Homebrew bottling night!

[TheTramp]

Here are a few pictures from my bottling session last weekend.


This is the bottling bucket being used to sterilize the bottles the bottles about to be filled.

http://www.jayloo.com/lib/get_file.php?id=2234

This is the carboy full of fermented beer ready to be racked into the bottling bucket. The thing on the left is a auto siphon which lets you siphon without sucking on the bottom of the hose. Nice little tool.

http://www.jayloo.com/lib/get_file.php?id=2235

[TheTramp]

You must have fuel for bottling and if you don’t have any homebrew left from your last batch than Harpoon will fill the gap nicely.

http://www.jayloo.com/lib/get_file.php?id=2236

He is the beer being racked into the bottling bucket. Notice that the bucket is partially covered. You want to take at least some precautions that nothing foreign gets in. You also want to make sure that the beer is handled gently without a lot of mixing so you keep the amount of O2 that gets mixed in is at the lowest possible level.

http://www.jayloo.com/lib/get_file.php?id=2237

[TheTramp]

This is the bottle capper and all the caps that will soon be used on full bottles.

OH NO!!! the fuel is getting low!

http://www.jayloo.com/lib/get_file.php?id=2238

One mini keg is full!!!!

Now I just have to wait a week while it carbonates.

http://www.jayloo.com/lib/get_file.php?id=2239

[TheTramp]

I’m done! This is a 5+ gallon batch all bottled up.

I put a standard 12oz Harpoon bottle in front for perspective.
I use mostly 22ox bottles but I’ve got two 1 lt. bottles and one mini keg.

Boy this is going to be sweet!

http://www.jayloo.com/lib/get_file.php?id=2240

[lord1234]

and u r inviting me over when?

[jdev]

and you plan to bring some to AONE to share with the rest of us that are 'of age' correct?

:D

[TheTramp]

I might bring a few things to AONE 5 but not as far as the staff know.

[lord1234]

a) die joey d

b) die joey d!

c) yes yes homebrew GOOD.

[Jeffy-CanCon]

Ah, that brought back memories. :)

An old roommate and I used to brew our own beer, back in the mid-90's. I figured once that we'd usually drink about 4-dozen when we were working to brew 5-dozen. Lucky for us we had enough equipment to have two batches going at once, either in the bottles or the buckets.

Thanks for the pics.

[1stdeadeye]

Nice!

Looks like someone is going to be popular for a while!

What is that mini-keg? A 3 liter soda bottle?

[TheTramp]

Nice!

Looks like someone is going to be popular for a while!

What is that mini-keg? A 3 liter soda bottle?

It's similer. It's a 6 liter bottle. It's made out of the same type of plastic as soda bottles but the walls are significantly thicker. There is a special tap that screw onto the top which uses food grade CO2 8grams to force the beer out and replace the space so no air gets in. This way you can keep it in your fridge for a month without it going flat or getting skunked. Not that it would ever last that long :D

You can reuse the mini kegs around 6-8 times before they should be relaced. It's only like $10 for 6 of them so they work pretty well.

[1stdeadeye]

That is pretty wicked. Where do you buy them at?

[TheTramp]

I get all my stuff from these guys:

http://www.midwestsupplies.com/

They've got great prices even with the shipping and really fresh ingrediants.

EVERYTHING you could want, they have or can get.

[muirtach]

I've been looking at those philtap systems for a bit. You know anyone who uses them?

and you didn't say what the style was

[cphilip]

Dude! I love to home brew! My boss and I do this all the time. I have not started a batch in a while though. I think you just inspired me to get the equipment out.

Last batch my boss made he was attempting to get the alcohol content up in it. He used Champange yeast instead of the normal yeast for it and boy was thats stuff stout! Good too. Chocolatey and a tiny sweet. A dark brew of some kind. Turned out really good.

[TheTramp]

I've used the phil-tap and I didn't care for it. I found the metal mini kegs to be a pain and I didn't like the construction of the tap.

I've used the "Tap-A-Draft" system for a couple of batches now and I love it.

And....it's an American Wheat. Very close to Harpoon's UFO but with a little more hop kick.

[Mindflux]

I've wanted to homebrew for some time. However, I never did get into it. I do have a nice homebrew book, it was cheap and very nice.

http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/0380763664/qid=1082092369/sr=8-3/ref=pd_ka_3/002-7262283-1788839?v=glance&s=books&n=507846

It looks like they have a newer version out now too.

Anyway, I remember when I wanted to do it, I was going to use two carboys.. I don't recall the reasoning now, though.

[TheTramp]

Take a look at who wrote that book then take a look at the quote in my sig. ;)

You use two carboys so you can rack the beer off the yeast sediment after the first vigorous fermentation is done. This allows the beer to finish at a slower pace without the picking up off flavors from dead/spent yeast. :)

[Mindflux]

I knew that quote looked familiar!


Yeah, I never got to do it, and never bought the equipment either.

I basically wanted to make a Fat Tire clone, because all the Fat Tire that seems to be around here is past the recommended date, and I dunno if it's my mind playin with me but I swear it doesn't taste right.

What do you use for a chiller? It's been a while since I've read up on home brewing.. but you start by boiling some stuff up to kill any bacteria.. and then have to chill it before transfering it to your carboy if I remember right..

ugh, been a long time, hazy... hazy

[TheTramp]

Now that I've got the bottling pics up I'm going to do a "brewing night" next.

I'll take pics of all the steps and get some new beer in the prosses. :cool:

[muirtach]

thanks for the heads-up on the phil-tap.