Bottled up the Chinook IPA. Didn’t have much body to the uncarbed beer but nice aroma. I dry hopped and secondaried the beer for 11 days @ 70°. Using T-58 for bottling yeast.
Tag Archive for 'bottling'
Racked my Three Hearted IPA and the Patersbier to bottles today. I used T-58, 5 oz of corn sugar and 2 oz of table sugar to prime the Patersbier. 5 oz of corn sugar for the IPA with US-05. Now, let’s see if they carb up nice. The IPA smelled great and both tasted great at room temp and flat (as good as they could be anyway).
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.
I botttled my IPA at a FG of 1.010 after 16 days. Tasted it and was very pleasant and easy. Not as floral or hoppy as I really like but again, that wasn’t the goal of this brew. Didn’t want to launch into a double on the first go-round and read great things about this recipe. Like I noted before, I didn’t choose to put it in the secondary to clear. Therefore, it was pretty cloudy when bottling. I’ve peeked at the bottles and they’re firming up quickly and are a bit clearer. Excited to start tasting.
Northern Brewer’s store opens soon in Milwaukee, the 14th I think. I’m planning my shopping list for their grand opening already. Targeting an Imperial Stout. Mmmmm.