Nexus555
Well-Known Member
Well last night was bottling night for the West Coast Pale Ale that I brewed 3 weeks ago. This was my first brew in 15 years. I prepped everything, was ready to start, and then ran into a plethora of problems:
1.) Back when I originally brewed this, I forgot to top off my fermenter with an extra gallon or so of water. I only had approximately 4 gallons of beer instead of 5.
2.) To begin, I boiled water for my priming sugar. Once it cooled a bit, I poured it in the bottling bucket. I almost had my wife pour the priming sugar water down the sink, because for a second I thought it was left over sanitizer. That was a close call!
3.) This recipe called for so many hops and even a dry hop at week 2. I read countless threads that it's easy to siphon in between the krausen and trub. Unfortunately for me, I could not see through my beer and it was very difficult to see where my siphon was at any given time. Since this is my first batch in 15 years, I was not familiar with the length of my siphon, so I eventually ended up with a lot of trash in my bottling bucket.
4.) The trash leads to my last problem. My bottling wand kept getting clogged, and even the spigot for the bottling bucket clogged a few times. After taking 5 minutes to fill one 22 oz bottle, I thought that the night was over and I would not be able to bottle the beer. Fortunately, I had a decent impromptu idea: I cut approximately 6'' of hose, sanitized it, and attached it directly to the spigot. I then put the hose all the way in a bottle and throttled the spigot until full.
Luckily, in the end, I bottled my batch. I am hoping there wasn't too much oxygen introduced by using the spigot and the hose, but I think it'll be fine. Sadly, there is a fair amount of sediment in each bottle.
Here's what I plan to change next time:
1.) Back when I originally brewed this, I forgot to top off my fermenter with an extra gallon or so of water. I only had approximately 4 gallons of beer instead of 5.
2.) To begin, I boiled water for my priming sugar. Once it cooled a bit, I poured it in the bottling bucket. I almost had my wife pour the priming sugar water down the sink, because for a second I thought it was left over sanitizer. That was a close call!
3.) This recipe called for so many hops and even a dry hop at week 2. I read countless threads that it's easy to siphon in between the krausen and trub. Unfortunately for me, I could not see through my beer and it was very difficult to see where my siphon was at any given time. Since this is my first batch in 15 years, I was not familiar with the length of my siphon, so I eventually ended up with a lot of trash in my bottling bucket.
4.) The trash leads to my last problem. My bottling wand kept getting clogged, and even the spigot for the bottling bucket clogged a few times. After taking 5 minutes to fill one 22 oz bottle, I thought that the night was over and I would not be able to bottle the beer. Fortunately, I had a decent impromptu idea: I cut approximately 6'' of hose, sanitized it, and attached it directly to the spigot. I then put the hose all the way in a bottle and throttled the spigot until full.
Luckily, in the end, I bottled my batch. I am hoping there wasn't too much oxygen introduced by using the spigot and the hose, but I think it'll be fine. Sadly, there is a fair amount of sediment in each bottle.
Here's what I plan to change next time:
- I bought an Anvil Fermenter, so I won't even need the auto siphon. Also, since it has a faucet at the bottom, I can position it to where little to no trub or krausen will enter the bottling bucket.
- Also, since I have that fermenter, I can pour my wort through a colander to strain it. This will cut down on the trashy little hop leftovers that float.
- I will stay away from beers with a lot of hops for now.
- I will utilize a system in the future for dry hopping that will eliminate additional trash. Nylon mesh bag and a string, magnet delivery, etc. Anything but putting them directly in the fermenter.
- I plan on getting a larger bottling wand.
- Once fermentation is complete, I can transfer the Anvil fermenter into the kitchen a few days or so before bottling. This will reduce the amount of debris that is stirred up from carrying it on bottling night.
