WGE
I bottled my Woodfordes Great Eastern Ale last night. A process which I thought wasn't going to take me too long, but in fact still took a good 2 and a half hours!
I started by rinsing, sterilising and rinsing my bottles. They were a selection of plastic 1 and 2 litres bottles, and glass half litre/pint bottles. I decided to fill half the bottles with the sterilising solution, and transfer to the remaing bottles in time. This worked well, but obviously slowed my down a bit.
I think the time increase is fine, as previously I had put all the bottles in a big bucket and covered with a sterilsing solution. This was really water wasteful, so I have been thinking how to cut this down. I think this really worked well, and my rinsing was also less wasteful using one batch of clean (at the start) water for 3-4 bottles.
I couldn't move my FV from it's resting place in the utility room, but that wasn’t' too bad, as the little bottler attachment meant I would be holdign bottles at around shoulder height. Not grat, but still workable. Having the worktop is a great benefit as I just lined my bottles, sugar, caps and capper up and could knock the actual bottling off really quickly,
The FG came out at 1012, meaning my brew is 4% in strength. A bit below the advertised 4.5% but good enough! This will be conditinoing at room temperature for a week or so, then I'll get it into the shed to cold condition. I need to re arrange the shed a bit, to make good use of the space we've got in there. I don't see why I shouldn't be able to get all my beer crates in there when full, which is the optimum I'm aiming for (though I suppose one should be being drunk and one empty ready for bottling at all times…).
The beer crates I've inherited will be useful for storing the beer, though they're pretty grubby at the moment. It's going to be tricky to clean them as they've accumulated a lot of grime and dirt from being outside for so long. I also need to work out what kinds of bottles fit in there, so I can focus on getting hold of some of them.
I also need to name the brew I've just bottled, I've labelled them 'W.G.E' so I think it's going to have to be those intiials! The bre witself is looking quite cloudy, but I think a good period in the cool sheds will help them drop bright. Only time will tell!
Other than that, I'm waiting for the orange wine to clear (I'll probably use a clearing aid for this) then we can bottle and drink!
Next on my list is a beer to brew to take away with my family in November. It's kinda for my dad's birthday so I'm going to personalise it for him! I'll also try to knock up a cider to take away too, for my mum to drink.
Homebrewing really does involve a major amount of forward planning, because I'll still need to crank out a brew for Christmas soon as well! It's only my first year, so I'm learning all the time!
I started by rinsing, sterilising and rinsing my bottles. They were a selection of plastic 1 and 2 litres bottles, and glass half litre/pint bottles. I decided to fill half the bottles with the sterilising solution, and transfer to the remaing bottles in time. This worked well, but obviously slowed my down a bit.
I think the time increase is fine, as previously I had put all the bottles in a big bucket and covered with a sterilsing solution. This was really water wasteful, so I have been thinking how to cut this down. I think this really worked well, and my rinsing was also less wasteful using one batch of clean (at the start) water for 3-4 bottles.
I couldn't move my FV from it's resting place in the utility room, but that wasn’t' too bad, as the little bottler attachment meant I would be holdign bottles at around shoulder height. Not grat, but still workable. Having the worktop is a great benefit as I just lined my bottles, sugar, caps and capper up and could knock the actual bottling off really quickly,
The FG came out at 1012, meaning my brew is 4% in strength. A bit below the advertised 4.5% but good enough! This will be conditinoing at room temperature for a week or so, then I'll get it into the shed to cold condition. I need to re arrange the shed a bit, to make good use of the space we've got in there. I don't see why I shouldn't be able to get all my beer crates in there when full, which is the optimum I'm aiming for (though I suppose one should be being drunk and one empty ready for bottling at all times…).
The beer crates I've inherited will be useful for storing the beer, though they're pretty grubby at the moment. It's going to be tricky to clean them as they've accumulated a lot of grime and dirt from being outside for so long. I also need to work out what kinds of bottles fit in there, so I can focus on getting hold of some of them.
I also need to name the brew I've just bottled, I've labelled them 'W.G.E' so I think it's going to have to be those intiials! The bre witself is looking quite cloudy, but I think a good period in the cool sheds will help them drop bright. Only time will tell!
Other than that, I'm waiting for the orange wine to clear (I'll probably use a clearing aid for this) then we can bottle and drink!
Next on my list is a beer to brew to take away with my family in November. It's kinda for my dad's birthday so I'm going to personalise it for him! I'll also try to knock up a cider to take away too, for my mum to drink.
Homebrewing really does involve a major amount of forward planning, because I'll still need to crank out a brew for Christmas soon as well! It's only my first year, so I'm learning all the time!
posted by Garry at 12:09 pm
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