Strong Red Ale, Part 2

A little over a month ago I brewed some beer and promised to blog again when I bottled it. I'm a bit behind, as I bottled it a week after posting. Here's the bottling procedure:

(1) Sanitize everything that will come in contact with the beer: your bottles, caps, siphoning tube and carbuoy (bucket). I used One Step, an oxygen based sanitizer, to avoid having to rinse after using bleach.

(2) Boil 3/4 cup corn sugar with two cups water for five minutes. This adds some extra sugar for the yeast to feed on in the bottles which will result in carbonation.

(3) Pour the liquid into your carbuoy.

(4) Siphon beer into your carbuoy. I use an auto siphon pump for convenience, as regular siphoning can be tricky. Without the pump, you basically fill your tube with water, place one end in the beer you've brewed and the other into your carbuoy (which must be a few feet below the beer, as this is a gravity-based procedure).

(5) Siphon the beer into your bottles using a bottle filler, and cap using a capper.

(6) Wait as long as you can manage (at least a few days) and try the beer.

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The beer turned out pretty well. I liked the use of only one kind of hop. The spiciness of the Cascades definitely permeated the beer, and the roasted barley added a nice (if very mild) roasted flavor. I wasn't sure at first about the single hopping, as after only 4-5 days the flavor was a bit too intense. It mellowed after a few weeks, though.

Unfortunately, a few bottles of beer were "off." The best way to assure sanitation is to rinse your bottles shortly after drinking your beer. There were about five Sam Adams bottles (I haven't bought Sam Adams in a few years) that were all skunked. I've been better recently about rinsing, though, so hopefully this problem won't reoccur.

For more detailed instructions on brewing, click here.