Let's Brew Beer: Part 3

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After a disturbingly long period has elapsed, it is finally time to put my potentially delicious brew into bottles. Here the yeast will give its last gift: delicious carbonation.

First step is to combine 3/4 cup of corn sugar with one cup of water and boil it in a saucepan. this sugar will be the yeast's last meal. You can use a fraction of wort extract instead to alter the final character of your brew, something I may attempt in subsequent brews.

I've also taken the liberty of soaking my bottlecaps in sanitizing solution. Sanitizer is recommended for your bottlecaps, as for the bottles themselves you can either soak in sanitizer or use the alternate method.

I opted for sanitizing my bottles with the hot drying cycle of my dishwasher. The heady steam will purify your bottles, probably, or maybe just make them hot.

 

Siphon your brew into your sanitized bottling bucket and add your boiled sugar to let them mix together. By no means are you to forget to add your sugar until the siphoning is nearly complete because this might lead to inadequate mixing and uneven results across your bottles. Siphoning leaves the sediment in the fermenter behind, which is good since nobody likes gritty beer.

Meanwhile we're ready with the also sanitized bottle filling wand. It has a valve that will only open when it's pressed against the bottom of the bottle. Playing the wand this evening will be a very old man who may or may not be my father. His stoicism while bending over to fill 43 bottles is to be commended.

A rythm is established. Bottle comes out of dishwasher, gets filled up to the brim, then passed off to the capping station. In this way, the job is finished in short order.

I've heard that screw-top bottles are weaker than flip-top bottles and that I was running the risk of breaking some of my bottles, so I made sure to cap them all in the sink. Turns out my fears were unwarranted. None of the bottles broke, and each cap was secured quite tightly. They aren't likely to unscrew, but this is no great loss.

In case you were curious, this is what was left behind in the fermenter. Be careful when cleaning this out to not use anything abrasive, since scratching the plastic is a sure way to increase the risk of bacterial contamination in future brews. A glass carboy fermenter will do wonders to reduce the chances of this.

For the first time my beer looks truly delicious. In 2-4 weeks it will be ready for consumption. In case you're curious, the bottles are a mixture of Yuengling Light, Michelob Amber Bock, and Bud Light.