Blog and Gateway

I was thrilled to find that it was time to bottle… but shocked to realize my negligence had made me neglect taking some tests of the final gravity *Gasp*. Alas it was not all that bad. What should have been an initial gravity in the ballpark of 1.052 and a final gravity of 1.015 resulted in a final gravity of 1.012. Nothing wrong with that and I can live with it.  The color was excellent on this batch and basically what I expected from a Porter.  The recipe kit was a AHS Anniversary Porter Extract Kit.  1/2lb Chocolate Malt, 1/2 lb 2-row Malt, 1/4lb De-bittered Black Malt, 1/2 lb Caraamber Malt, 7lbs Pale Extract, 2oz willamette for bittering, 3/4oz Hallertau for flavor and 1/4oz Hallertau for aroma.

To avoid the problem I noticed with the carbonation in the Brown Ale batch (lack of carbonation in some and extra in others) I gave it a tender stir during racking.  This had two things I have not experienced as of yet.

1. My silicone tubing popped off of the bottling bucket spigot… lucky me it dropped down into my catch below (7.9gallon primary fermenter). Note to self, throw a strip of electric tape on the tube to give it added reinforcement as a precaution, or get another means.

2. My capper was capping crooked.  I noticed some were off center as well as when i did the tip trick they leaked and bubbled. I lowered the end of my capper and sure enough the end piece was unscrewing (who would have thought it screwed). This made me have to do a cap test on almost all my bottles. Sure enough I caught about 7 bottles with a leak. I quickly recapped em and poof, problem solved.

I can hardly wait to unleash the fury of this batch on my taste buds but alas I have some waiting to do.

As a side note, I have continued my new tradition of bottling one small bottle in an old tonic water bottle to allow for a clear view of the clearing process as well as a means to check the carbonation. Check this little beauty out! 

AJ from future 11/2019: Narrator voice “it wasnt a tradition”