Transfer for Two and A Real Beer

We didn't brew over the weekend.  Nor did we bottle or transfer.  So some of that has to happen tonight, since Greg is going to be out of town for the next brew.  (I'm drafting Jeannea to help me out.)

We transferred both brews (the apple and number 3) to a secondary.  This weekend, we'll transfer them both to bottles.  The apple will then go on a shelf and age until at least Thanksgiving, while beer number 3 should have just enough time to carbonate.  The goal is to have two or three of the beers ready for our Halloween party, which is October 25th.  Looks like we'll for sure have two, and possibly a third (if all goes well for beer number 4).

I was concerned about getting the apples out of the carboy after transferring the beer.  Thanks to Greg's efforts, the carboy is now clean and awaiting its next use.  It was a tedious process, involving the carboy cleaning brush, water, holding the bottle at a tilt, and then just lots of time.  If this turns out any good and we decide to make it again, I'm definitely going to cut the apples into smaller chunks  - it's highly likely I'll just dice them and not worry about chunks at all.

Beer number three (the fuller of the two carboys) will be transferred to bottles in a couple of days, so it has time to carbonate.  The apple beer can go at the same time or else sit in secondary longer, to allow more sediment to settle out (or just because we're short on time - I've been assured that it won't hurt anything).

Tonight we also pulled out a bottle of Number One to test.  I was glad to see that it's carbonated now.  (The first bottle we tried, a week after bottling, was still flat.  I was sure that the whole batch was ruined.)  Apparently, it takes longer to carbonate in bigger bottles.  Since that's mainly what I used, it would have been better not to try one at all the first week.  In knowing this, I think I'll stick to the smaller 12 ounce bottles for the next beers.  In the picture above, Greg used the light from his camera to better show the tiny bubbles of carbonation (if you click to enlarge it, you can see them pretty well).  It's a real beer!!