2torial #0726:
Learn2 Brew Your Own Beer (continued)

Bottle your concoction

After your beer has finished fermenting, it's time to bottle it.

• To sterilize your bottling equipment, fill your bottling bucket three-quarters full with cold, bottled water and 2 ounces (60 milliliters) of unscented bleach. Submerge as many of your bottles as will fit. Also add the bottling hose and bottling tube. If you run out of room in the bucket, mix a similarly proportionate solution of bleach and water in your sink and soak some items there. Let everything soak for 30 minutes.

• While your bottles are soaking, combine 3/4 cups (178 milliliters) corn sugar with 2 cups (470 milliliters) of bottled water in a saucepan. Cover the pan and place it on the stove over medium heat.

• To sterilize the crowns, put as many of them as will fit into a frying pan, add enough bottled water to completely cover them, and place on the stove over high heat.

• Once the contents of both pans have come to a boil, remove them from the heat and let them cool to room temperature.

• After the bottles are finished soaking, use your bottle brush to wash each one with warm water and dishwashing soap, then let them air dry. When all the bottles are cleaned, empty the bottling bucket and rinse it thoroughly with fresh water. Rinse the bottling hose and tube, too.

• Place the full fermentation vessel on a table or countertop with the spigot facing you. Note: As the vessel will now weigh over 50 pounds (22 kilograms), you may need a friend to help lift it.

Place the bottling bucket on the floor directly below the spigot. Connect your plastic hose to the spigot on the fermentation vessel; the other end of the hose should hang down inside the bottling bucket.

• Pour the boiled sugar and water mixture into the bottling bucket.

• Open the spigot and let all the beer drain into the bottling bucket. Then close the fermentation vessel's spigot and move the now-empty container away from your work area, replacing it on the table with the now-full bottling bucket. Remove the plastic hose from the fermentation vessel and attach it to the spigot on the bottling bucket. Attach the bottling tube to the other end of the hose.

• Place your bottles on the floor beneath the bottling bucket. One bottle at a time, insert the bottling tube, open the spigot, and let beer fill the bottle. Repeat the process until the bottling bucket is empty or all your bottles are full.

• Use your bottle capper to place a crown on each bottle. (It will come with instructions for use.)

• Store your bottles in a warm, dry place away from direct sunlight for another 2 weeks. This will give the remaining yeast time to eat the sugar you added and carbonate your brew. After 14 days, chill a bottle and perform a taste test.

You may have to brew a few batches, making adjustments along the way, before you're fully satisfied. Ask someone at a home brew store to sample a bottle and offer suggestions. Eventually, you'll sit back and quench your thirst with a cold beer of your own design.

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