Ready To Bottle, But........

I have 5 gallons of scottish ale and 5 gallons of porter sitting in my basement in secondaries both waiting to be bottled. But in the last week SWMBO and the kids have ALL had the flu. I'm the only one left (knock on wood).

I know it's silly, but I'm just really hesitant to open them up and bottle with flu bugs floating around the house. I know, I know. Nothing that can make you sick can live in your beer. Taking care of everyone else kind of puts a halt to the brewing process. I'm beginning to get antsy.

I know that there's really nothing of substance to this post, but I'm home from work taking care of my daughter today. She's sleeping so I have some time to think about beer.

I'm probably too much of a n00b to answer this, but I can speak from my limited experience that I did this just last week. I bottled while SWMBO slept off the flu and some pneumonia, trusting what I've read about pathogens not surviving in beer. In fact, if youbthink about it historically, this is one of the major reasons for beer's popularity through the millennia -- it's safer than water! I don't really have an answer for you, but at least you won't feel like the only jerk who bottled while a loved one slept off an illness.

the time that you are spending with your family will help the age of your beer and make it better in the end. worry not. rdwhahb!

Yeah. Just had some time on my hands and wanted to talk beer. I'm not REALLY worried. I just hate to see the beer sit when I could be doing something with it.

bennyd said:

I just hate to see the beer sit when I could be doing something with it.

Click to expand...

I can't think of two better beers that sample very well when un-carbonated than a Scottish Ale and a Porter.

You know what you have to do.

If I were you I would stop thinking about beer and drink one instead.

Then go bottle it!

Ok.....sampled both beers. The scottish ale was a little dry, but the color was much better than I expected and the flavor was pretty good other than a bit of a dry finish. It fermented down to 1.004-1.006.

The porter tasted REALLY good. It was roasty and had a little bite. I should know better than to ask this question.....but I noticed these white floaties after racking to the secondary. I'm thinking yeast floaties or something......just put me at ease. It isn't the best photo....but it's the best I've got.



Hmmmmm....not sure how to resize the photo.

There we go. BTW, the carboy isn't dirty. That's the spray from the starsan solution that ended up there after resanitizing the stopper.

yeast.

Thanks. Like I said. I should know better than to ask. But I've been doing this for exactly one year and I still get nervous during lag time and when I see things like this EVEN when I know better.

I bottled all 10 gallons of this up today. I did the scottish ale this morning and it tasted good, just a little dry. Then took the kids to the bowling alley for a birthday party. When we came home I did the porter. It tasted good but it had a bit of a sweet flavor at the finish that I wasn't expecting. Could that be from the priming sugar? I drank half of a bottle at the end that didn't completely fill.

Washing cleaning bottles / sanitizing bottles and equipment / boiling priming sugar / racking / bottling / cleaning carboys / cleaning buckets for 100 bottles of beer = a lot of work. This was the first time I've bottled two batches at once.

yea just yeast rafts it looks like.

it might be the priming sugar but it will age out in the bottle a bit.

keep us informed when theyre good to drink!