bottled hop head double ipa

i bottled the hop head double, which has been dry-hopping for a little over a week and weighed in at 1.020. i'm starting to think that gravity readings for extract ales are only useful to determine when fermentation is stopped, and there's no way to get a good sense of the attenuation. at least i hope so (see barleywine below)...

inki's brown was bottled around the 16th and tastes pretty good, though she likes to let it rest for about 4 weeks in the bottle. probably sensitive to the sulfur that needs to condition out.

i've started in to the english bitter which isn't the most exciting of beers, but it tastes ok. it has a sour taste that it didn't have when it was green. very quick finish, low alcohol like a session beer.

barleywine was giving me fits as it seems to be mostly done bubbling, but was only 1.035 on saturday and sunday. it's down to 1.032-ish as of this post. looked it up in the bjcp style guide and searched around for how to un-stick a fermentation. i have a feeling it's done and that the high 1.020's might not be bad. it tastes good and seems really alcoholic though it only got ~56% attenuated if you believe the gravity readings. still a bit of yeasty-pasty krausen floating on the top, so the yeast may be goofin' on me. i've put it into the downstairs bathroom with a heater on low and have had it around 70° for the last 3 days, swirling occasionally. gonna rack when i get 3 days of stable readings and/or the krausen falls. thought i might have seen some mold on the top, but it could just have been some grain husks or hop dust.

inki's brown bottling day -- brown sugar!

i'm using 3.7 oz of brown sugar as priming for inki's brown (big river brown ale). bottling with my baby tonight :-)

the hop head double ipa is still at 1020, and it tastes good enough to drink right out of the bright tank with no carbonation. carbonation would just be an extra feature. i still have to dry hop, perhaps this beer could get even better?

english bitter bottled

after priming sugar (4oz this time, instead of 5), FG still at about 1.015. hopefully these bottles don't pop! the un-carbonated beer tastes like a nice mild dry beer. probably at about 3.5ABV

inki's brown could technically be bottled now, but i'm thinking that a little more time in the primary fermenter would be good. debating on whether to rack to secondary, but i think i'm going to be lazy and let her sit for today.

the hop head is done bubbling, even after moving it to the basement and rousing it a bit. probably time for the secondary. hrmmm. i'm tempted to rack both to secondary, but i just got done cleaning up after the bottling. maybe tomorrow.

inki's brown bottling day #3

bottling inki's brown #3? fg before sugar was around 1.015. let it sit in the primary for 4 1/2 weeks. we'll see. crashing some BCHX in the freezer with the priming sugar.

bottling day for BCHX

FG in bottling bucket with sugar: 1.015. Caramel red color. Smells awesome. Was in secondary for 1 1/2 weeks, with dry hops for a week or so. Tried to rack with a sock over the cane, got too cloggy, so gave up and racked plain. Not too leafy, also not too much trub, which is odd. Bottles will probably be full of sludge. It looked like it was still a little active, and a taste was very sugary. it's been warm lately. Hopefully fully fermented! Not too worried. Should probably try one in about 10 days. Probably won't be ready, but wtf.

bottled inki's brown #1

bottled homemade brown ale

ryepa bottling day

Bottled the ryepa. accidentally poured a whole bag of one step into the bottling sugar water! Got 3*12 + 5 beers. coulda gotten 2 or 3 more if the siphon hadn't crapped out. wernt werrrr. next time: backfill with more water at ferment time and read the labels of the bags of white stuff at bottling time!