Beer Brewing Bottling and Priming Your Beer

One of the most exciting moments in the beer brewing process is when your beer has completed fermentation. At this point, it's ready to drink right? Actually, at this point you still have a ways to go, so you need to resist temptation to drink it. Besides, it isn't ready yet and probably won't taste good anyway. At this point, your beer is flat. You must first carbonate and bottle it, then let it bottle age and fully carbonate. Once you have done this, then you can enjoy some of your hard work.The carbonation part of the beer brewing process is rather easy. Bottling can be a little tricky, but here is a quick run through the after fermentation part of the beer brewing process. If you are brewing with a kit, it probably came with some priming sugar. If not, you will need to purchase some separately. Do not substitute table sugar for this.The instructions that came with the kit may instruct you to add sugar to each bottle individually, but there is a better way to do this. Instead, calculate the total amount of sugar required in the entire recipe, and dissolve that into a quart of water and boil. Make sure the sugar gets completely dissolved. Then, let the mixture cool to 70F, and add it to your bottling bucket before you rack your beer into it. This is known as Bulk Priming.It is important to also remember that before you add anything to the bottling bucket that all equipment, including the bucket be sanitized first. When it comes to the actual bottling, you will need a bottling bucket, siphon tubing, a racking cane, a bottling wand, bottles (at least 50 12 oz bottles), bottle caps and a capper. You don't necessarily need all of these items to bottle, such as the auto siphon or the wand, but these additional items make the process much easier.Once you add the sugar water to the bottling bucket, then carefully add your beer from the fermenter. Be careful that you do not splash or agitate the beer, this will introduce oxygen and possibly contaminate your beer. Attach some tubing to the spigot, and attach the bottling wand to the end of the tubing. Then, simply press down on the wand onto the bottom of the bottle and fill.As an advantage, the bottle wand will leave the perfect amount of headspace in your beer due to displacement. By pressing the tip to the bottom of the bottle you also avoid splashing and aeration. The wand makes the process easier because you control the flow of beer--you can turn the flow on and off simply by pressing and releasing the wand.If you are filling bottles without a wand, you will still want to make sure you are leaving enough headspace in the bottle. Failing to do so can lead to bottle bombs. You are creating CO2 (carbonation) and that pressure has to have somewhere to go if you do not leave some space. Then, simply cap each bottle and store in a cool dark place. Ideally, you will want to store your beer at temperatures between 65F and 75F degrees.It will take about 3 weeks for your beer to become fully carbonated. Make sure to keep your beer away from light, and keep the temperature at a constant. Once it is fully carbonated, the beer is finally ready to put in the fridge and enjoy.

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