How To: Step 7 - Bottle Beer

After fermentation is complete the beer is ready to be bottled. The first step is to boil priming sugar in water and add it to the bottling bucket, which will give carbonation to the beer. The fermented beer will then be siphoned to the bottling bucket, leaving behind the residual yeast. The primed beer will then be siphoned off into bottles and capped. The bottles must be pop tops and not twist off.

a. Sterilizing bottles and caps: Bottles can also be sterilzed by soaking and scrubbing them in a solution with sanitizer. An iodine based sanitizer is recommended as it instantly sanitizes the bottle on contact. But either chlorine bleach or anti-bacterial soap are also effective. It is essential that bottles be completely sanitized and free of any debris that might still remain in the bottle. A bottle washer is very quick and efficient way to rinse and further sanitize bottles. Caps should be santized as well by boiling them in water. b. Siphoning: Take out airlock from the top of the fermenter. Place fermenter on a flat surface and the bottling bucket below on floor. Fill the siphon with a little water and hold top end in a "U" shape. Place bottom end of siphon into bottling bucket. The beer will flow through tube very quicky but try to drain the beer without making a splash and adding more air to the beer than necessary. 885K QuickTime Movie c. Priming: Add 3/4 of a cup of corn sugar to one cup of water. Boil for 10 minutes and add solution to a sterilized bottling bucket. 485K QuickTime Movie d. Siphon into bottles: From the bottling bucket siphon beer into individual sterilzed bottles. Insert the siphon all the way to the bottom of the bottle, and gently siphon the beer making sure to not splash should Bottles should be filled all the way to the top. When the siphon is removed, there will be about an 1 inch of air space from the top of the beer bottle. 835K QuickTime Movie e. Attach caps to bottles: Place sterilized cap over filled beer. Bring the capper over top of the cap and bottle. Firmly and slowly bring down both sides of the capper and release. The cap should be affixed to the top of the bottle. 932K QuickTime Movie

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