Bottling “My Odd Monk Ale”

A batch of “My Odd Monk Ale” was ready to bottle on Wednesday 28 March. I have a Brew Journal to help me track the relevant dates on my brews. I write down the ingredients I add, the cooking times, dates that I start fermentation, dates I bottle, and tasting notes. It helps me know which beers were great and which ones to never make again. I also hope it will help me track any mistakes I make.

So when bottling the first thing you need to do is to sanitize the bottles. I use a commercial cleanser followed by a no-rinse sanitizer.

I was concerned about these floating bits in the beer. I thought it might have been a sign that the brew was infected. A little Google searching later I think it was just bits of hops still floating in the brew.

Once the bottles were done soaking in the sanitizer I put them on the drying rack.

Once the beer was in the bottles with the priming sugar I labeled all the bottles.

The keg had a small leak around the spigot so I lost some of the brew. Between the loss and what I didn’t pour (to avoid the leavings in the bottom of the keg) I had one empty bottle left over.

I am keeping my brew-supplies in the equipment room in my basement. It maintains a nice even temperature year round. I am going to start putting my kegs down here during fermentation. It will be inconvenient going up and down the stairs but I think it will be worth it. The bottles on the right are full and resting, on the left are bottles waiting for me to brew some more!