Bottling Day

[Gymrat]

I bottled Ralph's Lift Your Leg Wee Heavy today. It started at 1.082 and finished at 1.018 for a hefty 9% ABV. That is the best I have ever seen S 04 attenuate. I wonder if it is because I was using yeast captured from another brew. The hydrometer sample tasted fantastic so this is going to be a really good beer. I typically like beers in the 5 to 6% range but I absolutely love a good Wee Heavy for some reason.

Anyway once again I was reminded of why I hate bottling. Something always seems to happen to where beer ends up all over the place. I have decided that from now on I will recruit help on bottling day. And if I can't find help I will dump the beer out. For me bottling causes nothing but frustration and stress and that just isn't worth it to me.

That being said, for me cleaning my equipment after bottling is actually relaxing. Nothing ever happens during cleaning that causes stress or frustration. My new butterfly valves were the deal! No need to disassemble them, simply squirt them with the garden hose and they were done. They were worth every dime of the hundred bucks I dropped on them.

Somebody posted a link to Kent Brewing here the other day. I found a sample tap on there for my conical (http://www.gwkent.com/perlick-style-sam ... in-tc.html). I am going to order one of those and put that on in place of my thermometer. I have no way of controlling temperature so looking at the thermometer serves no purpose other than to freak me out. My Wee Heavy hit 75 degrees during fermentation and I was just sure it was ruined, it wasn't. The same thing happened with my Tasmanian Wheat, I used Notty in that one and it hit 75 degrees during fermentation, I was just sure it was ruined, and it picked up no off flavors at all. I would rather have the sample tap than the thermometer. The sample tap in the thermometer's place would sit high enough for me to tap samples that are not in the yeast. And since I won't be racking from that tap there is no worries on sanitizing it after taking samples. To me that seems entirely more useful.

Well enough drunken ramblings from me...how was your day?

[FedoraDave]

Saturday is Bottling Day for me, too. I got the fiver of Pearly Pils put to bed yesterday. Now I have 48 bottles warm-carbing on the basement floor.

Sorry you have a such a trial on bottling day, Roger. Beer ends up all over the place? What exactly happens to cause this? Because, as I've written, I don't mind the actual bottling, and I certainly don't have beer all over the place. I get sloshed water on the kitchen floor and sloshed Star San on the basement floor, but other than an occasional minor overflow from the bottling, the beer itself is well-contained.

[Gymrat]

Saturday is Bottling Day for me, too. I got the fiver of Pearly Pils put to bed yesterday. Now I have 48 bottles warm-carbing on the basement floor.

Sorry you have a such a trial on bottling day, Roger. Beer ends up all over the place? What exactly happens to cause this? Because, as I've written, I don't mind the actual bottling, and I certainly don't have beer all over the place. I get sloshed water on the kitchen floor and sloshed Star San on the basement floor, but other than an occasional minor overflow from the bottling, the beer itself is well-contained.

In this case the siphon fell out of the bottling bucket while I was pulling foil off of bottle tops.

[FedoraDave]

Ah. I see. And I sympathize. Spilled beer is cause for tears.

I don't have this issue, since I sanitize differently, and my process on Bottling Day is different. Still, if you're like me (and I know I am), you'll learn from this and double check things next time. Never too late to learn.