off the floor than try to have your hand stitched up because you had one explode in it. Don’t try to open them to relieve the pressure, and don’t move them unless they’ve stopped exploding. Then, only move them far enough to throw the batch away.
Well, that’s the run-down on how to get started brewing. Happy “Learn to Homebrew Day” this Saturday. I hope some more folks take up the hobby after reading how easy it is. Remember not to worry about it. It’s pretty easy to make good beer. You should try it.
And now, We Drink!
Once your beer has had a week or two in the bottle, it’s ready to drink. If you really can’t wait the two weeks, open one after a week, but it may not be fully carbonated. Chill it to the serving temperature you like your beer at. Pour it in a nice glass, because it deserves it. Take in the color, clarity, and aroma. Take your time. Now take a sip and let it roll all over your tongue and taste it.
Savor it. It’s the first beer you’ve ever made.
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