Shall We Bottle This?

Ladies and genlemen, boys and girls, February 6, 2012, will be a day that will forever be accredited as the most monumental occurrence in the adult lives of myself (Bob Barley), Giggity Gee, Brewmiester?,Brendanowitz, and the three loyal followers on our blog. It is my pleasure to announce that our California Common Steam Brew has finally moved from its first home to its second: bottles. After just over a week in the fermentation process, our robust, yet delicate brew has reached its home for the next month. With just over 40 longnecks filled with this pristine beverage, its next home will be in the bellies of passionate beer drinkers who cross our paths, or will be sprayed in the face of hosers who attempt to poke fun at our endeavors. What you are about encounter is an eyewitness account, diving into the bottling process of 'Name to Be Determined', the California Common Steam Brew that took an inordinate amount of patience and drive to complete to the best of our abilities.

Monday Evening: We're all pretty excited to begin the bottling process. It was a long week waiting for the fermentation to cease, sort of like waiting for that final grade in college that informs you that you've passed your class and your onto the next semester. In this case, even after our airlock exploded into the universe that is Brewmiester?'s bedroom, we are moving onto the next round, which in the beer game, is the bottling process.

This step isn't necessarily a make-or-break situation, like the fermentation was, but there are a few factors amateur and veteran brewers alike must keep in mind in order to ensure as little turbulence as possible. First off, we had to make sure our fermentation was complete. One key sign that most people who are not blind can pick up on is the termination of bubbling and fizzing in the airlock region of the carboy. Take note: The airlock has zero bubbling and it is a crystal clear, transparent substance. Once the yeast has ceast....on to the next one....

Quick Side Note: Ending Temperature: Roughly 63 Degrees F
                             Final Gravity: 1.102 FG

Once you are aware that it is time to begin bottling (fermentation typically goes on for 2-4 days, then it must sit for the remainder of the week), then you need to ensure all of your equipment is sanitized before you even THINK about transferring your product into another apparatus. When your equipment is properly cleaned, you must decide what kind of bottles will be used...



Here we have a large selection of beers, consumed mainly because of an American holiday called "The Super Bowl." If you are not familiar with the Super Bowl, see Wikipedia. In this case, we have bottles ranging from brown longnecks (traditional North American bottle that allows a long cushion of air to absorb the pressures of carbonation), green long necks, Stubbys (Yes, I also thought of a 'chode-like-weiner' and giggled at the thought. These bottles are shorter and fatter, great for storage and have a low center of gravity), and clear Stubbys. The spectrum of glass colors (brown, green, and clear) produce different effects in the taste of a beer.

Brown bottles seem to be the "safest" and most effective route to go for the tastiest beverage. Using a brown bottle prevents some harmful UV Rays from sunlight from getting into the beer. Green and clear bottles do not offer this protection, which can result in a skunky, funky, beverage, which for our own personal self esteem, we would not like to encounter on our first batch of brew.

*A few things to note: We did use two green Rolling Rock bottles, as well as one clear Newcastle Brown Ale bottle as variables. The clear Newcastle bottle will allow us to literally see what is going on with our beer over the month-long aging in the bottles. As for the green bottles, we just want to note the difference in taste. Also, we did purposely contaminate one beer by not cleaning it out at all, and even leaving the "ass" of a beer in it. The reasoning for this: We want to see what contaminated beer tastes like. Our hypothesis: Not good.

Let's begin bottling! Each bottle must be cleaned out with the bottle brush, or 'french tickler' as many would see fit, to get rid of any sediment or residue in these used bottles. It is recommended that you do this brushing technique before and after you boil each bottle, just to be sure you cleaned that darn thing inside and out! Nobody wants a skunked beer, and it would be quite the inconvenience to contaminate your beer at this stage of the process.

Each bottle must be boiled in order to kill any bacteria that might have been residing inside; after all, they were previously filled with beer, and since we got these bottles from a variety of sources, we need to make sure that there are zero contaminates. As you can see, Brendanowitz is using an oven mitt because these bottles are a bit 'caliente' as they exit the boiling pot. Brewmiester? is using a pair of tongs to remove the bottle from the pot. It is recommended that each bottle boil for a few minutes. Safety first!

After each bottle is boiled and properly cleaned, it is now time to place your fermentor onto a table or other slightly high surface, and your bottling bucket on the ground or a lower surface to prepare for the siphon! This will ultimately transfer our beer from the fermentor to the bottling bucket.

As the beer is siphoning into the bottling bucket (you may need to assist in this process if the flow is slow), this is when you add your sugar. This sugar (which should be mixed with water and boiled before added to the beer) will trigger another re-fermentation process inside the bottles, which will help carbonate our beer. It is also important to put your siphoning tube about halfway into the fermentor at first, so you don't get any sediment into your bottles.







Here's a quick view of the siphoning process from a different angle. As you can see, Giggity Gee and Brewmiester? are focused on making this siphoning process go as planned.

Once this process is complete, it is time to transfer this beer into drinking apparatuses. I can assure you there will be no binkies on these bottles!

Brewmiester?: As you can see the only person happier than this guy is the beer bottle in his hand being filled up with some sweet suds...

Brendanowitz: He really adds some flare to the team. Great background knowledge of the science that goes behind all of this, as well as the gentlest caress on that beer bottle. He knows how to take care of business...










Giggity Gee: It may appear that someone is tickling him off camera, but I assure you this is not the case. He is making a very unique noise that is similar to the "Wooo Woooo" of a choo choo train. This means he's already ready to drink this beer...









Bob Barley: It is apparent that the camera did not act quickly enough. I attempted to throw up a "hang loose" sign, which turned out to be too difficult a task for the feeble little iPhone 3G (no intent on brand placement; you're welcome Apple). Although I do not surf, I felt "hang loose" was how I was feeling at that very moment. Loving every minute of this...







The beer is bottled by pushing the bottle up onto that tube, which releases the beer and allows the bottle to slowly fill. The key is to fill the bottle to almost the tippy top, because when the bottle is removed from the plastic shaft, this will slightly drop the volume of the beer. This process was repeated just over 40 times, into 40 different bottles, resulting in possibly 40 different outcomes.

Do you see that red/orange gadget on the table? That is called a two-handed bottle capper. Yes, that is really the name of it. Nobody could figure out a cool name for it like "Jaws" or "Cap Clench" (neither of those are cool either, but it's the end of the post and my creativity has dwindled slightly), so they named it a bottle capper. There is a magnetic section near the mouth area where the bottle caps stick to. When this is done, the apparatus is placed over the top of the beer, and the "beer capper person" pushes down (with two hands) on the arms of the bottle capper. This will result in an air tight beer, with air tight capabilities. What does that mean? It means it has the potential to be the best goddamn micro-brew on the planet, but realistically just a tasty, successfully brewed beer.


For all of you who actually read this all the way through...thank you. We thoroughly enjoyed this process and now will wait a month (March 6th, 2012) to taste our first, hand-crafted beer. All we can say is, it's been a great ride, and get ready for our next batch, which will be coming to you soon via this blog. Stay tuned!