Bagombo Bottling

After patiently waiting for our IPA to fully ferment, my brewing friend and I were ready to get it into bottles and come one step closer to drinking our creation. Unbeknownst to my friend, bottling is the most labor intensive part of homebrewing. My initial thought was to save us from the tedium by kegging that batch, but as my friend is leaving town in just a couple weeks, we wanted to be able to split up our bounty.

As we prepared the priming sugar and set to work on cleaning the many and various implements of our tasks, we adhered to the first rule of homebrewing; “relax, grab a homebrew.” Being our first batch together and being more than a year removed from the time I last had a bottle of my brew on my shelves, we opted for a professionally brewed beer. To celebrate the special occasion, I decided to bring over the bottle of Gouden Carolus Hopsinjoor by Brouwerij Het Ancker in Mechelen, Belgium that I purchased at Bottleworks on my last visit to Seattle. Pouring a luscious golden yellow with a thick head that lingered for quite some time and a nose of fruity malts mixed with subtle hop spiciness, the Hopsinjoor was sweetly delicious with amazing balance that carried through until the crisp aftertaste and was easily quaffed as we went about performing our brewing duties.

Thirsty Zymurgist Score: 46/50

Once we had the beer racked to a new carboy, we set in on cleaning our bottles which gave the beer ample time to settle out again. The utility sink in the basement was our base of operations and I was glad that we could use a bottle sprayer; a luxury I had not been afforded in my previous brewing experiences. The scrubbing and rinsing took some time because we had received our bottles from another homebrewer but they had been in storage for a couple years and were subsequently dusty. Cleaning and sanitizing being the keys to turning out quality homebrew, we took our time and double washed a few bottles so that our minds could be at ease that our glorious beer was not going to be tainted in the last stage of its life.

After the cleaning and sanitizing were complete, we set up our stations to begin the actual bottling. My friend filled the bottles and passed them off to me for capping while I stirred the beer in the carboy to ensure even distribution of the priming sugar. Bottling went smoothly and we ended up with twenty five 22oz bottles and a little left over in one last bottle which became a sample.

We achieved a high original gravity and high attenuation compared to previous similar versions of this particular IPA and that translated to the taste being even more hop forward but leaving the body of the beer to be a bit thin. The grapefruit flavors and aromas were still prevalent while the hops never fully dominate the tongue which will make this a great early summer tipple.