Bottling Mishap #1
It was bound to happen. As my confidence grows and I take an increasingly relaxed approach to brewing, I should have expected this. I bottled the 80 Shilling last Friday. The peated malt was nice, and more noticeable than I had thought it would be. A nice smokey sweet ale with a beautiful auburn colour. So I transferred it to the bottling bucket after having sanitized all equipment and bottles, and proceeded to fill the bottles. After 4-5, my wife (always the pleasant and helpful bottling companion) asked about carbonation and how it works, and I, being a know-it-all, started explaining the intricacies of bottle conditioning. A few sentences into it, it hit me. I had omitted the priming solution, and was bottling what would be flat beer.
Nonetheless, I made up a quick mix of corn sugar and boiled water and added it to the bucket, so the remaining bottles (about 16) should carbonate nicely.
After that I began a rather involved process of "musical carboys". First I cleaned the 5 gallon carboy that housed the 80 Shilling, then I racked the barleywine into it (a tertiary racking). Then I cleaned the barleywine's old 5 gallon carboy, and used it as secondary for the Wee Heavy, which is coming along...a bit underattenuated, but that's not necessarily bad for the style. Quite smokey! I then added Super Kleer finings to the barleywine, and added 1 oz of whole Cascade hops for dry hopping. I then tossed in some oak chips (probably about 3 oz) as well as the few hundred milliliters of single barrel bourbon the oak chips had been soaking in. I'll give it a few weeks to soak flavours out of the dry hops and oak, and I'll go ahead and bottle it.
Also, I added the finings to the cyser, and within a day or two it is crystal clear. A beautiful amber gold...it really ought to be bottled in clear glass. I have yet to add the necessary spices.
I'm still unsure of what to do next. It's likely that my next one will be a modified cyser...in fact, a blackcurrant melomel that uses apple juice (a cheaper store-bought variety) as more of a source of nutrients and fermentables than flavour, and then it will sit on some blackcurrants in secondary and hopefully develop a frightfully fruity potency. After that, I have a number of options...traditional cider, highly hopped IPA, English Mild, some sort of "Tanenbaum" juniper ale for the holidays, whatever strikes me.
Nonetheless, I made up a quick mix of corn sugar and boiled water and added it to the bucket, so the remaining bottles (about 16) should carbonate nicely.
After that I began a rather involved process of "musical carboys". First I cleaned the 5 gallon carboy that housed the 80 Shilling, then I racked the barleywine into it (a tertiary racking). Then I cleaned the barleywine's old 5 gallon carboy, and used it as secondary for the Wee Heavy, which is coming along...a bit underattenuated, but that's not necessarily bad for the style. Quite smokey! I then added Super Kleer finings to the barleywine, and added 1 oz of whole Cascade hops for dry hopping. I then tossed in some oak chips (probably about 3 oz) as well as the few hundred milliliters of single barrel bourbon the oak chips had been soaking in. I'll give it a few weeks to soak flavours out of the dry hops and oak, and I'll go ahead and bottle it.
Also, I added the finings to the cyser, and within a day or two it is crystal clear. A beautiful amber gold...it really ought to be bottled in clear glass. I have yet to add the necessary spices.
I'm still unsure of what to do next. It's likely that my next one will be a modified cyser...in fact, a blackcurrant melomel that uses apple juice (a cheaper store-bought variety) as more of a source of nutrients and fermentables than flavour, and then it will sit on some blackcurrants in secondary and hopefully develop a frightfully fruity potency. After that, I have a number of options...traditional cider, highly hopped IPA, English Mild, some sort of "Tanenbaum" juniper ale for the holidays, whatever strikes me.
posted by SQLFunkateer at 8:52 AM
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