Bottling Day!

My work schedule getting rearranged thanks to the holidays prevented me from getting this up in a timely manner, but here we go...

Bottling happened on November 30th, and as far as I can tell, went pretty perfectly. I was on my own, so photos and videos were less accessible... what? I was busy! But here's the one I did grab. Apologies for the bit of sideways time...:

After boiling the sugar and racking into the bottling bucket, I began the long, repetitive process of getting beer into the bottles, and capping them. It takes a good long while to fill and cap 48 beers by hand...

The first bottle!

And then, about an hour later...

The entire haul

I should also mention that the entire bottling process was made entirely possible by the local homebrew shop, which I visited for the first time the day before I bottled. It was necessary, because I didn't have the foresight to collect bottles, so I had to buy some. They have EVERYTHING I need. I also picked up caps, dextrose for bottling, and a couple other essentials. This place is going to keep me from having to buy supplies online. If you are looking to do brewing in the Boston area, check out the Modern Homebrew Emporium in North Cambridge. They're very awesome.

Brew 1, Day 6: Temperature Woes

So far, so good… I think. I was a little concerned earlier in the week, because I’ve had a slightly difficult time keeping the temperature consistent – I never thought that I’d have such an issue keeping my apartment cool enough in mid- to- late-November, but there it is. The fermometer strip on the side of my bucket is running pretty warm, most of the time sitting just at the edge of the “Ale” range (right around 75 degrees).

The problem is the only decent place to set up camp in my apartment is in the kitchen, where the cat is most of the time locked out, so she can’t harass anything. But it’s a kitchen, so it does tend to heat up from time to time, and when we close everything up for the night (kitchen door, door to the balcony, etc.), the temperature starts to creep up. I don’t have a basement or a spare fridge or anything, so I kinda just have to risk it. I guess this brew will give me a good idea if it works or not.

If it turns out well, I’ll keep doing what I’m doing… if not I might have to improvise. We have a closet by the front door that seems to stay a little cooler than the rest of the apartment… I might need to find a thermometer and get an actual gauge of that. It might be a good place for future fermentations.

Since we have the balcony, I was sort of hoping that in the spring and fall I might be able to stick the bucket or carboy out on the balcony, but I don’t think the temperature would be consistent enough. Stupid New England - Mid-sixties in late November, with the possibility of low forties in early May.

Moving everything over to the glass carboy on Monday for fermentation week 2, and then likely ordering another kit to start up. I need to get up to the homebrew store in Cambridge to pick up some bottles, so I’ll likely take a look around there too. I’m thinking something akin to a winter warmer/spiced ale to get me through February.

Also, a buddy of mine posted this on Twitter: Paste Magazine put together a list of the top 25 American breweries of the decade. It’s a good list, and I don’t necessarily disagree with anyone on there. I just feel like they definitely left a few off, namely Harpoon. Maybe that’s just the Boston pride in me. I'd also throw Smuttynose on there if I had my way. They definitely nailed the top two, though: Allagash & Dogfish Head. Any time I can get my hands on a 60 or 90-min IPA draft, I’m a happy camper, and I would drink nothing but Allagash White and be the most content man on the planet.