Bottling bucket
Spoon
Siphon
Bottling wand (a must have)
Caps
Bottles (run through the dishwasher w/ no soap)
The recipe called for boiling the priming sugar into 2 cups of water. The sugar water was then poured into the bottling bucket in which the brew was siphoned into. I took a hydrometer sample after about 5 minutes to determine my final alcohol content. More on that later. The bottom of the fermenter had a nice, thin layer of "leftovers" so the secondary fermentation did its job. A few floating yeasts were transfered to the bottling bucket but it's not a big deal. I need to move the fermenter to a higher location to make this process faster as the flow rate was awefully slow.
The bottling, for the second time, did not go smoothly. First, when I set the bottling wand down in a bottle (to keep it from touching anything w/ bacteria) it triggered flow which flowed all over the living room floor. Lost about 4 bottles of volume there. Then, the dang capper broke 3 bottles. I have no idea if it was the capper or caps that were the issue but the necks kept snapping and the whole thing was a pain. So those bottles were lost too.
I ended up with 48 bottles which is a bit below the 56 I had before mainly due to the lost volume from the secondary fermenter transfer, overflow, and broken bottles. I am a bit disappointed in the volume as the kit costs 45 bucks so I didn't save much money this time around. Although a case of good craft beer (let's hope mine is good) is more than $25. This was my first time using a hydrometer but I calculated a final alcohol content of 5.11%. I am confident it is around 5% but the .11 is a bit too precise for my readings. I took the time to enjoy the tasty sample and while it was a bit flat (as expected) it did have a pretty nice taste to it. I am glad I left out an addition of hops as this sample did not have the overpowering hoppiness. Can't wait to try it in 4 weeks!!!
Two full cases of goood brew
Enjoying the tasty sample right out of the hydrometer
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