Homebrewing Update: Clawed the First Now in Bottles
At last, the Belgian ale is in the bottle. Fifty of them, to be precise.
It happened Tuesday. I had the day off (part of a very long weekend, the 16th anniversary for my wife and I). After the kids went off to school, I drug out my bottling bucket, the full carboy, a racking cane, tubing and the bottle filler.
The beer had cleared beautifully. It was a little darker than I'd hoped, orange instead of gold. I'm guessing that's because I used aromatic grains instead of just pale malt. Still, it looked great and smelled even better. That Belgian character was present, no doubts. It was fruity, like banana and maybe something else.
I think I've finally mastered the siphoning thing. It went very smoothly, very quietly. Once I got it all in the bottling bucket I dropped in the hydrometer. It was 1012, this time. Yes, yes it was. I know that after a couple of weeks in the secondary it dropped a degree. It was clearly 1013 when I racked it to the carboy. It was clearly 1012 when I bottled.
Bottling went smoothly as well. It was a very pleasant morning.
Once they are ready to drink, maybe I can con the staff photographer into snapping a few pics to accompany the review.
It happened Tuesday. I had the day off (part of a very long weekend, the 16th anniversary for my wife and I). After the kids went off to school, I drug out my bottling bucket, the full carboy, a racking cane, tubing and the bottle filler.
The beer had cleared beautifully. It was a little darker than I'd hoped, orange instead of gold. I'm guessing that's because I used aromatic grains instead of just pale malt. Still, it looked great and smelled even better. That Belgian character was present, no doubts. It was fruity, like banana and maybe something else.
I think I've finally mastered the siphoning thing. It went very smoothly, very quietly. Once I got it all in the bottling bucket I dropped in the hydrometer. It was 1012, this time. Yes, yes it was. I know that after a couple of weeks in the secondary it dropped a degree. It was clearly 1013 when I racked it to the carboy. It was clearly 1012 when I bottled.
Bottling went smoothly as well. It was a very pleasant morning.
Once they are ready to drink, maybe I can con the staff photographer into snapping a few pics to accompany the review.
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