Once more I’m back to continue the month-long series on homebrewing in honor of National Homebrew Day which was May 7th.  In previous posts we performed the actual brewing, and then after allowing the beer to complete its primary fermentation we transferred to to a secondary fermentation vessel to clean up after itself and begin the conditioning process.

Now that those two processes are complete, we’re ready to divvy the beer up into individual bottles for future enjoyment.

We get started after the jump below…

Bottling isn’t the only method to condition and store the beer for serving.  Kegging is a great option, and kegs are available in a variety of sizes from 3 gallons on up.  With kegging you have the option to allow the beer to carbonate naturally, or you can “force carb” it with the same CO2 you’d serve with.  You’ll still want the beer to continue to condition further for several weeks as the same flavor changes must still take place no matter how it is stored prior to serving.  Unfortunately kegging requires additional equipment and expense, sometimes considerable.  As bottling is an easily accessible option for every brewer, I’ve chosen to demonstrate that process.

Now that we’ve given the beer two weeks to clear up a bit and allow the yeast to clean up behind themselves, we’re can transfer the beer into bottles to finish the conditioning process, carbonate, and let the flavors meld into a harmonious melody — all this is part of “bottle conditioning” the beer.  At this point the beer is still considered “green” and while likely tasting, well, like beer, there is still some aging left to do to mellow out.  There may be some residual harshness from the hops and the flavors produced by the grains and the yeast will definitely benefit from the extra time.  Just like some dishes may be tasty the evening you prepare it, it can be so much better the next day after it’s had time to let the ingredients mingle — a good gumbo is a prime example.

The time this takes depends on the type of beer, but prevailing practice is to wait a minimum of 3 weeks before serving.  One rule of thumb is the darker and maltier the beer, or the higher the alcohol, the longer to leave it to bottle condition.  A deep, rich stout should go 4 or 5 weeks before serving (and your patience will be rewarded), but a pale ale might be just right at the 3 week mark.

Before we get started, there is one very important thing to consider: the bottles.  Beer, when exposed to light — especially sunlight or fluorescent light — will develop a skunky character.  This is the result of a photo-chemical reaction with hop and sulfur compounds.  Brown bottles are best suited for storage, where clear and green bottles are completely ineffective at blocking much, if any, light.  Unless you are fanatical about storing your beer in absolute darkness, brown bottles will serve you best.  Beer bottles come in a variety of sizes, with 12 OZ being fairly standard, but if you’re particular selective, you can use 16 OZ (pint) bottles, or even 22 OZ.

As before, thorough cleaning and fastidious sanitization of everything that touches the beer is absolutely necessary to avoid contamination or bacterial growth.  I know, I’ve stated it at every part of this process, and I cannot reiterate enough just how important this is.

Start by moving your secondary fermenter to an elevated location anywhere from several hours, to a day, before you’re ready to bottle.  This will allow any of the sediment in the trub that stirs up from the move to settle back down again.  Be sure to cover or wrap the carboy to prevent light exposure until you’re ready.

Regardless of active fermentation being complete, and the 2 week rest in the secondary fermenter, there are still some residual yeast doing laps in the beer.  We’re going to press then into service one last time before they give up the ghost: we’re going to put them to work carbonating our beer.  By adding a small amount sugar (aka “priming sugar”) to the beer before bottling, we’re feeding those yeast and causing them to generate CO2 (and a small amount of alcohol, but the amount is minuscule and will not affect our overall ABV).  Adding an airtight cap to the bottle will trap that CO2, and once the pressure is great enough, the CO2 will have nowhere to escape to and it will dissolve back into the solution, carbonating the beer.

The amount of sugar used will vary based on on the level of carbonation you desire, how much residual CO2 remains in the beer from fermentation, and what volume of beer you have to bottle.  There are some great online tools to help determine how much sugar is needed, and generally what level of CO2 is standard for different styles of beer.

We’ll be using powdered dextrose as it ferments 100% leaving no residual sweetness or flavor behind, but any fermentable sugar will do — cane sugar, honey, etc — you just have to adjust the amount accordingly, and know that some may leave behind a trace flavor.  This can be desirable depending on what you are after.

We’re going to dissolve our sugar in boiling water.  Boiling the water sanitizes both the water itself and the sugar once it has been added, and also facilitates dissolution.  Dissolving the sugar will allow it to mix rapidly with the beer without excess agitation.  Agitation introduces oxygen, and that’s a bad thing at this stage.

