It's bottling day (racking up my first brew)

So today was bottling day for my very first brew (Coopers dark ale kit) and i learned quite a bit today. Since this was my first brew i had no idea what i was doing and just went head long into this and things turned out better then i thought. I learned that washing bottles without a bottle washer and star san sucks a lot. I used deluded bleach and my sink with a bucket, this took me the length of time it took my sugar water to cool down. I knew how to start a siphon with water thanks to the class i took, but no one said how to restart it so... i used my mouth ( hope i did not ruin my beer ). I learned that bottling on the ground has dog hazards IE they like beer as much as me. All in all i think it turned out great and i only had about 1 1/2 bottle of waist at the end. In a week we should be good to go if not just a week more. So if you take anything away from this. Invest in a bottle washer and star san, going to make life easier.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/photo/first-brew-all-bottled-up-58856.html
48 bottles of beer for around $27 is not bad but i know i can get this cheeper.

Congrats man! If I'm reading your other post right you only let that ferment for 4-5 days? That is fast turn around! What was your final gravity? Kind of a fun experience isn't it? It tastes even better when it's your beer.

If i was reading everything right it should be about 1.6, and yeah it was very fast, i may have been because of how warm our house it, and i did not want it to sit on the yeast cake very long since this was only a 1 stage brew.

I watched some videos on using the hydrometer, and my OG is 1.021 and FG is 1.012 so that should give me a ABW of .945, this would be ABV of 1.18

Congrats! I bottled my second batch yesterday. Here's a few things I've learned that I'll pass on.

You can store StarSan solution in a five gallon bucket for a very long time. Use distilled water and make up a solution. It saves a lot of money and there's no sense pouring it down the drain.

Also, when I drink a homebrew I immediately rinse out a bottle and use a bottling brush. I let it airdry in a dish rack in the sink. I figure a little due diligence on this end will make bottle day easier. I just rinse them out with water to get dust out before sanitizing on bottling day.

Finally, I purchased a Vinator bottle rinser. FANTASTIC device. Makes sanitizing bottles very quick (and even fun). Just a few pumps per bottle and you're set. Here's an image of it.



Happy brewing!

Thanks for the tips!! I'm new to all this but am loving it! I'm trying to get my wife involved so that when I want to upgrade or buy new gadgets she will be "supportive"..... Not a lot of luck so far tho......

poppafritz said:

If i was reading everything right it should be about 1.6, and yeah it was very fast, i may have been because of how warm our house it, and i did not want it to sit on the yeast cake very long since this was only a 1 stage brew.

I watched some videos on using the hydrometer, and my OG is 1.021 and FG is 1.012 so that should give me a ABW of .945, this would be ABV of 1.18

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The FG looks good but I think you may have misread your OG, mind sharing the recipe, we can probably estimate OG from that. I really like John Palmers website Howtobrew.com for brewing info. Here is a link to his hydrometer page http://www.howtobrew.com/appendices/appendixA.html

Also, couple other things i've learned since starting. Leaving it on the yeast cake is good for your beer, i pulled my first couple early and they got much better when I let them sit. I usually let them sit for a week after I get a stabilized FG (same reading on 2 seperate readings 2-3 days apart). Then bottle, store at room temp for 2 weeks then i'll put 1 in the fridge for 2 days and see how it is. Most are drinkable then, and great in 4 weeks.

Also, take lots of notes, I got a little notebook and record everything and that alone has improved my brewing. Welcome to your new addiction, err hobby.

Def get a 1 subject spiral bound cheapy notebook. That's what I write as much as I can in about every brew. All dates & times of observations as well.
Every entry gets day/date & time of day. I feel that's needed for accuracy,as one can refer back to the weather on that day as well.
And sitting on the yeast cake is fine at the levels we brew at with better quality modern yeast. The autolysis boogieman is history nowadays. Mine stay in primary as well. Leave it till it gets down to a stable FG. My observations over time showed me that 3-7 days is average for a beer to clean up fermentation by products & settle out clear or slightly misty. Then on to the bottling bucket & bulk priming.

unionrdr said:

Def get a 1 subject spiral bound cheapy notebook. That's what I write as much as I can in about every brew. All dates & times of observations as well.
Every entry gets day/date & time of day. I feel that's needed for accuracy,as one can refer back to the weather on that day as well.
And sitting on the yeast cake is fine at the levels we brew at with better quality modern yeast. The autolysis boogieman is history nowadays. Mine stay in primary as well. Leave it till it gets down to a stable FG. My observations over time showed me that 3-7 days is average for a beer to clean up fermentation by products & settle out clear or slightly misty. Then on to the bottling bucket & bulk priming.

