Bottle Day Was Perfect

Today I bottled up 3 recipes KT's Caramel Hard Apple Cider, Ptarmigan Pale Ale and my favorite beer of all time 'Sam Adams White Ale Clone' that I created using the Belgian Naked Witbier recipe as my starting point.

This time I decided to process 8 litres at a time, first sanitizing each bottle and then adding 2 1/2 teaspoons of cane sugar to each bottle for carbonation priming. I use the optional locking spigot and bottom filling extension tube combination for easier bottle filling.

The White Ale clone tasted really good straight out of the 2 gallon fermenting keg as did the Ptarmigan Ale and the Caramel Hard Apple Cider. I always use my standard 21 day carbonation and 21 day minimum conditioning time so all 3 of these great beers will be ready to drink around the middle of summer.

The next 6 recipes I will be brewing up will have more of a fall weather kind of feel to them and one of them named 'Novacaine' a more late 2011 winter feel.

Fermenting And Carbonating

These 4 recipes have been fermenting at 70F since May 22, 2010 and have only 1 more week to go before I bottle them up. During the fermentation process the kegs are left undisturbed for 21 days. I screw the lids on tight after filling the kegs with wort on brew day and I won't unscrew them again until they've been emptied on bottling day.

I keep the kegs tilted on a slight angle by slipping empty CD cases under the spigot end of the kegs. This guides the settling trub away from the spigot and helps to keep the beer clear when bottling.

I use the optional locking spigots and bottom filler tubes, they really make a difference when doing a lot of bottling as I often do.




I also have 4 recipes carbonating at a constant 70F and they have 1 week to go before placing them downstairs to condition at 60-65F for at least 3 weeks.