A good weekend always starts with some beer. This past Saturday I bottled my wheat which hit the target final gravity of 1.010. This was about what I was expecting, so I guess that is something to be happy about. The bottling itself was perhaps the easiest bottling I've ever done.
If you are getting into brewing, do yourself a favor and buy a bench capper, unless you are able to make a quick leap to kegs. I think I cut my bottling of 100 bottles in half with the use of the bench capper. I use the Colonna capper that my lovely wife gave me for my birthday this year to bottle. The nice things is how quickly this adjusts to different bottle heights. It also is a good purchase if you're like me and thinking about corking belgian bottles, as it can do that too. Needless to say, bottling was a success.
I turned Sunday into a brew day. The goal was to brew a simple nut brown and that was exactly what I did. I think that this was one of the more relaxed brew days for me. I had my computer setup with the checklist and things I needed to do and when. It was really smooth. I think a lot of this was because I had a friend helping me out with the brew day. An extra set of hands is a good thing when working - thank you Steve! No boil over for the day, but I did come close. The KAB4 banjo burner really can heat up wort fast which I think has been increasing the odds of a boil over.
At the end of the day I wound up with a good amount of wort and accomplished just over 70 percent efficiency. The wort itself tasted like a wonderful fall sipper should. I am hoping for good things from this brew. Until next time, happy brewing!
If you are getting into brewing, do yourself a favor and buy a bench capper, unless you are able to make a quick leap to kegs. I think I cut my bottling of 100 bottles in half with the use of the bench capper. I use the Colonna capper that my lovely wife gave me for my birthday this year to bottle. The nice things is how quickly this adjusts to different bottle heights. It also is a good purchase if you're like me and thinking about corking belgian bottles, as it can do that too. Needless to say, bottling was a success.
I turned Sunday into a brew day. The goal was to brew a simple nut brown and that was exactly what I did. I think that this was one of the more relaxed brew days for me. I had my computer setup with the checklist and things I needed to do and when. It was really smooth. I think a lot of this was because I had a friend helping me out with the brew day. An extra set of hands is a good thing when working - thank you Steve! No boil over for the day, but I did come close. The KAB4 banjo burner really can heat up wort fast which I think has been increasing the odds of a boil over.
At the end of the day I wound up with a good amount of wort and accomplished just over 70 percent efficiency. The wort itself tasted like a wonderful fall sipper should. I am hoping for good things from this brew. Until next time, happy brewing!