We are finally bottling our first homemade brew!! And yes I know I failed to keep you updated  (but don’t worry I’ll backtrack with other brews in the future). We last left off with having all the ingredients bought to start our first brew (to see that post click here!).

Let me walk you through a sum-up of the process so far. About a month ago, Luke got out his big brewing pot, combined the many ingredients, boiling them for several hours on the stove. After letting it cool down in ice in the sink, the brewed concoction, called a wort at this point, was then poured through a funneled filter into a big plastic bucket.

This bucket of wort sat for more than a week while the yeast turned the wort into beer bubbling as it transformed. After this, the mix was transferred into the glass carboy again using the funneled filter, this process is called racking. It sat once again for a week or so before the bottling process.

Ok, now that we are caught up, let’s talk about  bottling. We dragged our collected pile of bottles upstairs to be washed.

 

To wash and sanitize the bottles, we started an assembly line. Luke poured some of the sanitizing mix into the sink and rinsed off the bottles using a bottle brush, scrubbing out the insides. Then I placed the bottles upside down on the top of the sulphiter and push down on the device which squirts sanitized water up into the bottom of the bottle and back down the sides.

After four pumps of the sanitation, I  placed the cleaned bottles back in the 6-pack containers upside down to dry.

Next Luke brought the brew from our spare room in the glass carboy placing it on the kitchen table. He attached a long siphon to the top and sitting on the floor allowed the brew to fill the tube and down into the bottles. I placed the full bottled bottles on the kitchen counter and placed empty ones in front of Luke to fill.

Once the bottles were full, we added a one carbonation drop to each which dissolves as you plop it in, making a fizzing noise. After this, Luke got out the bottle caps we bought from the brewing store and the bottle capper. I held the bottle while he place the cap  and clamped it on the top of the beer bottles.

All along the brewing process Luke tasted tested his work feeling a little unhappy with how it was going and thinking it was always missing something. But last night Luke unbottled one of these first brews and after some fridge time and carbonation Luke decided it was not half bad. It is not very strong in aroma or hops plus it is probably only about a 3% alcohol level, unlike most beers which are 5% but for a first attempt-not half bad.

Luke decided to stick some percolated coffee grounds in a bag into the bottom of the rest of the brew we left in the car boy to add some aroma to the rest of the brew before bottling it.  We will see how that turns out. Considering Luke didn’t use any written recipe I’d say our first brew was a success!

Any thoughts on what to make next?

Got any ideas on what to name our first brew?