Bottling the Brew

 Yesterday was bottling day! M spent the morning sanitizing everything while I shot some custom print requests for my Etsy shop.

 Emmett could tell our attention wouldn't be centered on him for a bit, so he pouted on the couch.

 Sanitized bottles all ready to go!

 I didn't get any photos of us transferring the beer from the fermenting bucket to the bottling bucket because it was quite the process. But here is what's left behing in the bottom of the fermenting bucket: a thick layer of sludge.

 M is testing the alcohol content of the beer with the hydrometer.

 Sanitized caps ready to go!

 I had the honor of filling 47 bottles.

 This was the set up. And yes, I'm in my pajamas. It was a lazy Sunday afternoon.

 M was the capper, because I have no upper body strength.

Our batch made 2 cases of beer. It needs to sit in the bottles for 2 more weeks until it's ready to be tasted. Stay tuned!

Trouble a-brewin'

 My and I recently brewed our second batch of beer. We made a small batch of IPA a couple of months ago, but because it was our first time, it didn't turn out as well as we had hoped for. We think we got it right this time with round 2!

 We picked up a kit for a Robust Porter....and we did a little research and added our own secret ingredients to make it a bit unique. Hopefully this won't effect the final drinkability ;)

 We had to gate sad little Emmett out of the kitchen. Hops are very bad for dogs and we couldn't take the chance of him accidentally eating some!

 M put the grains into the steeping bag and steeped the water, turning it to wort.

 And steeped some more...

 Finally after 20 minute of steeping, the wort was ready for the boil.

 The wort was boiled for 60 minutes, with additional ingredients being added at different intervals.

 Emmett got bored of this project and crashed.

 We had a boil over, oops!

After the 60 minute boil, the wort takes an ice bath so that it can be cooled down enough to add the yeast. Then it's placed in a bucket for 2-3 weeks of fermentation.

To be continued...