John Bull Masterclass Irish Stout – Bottling
March 8, 2008What a huge job sterilising 40 odd bottles is! I mixed up some sterilising solution and filled 8 bottles. After about 5 mins I poured the solution into another 8 bottles and rinsed the first 8 out with cold water. I continued this technique until I had sterilised all the bottles. I then piled the bottles in the draining rack to dry.
Gravity was 1012 which is just borderline for bottling. I primed all the bottles and started filling them. The siphon flipped out of the barrel, not for the first time. I have previously used cellotape and hairclips but have never found a decent solution. The best I have found so far is my girlfriend Kerrie. So she stood there holding the tube in plae while I filled the bottles. This worked beautifully but is not a technique I will be able to use too often. If anyone has any suggestions I’d love to hear them.
Capped all 43 bottles with gold caps and stored in living room in the normal spot next to the hot water pipes.
Its good that your finding things for Kerrie to do
Hey, I just got into bottling beer. Let me know how that stout turns out. I would love to make one for my next batch.
Also, I just made an IPA. Would you know what went wrong if your beer turns out chunky? I’ve got some serious learning to do.
Do you have a dish washer? You can use that to sterilise the bottles (dont add a soap tablet). Saves loads of time and makes it a whole lot more fun!
Here’s a tip for the syphoning.
Syphon it all into another fermenting bucket(sterilized) and then decant into the bottles with a 2L jug. Much easier, without the problems of the tube slipping out, and also no bubble build up in the tube.
And if you can leave the beer for a year, you will be VERY impressed with the maturation of it.
Have you tried a bottling stick.
I use something called a little bottler which I attach to the end of syphon. See the following link for both of them (1st and 4th entry.
http://www.the-home-brew-shop.co.uk/acatalog/Syphoning_Equipment.html