Bottling Beer

Joe has developed a taste for good beer in the last few years, thanks again to Unka Tom. :) Rather than buying very expensive imported beers he looked into making a batch at U-Brew It, a local business than supports you while you mix your grains, malt and hops from their long list of recipes, taking time for the yeast to develop etc before"your wort is transferred from the kettle to the fermenter via a hop filter and heat exchanger. The temperature of the wort is reduced during this transfer to allow the yeast to be added at the correct temp to ensure the perfect fermenting environment. The brew is then moved to the Fermentation Room for about 10days before you return to bottle your beer."

That first batch was so good that Joe has made 6 in all now, his favourite being this 10.1% alcohol beer called Barley Wine which is a bit of a mis-nomer.

Below is Jennifer, the brewer, adding ingredients to one of the copper kettles.

boiling water is at hand

From the kettle the brew is transferred to the fermenting room and kept at a constant temperature to allow the  yeast to work it's magic. After 10 days the beer is moved to a cool-room to settle and mature. On the morning of your bottling day Graeme will filter and carbonate the beer for you and when you arrive you'll be given a glass to taste...yesterday Joe's beer needed a little more carbon so that was cheerfully done.

We took our own 500ml bottles, over 100 of them and placed them on this spiked device that squirts sterilized water into them...Joe says that's his kinda Christmas Tree lol

Once sterilized we moved them onto this mobile drainer which has wheels so we could easily move the bottles to the bottling station.

Joe begins the bottling process, with yours truly at his right hand to top up, cap and wipe the full bottles before popping them back into their cartons.

Bottling station No 5 with the large fermenting barrels in the background.

Looks like some-one was a having a very long taste test!

Here's the finished product last night, safely home and poured into one of Joe's highly prized Weihenstephan glasses.

and the "beer" fridge! As these brews contain no chemicals or preservatives they must be refrigerated. In all we capped 106 half litre bottles at the cost of $2 each....similar imported beers cost as much as $8 each!

I hope you found this interesting, Gordon and Barry brew all their own beer at home too and I've made Sarah's beer in a bucket in this very room. Have happy memories of home brewing too many years ago and the wonderful dark stout we used to make. Dad and Mum also have brewed at home.

I know this post isn't for every-one but I wanted to share as it's a thrifty way to make a really good, chemical free beer.

Bye bye for now,

Sue 

xx