Click to expand...

^^^^ this, about the notebook.

the most important tool you have is all your notes from prior brews.

take notes about EVERYTHING... the ingredients, techniques, elapsed times, temperatures, smells, feels, tastes, colors, hours, minutes.

EVERYTHING.

you will remember every BAD thing you do without the notebook, but you won't remember every GOOD thing you do, and it's the good things you want to be able to recapture.

Preach the sermon,brother! I try to write down every manner of things to do with a given beer. What you think may be trivial now may likely be important later. And make sure before you pitch on a batch to stir roughly for 5 minutes. This is what I do to get the wort & top off well mixed & aerated a bit more. Your OG measurements will be more accurate.

hey buddy... i'm so bad about it, i write it in the notebook, and then re-type it into my beer notes in ibrewmaster, and then go back and add things as i see them and think about them.

that way when i have those 'head-slapper' moments in the shower, or while i'm doing something else, i don't lose them.

it also helps because all those old notes become a permanent part of the recipe, usually under 'lessons learned'.

but then, i may be just a touch OCD with it.

maybe a little

No worries,m8. I started putting lil notes in Beersmith2 about flavors & such from various grains & extracts that I had to add to the lists. I do the same with hops as well. Mo notes,mo betta...

amen to that, brother.

To the op-we have gotten into a bit of 2 way conversation,but I think we agree that these are important aspects of note taking to remember over the course of time. As you get better at honing in your process,your notes will reflect this. Makes a more logical progression when going back & re-reading things.

in addition to the bottle washer, you might want to spend a few bucks on an auto-siphon.

fwiw

OKCAg2002 said:

Congrats! I bottled my second batch yesterday. Here's a few things I've learned that I'll pass on.

You can store StarSan solution in a five gallon bucket for a very long time. Use distilled water and make up a solution. It saves a lot of money and there's no sense pouring it down the drain.

Also, when I drink a homebrew I immediately rinse out a bottle and use a bottling brush. I let it airdry in a dish rack in the sink. I figure a little due diligence on this end will make bottle day easier. I just rinse them out with water to get dust out before sanitizing on bottling day.

Finally, I purchased a Vinator bottle rinser. FANTASTIC device. Makes sanitizing bottles very quick (and even fun). Just a few pumps per bottle and you're set. Here's an image of it.

Happy brewing!

Click to expand...

next time you mix up a batch of starsan, put some in a squirt bottle under the kitchen sink, and maybe even a quart or so, in a stand-alone bottle.

helps in two ways, first off when you need just a little bit of starsan (like to top off an airlock), and don't want a whole batch.

second, we use it at our house after we clean things like the cutting board after having raw chicken on it. wash the board really well, and then give it the once over with some starsan to sanitize.

when you mix up that big ole 5 gallon batch of starsan, it's a shame to toss it when brew day is up

The auto siphon is def a big improvement ofer the racking cane. And I like this bottle washer,as it also has a provision for ataching tubing to rinse'em out; http://www.midwestsupplies.com/fermtech-blast-bottle-and-carboy-washer.html

Wow, lots of posts. First off the brew is a hopped extract kit Coopers Dark Ale. I used 3 lbs of malt extract as my sugar. I picked up a very detailed Brew journal that lets me fill in the blanks with all the information of the brew along with areas for notes.

Yeah you have to be careful with Coopers, their kits are pretty cheap but if you want to make a 5 gallon batch with their kits you need to purchase at least 1 if not 2 more can's, the instructions are fairly worthless. And the pre-hopped stuff, there is no telling how fresh (or not) it is.

Don't get me wrong, you've made beer (which is awesome!!) and you'll be able to drink a bunch of them at 1.2%, but maybe see what else your local homebrew store has. If you don't have a local, there are plenty of them online. I gotta pimp the local MN connections, Northern Brewer and Midwest Supplies have great kits, with fresh ingredients, and instructions that are actually helpful. My first kit was a Northern Brewer Dead Ringer, yummmmmm...