Useful trick to cheat when conditioning bottles

So I've made a few batches now and I've learned, as I'm sure everyone has, that like Tom Petty says, the waiting is the hardest part.

So I have found a solution that fits for me. Probably doesn't fit for everyone, but for me it is awesome.

When I get my 48 or 50 beers 12 oz, right when you're getting down to the nitty gritty trub, I take out a bomber. Then I tilt the bucket and get as much of that precious juice as I can.

I usually get the bomber 1/2 to 3/4 full, and it'll be full of trub too. Don't be scared.

Wait a week then throw the trubby bomber in the fridge. It won't be as good as it will be, but you'll love it still. Home brews for me are like home cooked meals. Nobody else will usually appreciate them as much as you do, so if that lil guy is a little cloudier than the rest, you won't mind. You'll love it all the same. You get your fix, and the batch you'be been preparing stays safe.

The problem though is...I bet ya can't have just one.

I've done this too. Before I got a wine thief and hydro test jar, (on one of my earliest batches) I used a turkey baster to pull a sample and all I could find to put it in was a 1 litre vodka bottle. Hell, by the time I got enough beer in there to float the hydro, I had lost a lot of beer and it had bubbled and foamed and I thought, if there ever was gonna be a litre of beer that was oxidized, this'll be it. But, I said, what the f, I bottled it with a half or 3/4 of table sugar per bottle and it tasted just fine to me. I guess my pallet isn't sophisticated enough to tell the difference. Or, maybe I just like beer. I don't know. I'm now more careful than ever when I bottle but I don't worry about a splash or two here and there either.

Yep, I just got a kegging system and when I kegged my last batch, I put the last little bit in a bomber with some priming sugar so that I'd have something to taste a little early without being tempted to tap my keg before it was ready.

yep, i always end up with an ugly partial bottle loaded with crud, and its the first 'test beer' at 1 week.

One you get a so-called "pipeline" going, you'll always have other beer on tap or in bottles, so you'll be fine. Now, I worry more about being perfect with every last drop than saving some to taste early.

I'm a bit of a cheap Bas**rd and what I do is to get every last drop out. Put it in a 2 litre PET bottle, let it settle and pour it into another 2 liter bottle. I then put a carbonator cap on it and bump the pressure up and force carb it. Voila, it's ready to drink when it cools to the right temperature.

Of course if you don't have kegging, then you would have to prime it to carbonate it.