Bring 2 cups of water to a boil, measure out out your sugar and add it to the water and boil for 2 minutes more.  Kill the heat and allow the mixture to cool below 100°F.  You can either employ an ice bath for this, or just do this first, prior to beginning the other bottling steps.

Gather up your clean bottles for sanitizing.  There are a number of great tools to assist with sanitizing bottles, and they are worth the few extra dollars to have.  Bottling seems to be the biggest thorn in any homebrewer’s paw, and any tool, shortcut, or process change that can help make it a more enjoyable process is worth consideration.

A bottle tree is one of the handiest of these tools.  It stores bottles upside down, allowing them to drain and preventing dust, wild yeast, and insects from drifting into the open neck on the bottles, contaminating them.  It’s a compact tower of rings, each ring having a number of posts that fit easily into the neck of the bottles.  At the bottom is a base that collects the drained out liquid.  The bottle tree is handy not just for sanitizing, but for drying bottles as you clean them between bottling days.

The second handiest tool is the Vinator.  Filled with sanitizing solution, it will squirt a strong stream into an inverted bottle with a downward push or two.  It’s a dream to use, compared with pouring sanitizer into a bottle, shaking it around, and pouring it out.  You can also toss your bottle caps into the Vinator to sanitize while you do the bottles themselves.  My particular bottle tree was designed to have the Vinator attached to its top, making a single compact unit.

The process is simple: take a bottle, give it a pump or two on the Vinator, and hang in on the tree to drain.  A 5 gallon batch of beer will use between 52 and 54 bottles, and my tree can accommodate all 54.  Once all the bottles are sanitized, move them to the side and prepare for the next step.

To dispense the beer to the bottles, I employ a bottling bucket, which is simply a plastic fermenting bucket fixed with a spigot at the bottom.  Pour your now-cooled priming sugar solution into the bucket and siphon the beer from the secondary fermenter into the bucket, just as you did when racking from primary to secondary.  The goals here are to move the beer into a vessel that is better suited to bottle from, and to get it off the last of the trub in the carboy.  Also as before, be sure to rack the beer “quietly” to avoid splashing and aeration.  Once the siphoning is complete, give the beer a gentle stir to make sure the priming sugar is well incorporated.

Move your bucket to a high surface — we’re going to be using gravity to our advantage to fill the bottles.  Typically I’ll place the bottling bucket atop another bucket (or my inverted brew pot) on the counter.

To fill the bottles in a controlled and “quiet” manner, I use a bottling wand, which is a thin acrylic tube with a spring-loaded nozzle on the end.  When the nozzle is inserted into a bottle and pushed against its bottom, liquid is allowed to flow.  Once you stop pushing, the flow is cut off.  Simple.  I attach the wand to the bucket’s spigot with a short length of tubing so I can keep my hands free.

Fill the bottle to the very top, and when the bottling wand is removed it will leave approximately 1″ of headspace in the bottle.  Place a bottle cap on top and set to the side.  If you have an assistant, they can crimp the cap down while you carry on, otherwise continue to fill a number of bottles before taking a break to seal them.

I use a bench-top capper to seal the bottles, but there are hand-held models available.  One advantage of the bench-top model is that is will cap any style of pop-top beer bottle, where the hand-held type can be stymied by the height of the collar at the top of a beer bottle, and that can restrict the types of bottle you use.

Simply adjust the capper to the height of the bottle and pull down the handle in one smooth motion.  You should end with a neatly crimped, and leak-proof cap on your bottle.  Carry on until you’ve capped all of the beer.

Once you have dispensed all the beer into bottles, store them in a dark, cool (not cold, as in refrigerated… just not in a 100°F garage — aim for 65°F – 75°F).  Practice your best zen-like patience while you wait the several weeks for the beer to finish carbonating and aging.  If you must, you can take a bottle at the 2 week mark, chill it for 48 hours, and test its progress.  In fact, if you’ve tasted the beer at every stage, including bottling time, it’s a great way to see just how the flavor is evolving.

What about the storage life of all this freshly bottled beer?  If your sanitary and bottling practices are sound, and you keep the bottles stored in a cool dark place, homebrewed beer should stay fresh and drinkable for up to a year… maybe more.  Of course some types of beer will benefit from being consumed young as some of the flavors dissipate rapidly (hops are the most notorious for this), and some will definitely age very gracefully (stouts, porters, etc), and some are specifically required to age a very long time before consumption — barleywines should age anywhere from 9 – 12 months for optimal conditioning before enjoying.

Next week we’ll conclude with the best part: properly enjoying the end product of all this hard work.