Bottling Time or the Tale of Olympic Ale

08/08/08. Olympic fever is spreading. Why? Is it the collection of 08s? Is it the spirit of international competition? I say it's just a fun time to be had with friends. Hence Olympic Ale. We brewed us some more beer on Wed night and stayed up until 1am doing it. There was a friend of a friend there playing scrabble with us. Speed scrabble, you know, with no rules. I threw on Praxis, which was a Star Trek reference understood by way too many people. The friend of a friend was not impressed.

The hops were good, the process went much smoother and the next day it would bubble like a rock star. Again, it's a West Coast ale. A slight variation on the last one, but with only one type of hops this time around. As before, I wish I had a recipe for you with the grains, but I can't read the handwriting again. I think I saw a 2, that's just about all I can make out. But the hops were Kent Goldings. Instead of two types of hops, we only used 2oz of one. From the smell of it, it should be plenty good.

So, last night it was time to bottle Beta. We had amassed quite an army of bombers, 12ers, and a growler. 638 oz of them. Of the 5 gallon possible batch we got about about 3.7 gallons. Not bad for our first time. Step One: wash the bottles.



They were presoaked, courtesy of my brewer roommate, J., for a few hours. Then I just pulled them out and peeled off the labels. The sticky stuff came off with a soapy sponge. Razor blades for the tough ones. Anchor Steam proved the hardest ones. The labels kinda dissolved instead of came off clean. Tasted delicious though.

J. sterilized the siphoning system, the hoses and the funnel in the sanitizing solution. Everything was left to dry on an alcohol-wiped industrial workbench (our dining room table). Next step was to turn on the oven at 170 degrees. I was cleaning off the bottles at the time and washing the inside. Definitely a bottle washer is going to be necessary in the future. Pop 'em in the oven for about ten minutes and they're good to go.



That bucket on the left is Olympic Ale settling. After the bottling it's going to be transferred into the carboy. Also, the phone just got back from a stay at the Yellow Cab lost and found department. Turns out I suspiciously lost it Saturday night. I vaguely remember a tall Asian guy named "Z." ... and not seeing a hardcore flute-rock band. But never mind; next was the glucose solution. Boil a cup of water, throw in the sugar and make a syrup. Pour it into the beer and stir with the siphon.



Next was to assemble the auto-siphon. It consists of a long plastic tube, another long plastic tube with a 90 kink at the top, a hose and a plastic bottom piece. J. pumped the siphon a few times. Nothing. No beer. Turns out you have to push the bottom of the filling apparatus to the bottom of the bottle to get the beer flowing. And flow it did. I poured a beer or two into bombers. It flowed very smoothly and bottling was remarkably easy. The bottom of the siphon was held at about 1/3 the way into the liquid. I relieved J. holding the siphon and let fellow brewing roommate, R., take over the bottling.



Done. J. is already asleep on the couch by the time we are finished. Now begins the arduous task of capping. Wait, let me back up. To sanitize the caps, we boiled some water on the stove and threw them in. This included the metal growler cap. Boil a few minutes and they're sterile.

There was a big red bottle capper to put them on. We practiced a few times on an empty bomber to get the feel right. It's easy, just don't push down too hard near the end. Instead try to keep the bottle steady while moving your hands as the capper stamps the metal lid. Over the next few weeks, the yeast eat the glucose, produce alcohol in the oxygen-free environment and, um, fart CO2. I could go into detail about how the yeast produce alcohol (alcohol oxidase), but that would be just boring.

The caps need to be on nice and tight. The CO2 production will cause outward stress on the bottle. If the cap is not on tight, your beer will explode like Praxis. Just make sure the shockwave hits Sulu, I hear he's in to that sort of thing. So we cap, cap, capped.



You have to be careful with the 12ozers. They can break if you put too much downward pressure. The growler was screwed on tight. The final tally: 13 bombs, 10 beers and a growler. The bottles were tucked under the table for the next three and a half weeks. They will be subsequently opened with great celebration during the 2008 opening ceremony.

Secondary Fermentation

So tonight I transfered the fermented beer to its secondary container. Roomba-bot was busy cleaning away at the mess from the brewing party that took place exactly 5 days ago. Incidentally, 5-7 days is the recommended time for the primary fermentation. First things first, I took the bucket and placed it on the dining room table to elevate it. It has to sit there for a few hours so all the sediment can settle down.

At this time I was going through my kit that SF Brewcraft so kindly provided us with. I notice a hydrometer. This device measures the alcohol (specific gravity) of the beer. You are supposed to measure this at the beginning of the primary and again at the end. You then perform a subtraction of the final specific gravity to the original and, viola, you get your potential alcohol level. Provided enough sugar burning during the bottle phase. There's a graduated cylinder that you fill to drop the hydrometer in. I filled a coffee mug with water and a sprinkle of sanitizer, held it to the bucket's tap to clean it and filled the test tube with beer.

It came out hazy. This is good. Over the next few weeks it will clarify.



So it took me forever (roughly twenty minutes) to figure the hydrometer out. There's like paper in there, no mercury meter; my increasingly inebriated mind couldn't figure it out. Finally I fill the test tube fully with beer, drop in the meter and it floated! I read the level of the liquid and I had the gravity. Around 1013. That's fine for the first one. Probably could have used an extra day. Since I didn't take an initial reading, it's incomplete data and I'm just gonna hope it's a 6-7% beer.



By the way, it tasted like beer. A little flat, needed some sugar, but definitely tasted like what I would like. I was drinking a Bear Republic Racer 5 at the time so I put it side by side to the new beer to compare color. The Racer 5 was distinctly darker, a deep amber; mine was more a light tan. Hopefully clarification will give it some tint.

So now I sanitized some equipment. I used the malt bucket from before. One tablespoon sanitizer to one gallon water; I threw it in the 5 gallon carboy and mixed. I solution poured some into the bucket and threw in a hose (to connect the spigot of the bucket and the carboy), the airlock and stopper. I also used the cup from before to sanitize the tap.

Now I'm supposed to let the carboy air dry for a few hours, but I don't have that kind of time and I don't know what I'm doing. So I empty as much sanitizer solution as I can from the carboy. There's still residual solution in the carboy when I'm ready to pour the beer. Considering the low concentration and minimal dilution, it shouldn't be a problem. In the beer will go.



The hose, by the way, still is wet with sanitizer solution. Oh well (in my professional opinion). The tap is open and the carboy fills. Takes about 5 mins.



That's it! I attach another airlock (with water) and stopper and I'm good to go. This'll sit for 6-12 days to clarify and then it'll be ready to bottle. Next batch: Olympic Ale.