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Bottling

Secondary fermentation can last as long as you want, but most beers will be ok after a week.  Now its time to bottle.

  1. Boil corn sugar (dextrose) with a cup of water (1 oz. per gallon) for 10 minutes.  Sterilize your bottles by running them on a sanitary rinse in your dishwasher or by hand using no-rinse sanitizer, as well as your caps, siphon, and bottling bucket.

  2. To check the gravity of your fully fermented beer, open the secondary fermenter,  insert your SANITIZED hydrometer and write down the number.  You have now found your terminal gravity, or TG (also called final gravity of FG).

  3. Once the corn syrup is cooled, pour it into the bottling bucket.  Siphon the beer onto this sugar from your secondary fermenter.  You can either use a bottle filler or simply put your bottle up to the spigot, turn, fill, turn off, repeat.  Cap the bottle as soon as it is filled to avoid any contamination.

  4. Rinse off your equipment!

  5. Place your bottles in a room similar to the room used for fermentation and keep them out of light for two weeks.  Now, your beers are conditioned (carbonated) and ready to drink.  Homebrews often taste better after bottle conditioning for a while, so don’t be in a hurry to drink them up (easier said than done).  Stagger your tastings to find the right time frame for your beer.

  6. It’s a good idea once you start tasting your beer to critique it and write it down.  If you want to make it again, change it to your style, but chances are you won’t remember, so that’s why you write it down.