After a couple months of dedicated homebrewing, Carl and I arrived at the point we had been dreading: bottling the last batch before I leave for a month on separate trips to California, South Dakota and then back to California. We plan to resume our efforts in earnest upon my return, but it was a sad sight to see our dry erase board wiped clean at the end of the day.
The gravity readings we took while racking already placed our Granfalloons Belgian Tripel at a whopping 11.6% ABV so we decided to bottle into 12oz bottles instead of bombers. Sharing is nice, but if I wanted to drink a bottle to myself, 22oz of strong beer is quite a commitment.
We busied ourselves with cleaning carboys and bottles and I prepared our priming sugar. Things were running smoothly and we were filling clean bottles with sanitizer in very little time. Once we had cleared the carboy of iodophor and gave it a rinse, we racked over the Granfalloons. The smell emanating from the transfer was very enticing and Carl joked that he was ready to drink a pint warm and without carbonation. We both had to settle for samples from the test tube we filled for a terminal gravity reading.
After dumping the iodophor solution into our big bucket, the bottles were ready to be filled. Carl manned the bottle filler and I capped while pausing to stir in order to keep the dextrose evenly distributed. It what seemed record time, we had a full batch bottled and ready to be put in the cellar. The prospect of retiring to the Flying Goat for a late lunch and some fine ales on draught probably played some part in spurring us on. After some calculations and quite a bit of cleaning, we noticed how much homebrew we had amassed in our short tenure together, so we decided to limit our consumption at the Flying Goat to just one pint (imperial; being a mug club member has its benefits) so that we could head back to Carl’s and get to work on our abundant supply.
It took some dedication and fortitude, but we were able to empty what was left of the keg of Mother Night American-style India Black Ale. Honestly, that meant we each got only about a pint and a half before it blew. Our discussion included some things that probably shouldn’t be repeated in certain company, but we did decide on what to brew when I return from my journeys. We are going to attempt a double brew day in preparation for our Oktoberfest party, one batch being a replacement for the Mother Night we had polished off and the other being an Oktoberfest (go figure) that we are going to cask. In the weeks that follow, we also plan to brew a coconut porter and a saison. Our brewing window will be small, because I will be moving to Davis sometime in November in order to get settled before the holidays and school starting in January.
Enjoying the feeling of a job well done and the effects of the alcohol, I jumped on my bike and pedaled home. I tried not to lament how many weeks it would be before I return and am able to enjoy my homebrews once again. To assuage my future longing, I decided to open a bottle of our Bagombo IPA. Needless to say, my night ended well.
What do you use the whiteboard for? Pic is too small to tell.
ReplyDeleteAs we tend to have a few batches in various stages of fermentation at any one time, we numbered our carboys using house number stickers from the hardware store. The whiteboard helps keep track of what beer is where. The columns read left to right: carboy #, beer, SG, primary, secondary (listing the dates when beer enters either stage).
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