Here I am boiling the Wort (pronounced wert). This is where I add all my ingredients, such as the malt and hops.
Now the hard part. In order to pitch the yeast (final step on brew day) the wort must be below 80 degrees. Sounds simple enough, right? Wrong. Taking 4 gallons of boiling liguid (212 degrees) down under 80 is tougher than it looks. I actually got it under 85 degrees fairly quickly, but it was those last 5 degrees that would keep me up til 1:30 am.
Only 4 days later (really I should have waited a week, but patience is a virtue that I have yet to receive) I transferred the brew (now that it is fermented it is no longer called wort) to the 2nd stage fermentation in a plastic carboy.
One week later I start checking the gravity level with a hydrometer. This tells me the amount of alcohol that has been left behind after the fermentation. If the readings are the same for 3 days then it is safe to bottle. If you bottle too soon and fermentation is not complete, then you could have about 50 little yummy grenades going off in your basement. I chose not to blow up my brew, so I checked.
Clarity looks pretty good, too.
Now I just have to get 50+ bottles ready for bottling. I filled this tote up with water, added 8 or 9 "gullups" of bleach and let sit overnight. The next day the labels came off pretty easy...
... but it still took me about 1 1/2 hours to get the bottles cleaned. After that I placed them in the dishwasher (no soap) for a final rinse and sanitize.
Finally, it's time to bottle. This was quite awkward at first. I had to move the bucket around a few times, plus rearrange my assembly line, but I finally got it right. The whole thing from start to last bottle filled and capped only took about an hour. Now, I just need to wait about 2 weeks for the bottles to prime.
Now that the waiting is over (I could only wait 1 week) the only thing left to do at this point is to pop, pour, and enjoy! Cheers!
