Homebrew Bottling and Storing Home Brew Beer in Glass or PET Bottles
|
ARTLEYSHOMEBREW.COM
Homebrew bottling is that exciting stage after your home brew beer has completed fermentation and all the bottles have been washed and sterilised. It is the labour before reward of consumption of your malty hoppy drop. If you make Coopers Home Brew, try some special bottle tops.  Glass or Plastic? A glass manufacturer once promoted the Company’s products with the slogan: “Good things come in glass”. Times have changed and technology has brought us new products. Do you prefer to fill your German beer mug with your favourite malty hoppy drop poured from glass beer bottles; or would you rather have your favourite home brew beer poured from modern PET plastic bottles. Hmmmm! Whatever your choice, if it looks good and tastes good, does it matter? Your choice.
Bottles
A popular standard size for a beer bottle is 750 ml (or 26 Fl oz). Half size bottles are 375 ml (called a ‘stubby’ in Australia); but some stubby beer bottles are slightly smaller e.g. 345 ml. Whatever size bottle you use, the sealing mechanism must be satisfactory to withstand pressure from the gas that gets created in the bottle because of secondary fermentation.
Seals and Caps
Bottle caps are traditionally ‘crown seals’ as used on Corona beer bottles and require a beer bottle opener to remove. Twist top bottle caps (crown seals) are popular (e.g. in Australia) because they can be removed easily by hand by simply unscrewing the crown seal. The screw thread in the seal is created when the crown seal is capped on the bottle. Resealable wire clip bottles, such as the Grolsch beer bottles, have been popular in Great Britain and Europe. PET ‘plastic’ screw top bottles have been developed for the home brewer and these have the advantage of being quickly and easily sealed and re-sealed as they are re-used for your next home brew batch.
Sterilisation
A standard 22.5 litre batch of home brew beer requires 30 x 750 ml bottles, 60 x 375 ml stubbies, or the calculated equivalent in whatever size bottles you have to fill. Each bottle needs to be sterilised using a solution of sodium meta-bisulphite or one of the modern sanitising solutions now available from your specialist home brew shop. Follow the instructions that come with your sanitising product. It is advisable to allow some time for the sterilising to have its affect and them rinse and drain each bottle. However, some new ‘sanitising’ solutions need not be rinsed before draining and using. This saves time.
During the fermentation period, carbon dioxide is produced and then released through the air lock and thus lost. You want carbon dioxide in the bottle to give life to your malty hoppy drop home brew. Since the beer mixture has been fully fermented as determined by a constant Specific Gravity reading using your beer hydrometer, you need to add a level-to-heaped teaspoon of free running white cane sugar to each bottle via a dry funnel. This sugar will be converted by residual beer yeast in the brew and this time the carbon dioxide will be retained in the sealed bottle and goes into solution to give that sparkling look to your amber home brew. The gas bubbles also produce a frothy head for visual pleasure.
Filling Bottles:
Flow of the beer into bottles is via gravity; therefore your fermenter needs to be elevated either on a suitable stool or table. Your fermenter should have a tap at its base and using this tap each bottle can be filled through a funnel. From your home brew shop you can get a tube that fits into the tap and has a press-up-to-open valve on the end that fits into the bottle. So feed the bottle over the tube and gently push upwards to fill and lower down to stop…it’s easy and simple. You could also insert the filler tube into a siphon tube (one with a jiggler ball valve on the end) to fill the bottles. You work out which way suits you. Leave a couple of inches (50 ml) headroom.
Capping
You will need a supply of caps or seals to suit the number of bottles. To set ‘crown seal’ caps you can use the basic bottle capper that you hold in your hand and hit with a hammer, or a levered capper available from you home brew shop. If using the hammer capper it is strongly recommended you follow the following advice. Place the bottle on a concrete floor e.g. in the garage or laundry. Do not place the bottle on a wooden floor nor on a wooden block (unless you want to experience bottles breaking in your hand). Use a solid steel hammer only. Twist top bottles take a crown seal. With screw cap bottles, make sure caps are screwed on tightly. If crown seal caps start to get stuck in capper, lubricate capper with candle wax.
Storing
Invert capped bottles 2 or 3 times to dissolve added sugar and keep in a warm place preferably at fermentation temperature of 25˚C for a couple of weeks. Then store upright in a cool place until you can’t wait any longer to have a drink of you own malty hoppy drop. Ahhhh!
 Best after 3 months; but drinkable after 2 weeks. Chill first. This is your reward for all the work of homebrew bottling. |
|
| How To Repair Your Sewing Machine. |
| Sewing Machine Repair As A Home Business Or For Your Self. |
| Living On A Dime - Financial Independence Through Better Life Choices. |
| Publisher Of E-books About Paying Off Debt, Saving Money, Frugal Cooking And Homemaking. |
| Homejobstop. |
| Join One Of The Hottest Selling Sites On The Net! A Leading Work From Home Job Bank. Solid, Reputable. |