After waiting two weeks for my Everyday IPA from the Brooklyn Brew Shop to ferment, it was time to get the beer out of its hiding place and into some bottles.

I sanitized my recycled bottles with the remainder of the C Brite.

Then I used the racking cane and tubing to siphon the beer out of the fermenter and into a pot that contained the honey and water mixture, as instructed. While I consider myself to be a decent siphoner (I siphon water from my aquariums often enough), getting a good flow proved to be difficult. I filled the tubing with sanitizer, inserted the racking cane into the fermenter, making sure to keep the tubing lower than the racking cane, and let the sanitizer flow out. This pulled the beer, as desired, but mostly at a trickle. And finally it would stop flowing. I repeated this process three or four times. I got a really good pull once, but it still slowed to a trickle eventually.

Note: you will likely need two people for this step. I found it difficult to hold the racking cane while also holding the lower end of the tubing. Fortunately, my girlfriend helped me out. After this experience, I may look into an auto siphon.

Finally, the beer was drained from the fermenter, leaving the trub above.

Next I siphoned the beer from the pot to the bottles. Again, the siphon wasn’t the best, and it took three or four attempts to fill nine bottles.

I bought bottle caps and a bottle capper at a brewing supply store. After the stress of siphoning, bottling was cake! I felt very accomplished after capping each beer.

At last, my first batch of beer was bottled.

They are now hanging out in my closet.

In two long, long weeks, I will finally know if they turned out ok. Fingers crossed.