Bottling your first brew

You’ve patiently (or not) waited the two weeks for the fermentation to finish. If you are like me you probably took a peak each day to watch the yeast bubbling away. Now the time has finally come to bottle your brew.

Since I only brew a gallon at a time I only have to fill 6-10 bottles at a time. The bottles I use are 16 oz grolsch bottles in cobalt blue. I get 6 and 3/4 bottles of beer off of a one gallon brew.

The first step is washing and sanitizing the bottles. I wash the bottles inside and out using a bottle brush then I throw them in the dishwasher for a full cycle to make sure they are really clean. After they dry I soak the bottles in a sanitizing solution and place them back in their case, upside-down wrapped in paper towels. I really should get a bottle tree since it would make this step a lot easier.

To prime the bottles I use some maple syrup mixed with some water to thin it out. This is according to the instructions on the kit recipe.
I then siphon off the beer from the carboy into the pot with the primer. I’ve been pretty successful with my auto siphon for this step.

The hard part for me is trying to not get a lot of sediment out of the carboy. I have been really careful about not letting the siphon hose touch the bottom and I usually leave a little too much brew at the bottom but I’d rather be safe than sorry.

I next set up my bottling line in the kitchen with the primed pot on the stove at an angle and my empty bottles on a tv tray next to the stove. This puts the bottles at a lower level than the pot on the stove.

The first time I bottled I only had my auto siphon and my hose with a clamp. I got the hang of filling the bottles before I started by practicing with water and a bottle I wasn’t going to use. I figured out the hose clamp was harder to close than I thought.

Six and 3/4 bottles filled in about 20 minutes and they went back in the closet for another two weeks. Waiting is still the hardest part.