Now that your beer is fully fermented, you should be ready for bottling. Always sterilize your bottles. This can be done numerous ways. You can clean it just the same way that you cleaned your fermenter. You can also run the bottles through the sanitary cycle of your dishwasher (detergent free), if you have one. It is also important that you have sanitized your caps for capping your beer. Is your capper ready? Have you sanitized your bottling bucket or bottle filler? If you have done these things, then you are ready. By the way, this is a good time to take your second hydrometer reading. Do this before you put new sugar into your beer.

One of the first things that you need to do is to get about a pint or so of water (or beer) and put it in a small pot. Bring it to a boil. Now take your 3/4 cup of corn sugar (a.k.a., dextrose) or 1 1/8 dry light malt extract or 1 1/4 cup dry amber extract and dissolve it in the water. Once it is dissolved and has boiled briefly, turn it off. Watch for a boil over. Let the mixture cool to about the temp of the beer. Once it has cooled, stir it in gently. You must be gentle because you don’t want too much oxygen getting into the beer.

Better Beer tip: I’m finding that using malt extract powder gives the beer more body. Of course, this is in a beer for which extra body is desirable. In my opinion, it also helps with creating a more creamy and stable head (again, this applies to beers in which this is desirable trait). I have used corn sugar, and it works well, but I now prefer malt extract powder.

Now that you’ve gotten the new sugar stirred in, get ready to bottle. By the way, this new sugar is what is going to carbonate your beer. Under normal, open circumstances you would get the conversion of sugar + yeast + oxygen = alcohol + CO2. The CO2 would normally be expelled through the airlock. However, we are now ready to trap that CO2, and this is where the bottle and the cap come in. Get your beer into the bottles as gently as possible and avoid too much splashing. You are going to want to leave a little space at the top of the bottle in order to avoid excess pressure. But you don’t want too much space because there will be too much air, creating the possibility of oxidation. Most of the time 1/2 to 1 inch or so is sufficient space. If you are in doubt, look at a closed full bottle of commercially produced beer to gauge your distance. Fill the beer to the appropriate level and cap it. Congratulations, you now have a beer that is in the process of carbonating.

Now it’s time for the waiting game again. Carbonation will take a minimum of about 2 two weeks. You have to wait at least this long until the beer gets fizzy. It may take a month or two before the beer starts developing into a really good beer. I’ve often waited two or three months until my beer really shaped into something wonderful. Six months to nine months can really show you how a beer develops. Of course, you should drink one at a week, two weeks, three weeks and so on to see how a beer changes and comes together. You may be shocked to see what a beer does over a month or two.

***Important Note*** Make sure that you are bottling your beer in brown bottles and are able to keep them in a box (or similar medium) and out of the sun. You don’t want to have beer that gets skunky because you failed to follow a couple of simple rules.

***I would be remiss not to mention that when you are bottling your beer you should draw off a pint or two in a glass. Look at the beer, smell the beer, and taste the beer. Even though it is not carbonated, you should really see what it is like at this time. A bottle or two should be no skin off your teeth. Enjoy the whole experience.

In our next article, we are going to talk about ways to age and improve your beer that are simple yet impacting.

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