Gotta lotta Bottle....

A quick trip to my friends house on the way home from work to help him bottle off last weeks brew was the order of the day.

By the time I got there my friend had done most of the labour: sanitising all the bottles and equipment. I just got there for the bottling glory ;-).

We took the opportunity to sample the ale at this time to allow us to compare it to the conditioned brew we will get from the bottles in late February. The ale was already quite drinkable, with a good hoppy punch to it. This is going to be a great tasting beer that's for sure.

testing the gravity: about perfect compared to the recipe.

Old beer bottles sanitised & ready to fill

The keg was placed on the table and a final check of the alcohol content was made.... Just about where it is expected to be (apparently).

The beer is ready to bottle!

So next up was bottling. A quick two man production line quickly formed with me filling the bottles from the keg via a clever little attachment to the keg tap (which keeps additional air being added to the ale to a minimum) and my friend capping them off.

Bottling off.

Brew number 4.

We marked the tops of the bottles with a number 4 to signify it was from my friends 4th batch, and then they went down into a cool cupboard under the stairs to rest for the next 6 weeks. 

Already looking forward to cracking one open immensely. 

To continue my journey with these wonderful ingredients I have brought home a small jar of the spent yeast from the keg: I'll be trying to make bread using it.

Spent brewers yeast.... not that pretty.