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.
Comments
22 responses to “Making Beer with the Brooklyn Brew Shop Kit – Part 2”
Hi Jamin –
I just finished bottling my first brew from Brooklyn Brew Shop today as well – I had the Well Made Tripel kit – and I will be working on my second brew (Chestnut Brown Ale) tomorrow.
I was wondering – how much beer did you get from your first batch? I had some trouble with the siphoning and lost some beer to that, but in the end I managed to get 1 22oz bottle and 5 12oz bottles filled and capped. Just curious how much you were able to get from yours.
Thanks in advance, and will be following up on your site to see your future brews!
Elliott, I also had issues with siphoning and felt like I lost some beer to that. I ended up with eight 12oz bottles and almost 3/4 of a 22oz bottle. But I probably could have put a little more beer in each bottle.
The brew kit says up to 10. That’s my goal with my next batch, which is why I’m going to get an auto siphon before bottling.
Wondering if I can pour the beer in a couple of growlers instead of Grolsh bottles (which I don’t have). Anyone know what’s wrong with screw tops?
Thanks,
Joe
Joe, I believe the problem with screw caps is they aren’t air tight and let air in. That would prevent your beer from carbonating. Growlers are meant to transport finished beer.
That being said, my everyday IPA is still in the carboy after more thn 2 weeks, there seems to be some bubbling still. The surface is mostly clear, but there is some bubbles on the rim. How did yours look before going to bottle? I just don’t want exploding bottles.
Obviously, I’m not expert, but I think bubbles are ok as long as you wait out the two weeks. I have had no fear of exploding bottles.
How bad did it smell during the brewing and fermenting process? I’ve been considering brewing in my condo but I’m a bit concerned by the smell.
I don’t think smell is an issue. It’s not very different from cooking. And I don’t think it smells bad. My girlfriend, who doesn’t really like beer, says cooking a steak will smell up your house more than cooking up some beer. During fermentation, once the beer is in the glass fermenter, there is no smell.
It also depends on the yeast though – I just upgraded my equipment to three gallon and started making my own recipe mixes – the Belgian strong pale ale has a strong sulferic smell when I moved it to secondary fermentation, but as soon as I sealed up the second carboy the smell was gone.
During the mash process your house smells like oatmeal – I love it. The hops can have a strong smell but it’s not a bad smell. All the smells pretty much go away quickly.
Elliott, what is your setup with three gallons. 5 seems to much for my small apartment, but I’d like to upgrade above 1 gal.
I’ve been getting most of my equipment from Northern Brewer since I don’t have a brewshop convenient to me; but here’s my current equipment:
1 three gallon better bottle with related bungs and airlocks
2 one gallon jugs with related extras
a regular and auto siphon – both useless for the 3 gallon+ sizes so had to do manual siphoning last weekend
a ten inch fine mesh strainer – I prefer this over the screens that go in the funnel – it has far more surface area to let the wort through
a 5 gallon bucket that i only use for brewing – sometimes as a sanitizer bucket for starsan (so much better than c-brite!) and i also use it for sparging so i can collect the wort quick and easy for the boil
My next upgrade will be getting a 3 gallon rubbermaid beverage cooler and making it a mash-lauter tun – will make my life so much easier. All my brewing is indoors and I don’t have much space in my apartment, but 3 gallon equipment still fits under the kitchen sink for fermenting.
So, how did the final product turn out, Jamin?
Never mind, I see you have you a separate blog page for this.
[…] Continue to Part 2 […]
As a hint/warning to any beginner starting with the excellent Brooklyn Brew Kit, I would say the most inaccurate part of their instructions is the video about bottling.
They show the tube flowing to the pot held in the air and the beer falling from it, then they do the same with the bottles, that’s two opportunities for unwanted oxygenation.
As Jamin advises here, make sure to get an auto-siphon and add a bottle filler to this, in order to do these two transfers with minimal oxygenation.
For the bottling there is a pot with a honey-water mixture required, the only thing is that I have no idea how much water and honey (or sugar) is required. could you give me some advise on this point?
If you’re following the Brooklyn Brew Shop recipes, it’s usually three tablespoons of honey and only enough water to dissolves the honey, maybe a couple tablespoons of water. Make that first then add your beer from the fermentor. The trouble with that is you may get different amounts of honey in each bottle when filling if you don’t mix well. If you want to avoid all that, get some fizz drops. That’s what I do now. It’s easier and more consistent.
JAMIN-BABE…..thanks 4 the tips/doing my 1st attempt manana/with a friend and an anti-siphon/with bottle filling attachment-hose/ sounds like my new hobby….ALRIGHT.
Omg this is helping me alot! Very entertaining to read … you got me over the fear of actually starting the process. I will start mine today!! Thank you!!
When I opened my Everyday IPA from the bottle, it produced a lot of foam upon opening. I am pretty sure that I followed the instructions. Maybe someone can tell me if I did something wrong? Too much honey before fermentation? I don’t know, this happened twice. But did not happen with the nut brown ale.
It could be too much honey. Or the honey wasn’t evenly distributed. I’ve had this happen. Some bottles erupt like a volcano. Some don’t. I switched to Fizz Drops and haven’t had a problem since. http://www.northernbrewer.com/fermenters-favorites-fizz-drops-8-oz
What is fizz drop?
Follow the link above.