How to Bottle Home Brewed Beer
Approved by:
Paige Master, Gainesville Weddings in Gainesville Florida
Bottling your beer will be the final step that needs to be completed before you will finally be able to enjoy and drink your home brewed beer. The primary fermentation has to be completely finished. For ales this typically takes approximately 2 to 3 weeks. The airlock on your fermenter should have very occasional, if any, bubbles moving through it. The beer will also begin to clear as the inactive yeast falls to the bottom of the fermenter.
To prepare your beer for bottling it’ll have to be primed. This process consists of introducing a small amount of sugar to your fully fermented but uncarbonated beer. Despite the fact that the beer might appear somewhat clear there’s still a sufficient amount of yeast present to consume the additional sugar. After the primed beer is bottled it will go through a short fermentation that is going to create the carbonation. This method is called bottle conditioning.
Bottling beer is a pretty simple process, but, it does require a certain amount of preparation to get all the things you need ready. There are a few items of home brewing equipment needed for bottling beer. Most home brewing equipment kits provide you with all of these items with the exception of the bottles. Here is a list of the items required for bottling beer:
- Bottles – Priming Sugar – Bottle Brush – Bottle Caps and Capper – Bottling Bucket with Spigot and Bottle Filler Attachment – Additional 5 Gallon Plastic Bucket – Racking Cane with Siphon Hose – Cleaning Solution – Sanitizing Solution
The following are a few additional household items needed:
- Small Bowl or Container – Saucepan – Large Mixing Spoon (stainless steel or plastic) – Rubber Gloves
You are going to have to have enough bottles to contain all the beer you’ve brewed. The recommended type of bottles are brown glass ones with standard tops (not the twist-off variety) that will accept a cap from your bottle capper. Green glass bottles are also alright; the concept is to keep light out of the bottle. Depending on the bottle size you will need to do a bit of math. A 5 gallon batch of beer is about 640 ounces; so if you are going to use 12 ounce bottles you will want to have about 54. If you decide on 16 ounce bottles you will need to have 40 bottles. It is a good plan to have a few extra bottles just in case there is a problem or a minor miscalculation.
Once again cleanliness is one of the most important issues. It’s extremely important that all bottles are thoroughly cleaned before they can be sanitized, particularly for those who are reusing bottles. The easiest method to thoroughly clean your bottles is to soak them in a cleaning solution and scrub all of them inside and outside using the bottle brush. Some really good cleaning solutions are PBW (Powdered Brewery Wash), B-Brite and Easy Clean. You will want to use clean rubber gloves while you are cleaning and sanitizing. The solutions that you will be using might cause skin irritation. The following step is to sanitize all of the bottling equipment and bottles. There are a number of sanitizers to select from. Two of the common solutions are Star San, and 5-Star. Add the allocated amount of sanitizer to the bottling bucket and to an additional 5 gallon bucket then simply fill each with water. Place all of the bottling equipment which will come in contact with the beer in the sanitizing solution in the bottling bucket. Make use of the extra bucket to soak the bottles. Put as many bottles as you can in the sanitizing solution making certain they are entirely submerged. Once your bottles have soaked in the sanitizing solution for the suggested period of time (look over the sanitizer manufacturer’s instructions) remove and allow the bottles to drain. Repeat this until all of the bottles are sanitized. Empty the sanitizing solution from your bucket. The majority of the sanitizers are “no rinse” which means you won’t have to bother with rinsing any of your bottling equipment or bottles.
When your bottling equipment is soaking in the sanitizing solution you will want to make the priming solution. The most typical choice for priming sugar is corn sugar. It’s a simple sugar and will not have an impact on the flavor of your beer. To do this step add 2 cups of water to a small saucepan and bring it to a boil. Add cup of corn sugar and stir slowly until it’s fully dissolved. Put a lid on the saucepan and remove it from the burner. Make time to set up the bottling area. Be sure that all the bottling equipment is easy to access. Carefully put your fermenter on a countertop or table, try to avoid disturbing the sediment on the bottom. It is also recommended to take a few notes. Record the date of the bottling and all other noteworthy things about the beer. You might want to look back to this information later on down the road.
Take all the bottling equipment out of the sanitizing solution in the bottling bucket and place it in the extra 5 gallon bucket. Add a couple of gallons of the sanitizing solution from your bottling bucket just in case you might need it. Empty out the remainder of the sanitizing solution from your bottling bucket and allow it to drain. Alright let’s get going. Just remember everything that touches the beer has to stay sanitary.
Carefully pour the priming solution into your bottling bucket. It doesn’t matter if it is a bit warm. Make use of the recently sanitized racking cane and siphon hose to transfer the beer out of the fermenter into the bottling bucket. Set the end of the siphon hose at the bottom of the bottling bucket. You should never let the beer to splash during the transfer, you shouldn’t introduce any extra oxygen to the beer at this point. Keep the intake of the racking cane above the sediment in your fermenter. You do not want the sediment in your bottling bucket. Once all your beer is in the bottling bucket lift it up on to the counter or table. Slowly mix it with a sanitized large spoon to ensure the priming solution is uniformly blended throughout the beer. Put your bottle caps in a container along with some sanitizing solution. Attach the hose from the bottling wand to the spigot on the bottling bucket. Turn on the spigot. Do not do this unless you actually are using a bottling wand along with its own valve.
At last it’s time to begin filling up your bottles! The bottling wand features a convenient valve on the tip. To utilize it simply just press it on the bottom of your bottle and let it fill. Stop just short of overflowing and remove the wand. This should create the perfect fill level. The beer needs to be of an inch from the top of the bottle. Put a sanitized cap on top of the bottle and utilize the capper to seal the cap. Some home brewers will just set caps on the full bottles and wait to cap a number of them at that time. Do whatever is easier for you or recruit somebody else to help cap the bottles.
When you finish capping, inspect every single bottle to ensure that the cap is totally sealed. When all the bottles are filled they might have to be rinsed off to get rid of any beer on the exterior. Make sure you also clean all the bottle filling equipment. It’s a lot less difficult to clean as soon as you are done with it. Additionally cleaning your equipment immediately will avoid many possible sanitation problems during future uses.
Now that you have bottled all of your beer it requires time to properly condition. Your bottles should be stored upright in a place away from the light at a temperature range of 65 -75 F. This kind of conditioning process will take at the least 10 days. If at all possible the bottles really should be allowed to condition for 3-4 weeks.
Needless to say you are going to be quite eager to test your beer so after patiently waiting 10 days cool a bottle or two. When the bottle is opened there should be the customary “hiss” when it’s carbonated. Bottle conditioned beer is best enjoyed from a glass. Slowly pour it into a glass being careful to keep the sediment in your bottle. Take your first taste! How is it? In the event that it is not very carbonated it requires more conditioning time. If your beer tastes good give yourself a pat on the back and enjoy!
When you feel that the beer is adequately conditioned it needs to be kept at cellar temp or in the fridge.
So you’re interested in home brewing beer? Click for more information regarding how to brew your own beer. Understanding how to bottle home brewed beer correctly is a very critical step to making great beer. When this procedure is not done properly all your hard work may go down the drain.
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