Other stuff

I did some reading and agreed to some of it, that the primary benefit of doing secondary fermentation is to clear the bear of suspended matter. I absolutely believe that the beer matures and finds a more complex personality during secondary. However, the latter of these two things can happen while bottle conditioning.

That being said, I chose to bottle both my Imperial Stout and the Belgian Dubbel early. The stout was given almost 2 months to secondary and the Dubbel was given about 3 weeks to clear in secondary. They’ll now age in the bottle and I might as well have them carb up at the same time.

Also, I need some equipment free to start my next brew, a Belgian Patersbier. I bottled both of the above using both plastic and glass bottles for a variety of sizes.

This was also the first time I’ve used yeast at bottling, which should be done anytime I secondary a beer from here on out. I used a couple dry yeasts for both. For the Dubbel I used a whole pack of T-58 along with 2/3 cup corn sugar, which was probably double of the yeast I should have used. The result will simply be more matter at the bottom of the bottle, so I’ll pour carefully. It shouldn’t effect the beer. For the Imperial Stout, I used about 3/4 cup of corn sugar with a half a packet of US-05. I was talking to a guy at the LHBS and he mentioned trying to use 5 oz of corn sugar and 2 oz of normal table cane sugar because traditionally they are both eaten by the yeast differently and for some reason it is a good method for bottling.