Bottling Day

A month has passed since I first blogged about the birth of my 4th handcrafted creation. At that time, Unnamed #4, had just been boiled and transferred to the primary fermentor to begin it's journey. Fast forward to this afternoon and "bottling day" for the newest of my handcrafted ales...Blue Loon Belgian Wit. Truly a spring/summer ale, the Belgian Witbiers are traditionally a little cloudy and carry notes of coriander, bitter orange peel, and various other aromatics. A priming solution of 3/4 cup of cane sugar boiled in 1 pint of water was added to the bottling bucket and allowed to cool. Meanwhile, the siphoning and bottling equipment was sanitized. Because cleaning bottles can take quite a bit of time I actually did that yesterday. When the priming solution had cooled a little I siphoned the beer from the secondary fermentor to the bottling bucket and gently mixed the two together taking caution not to splash the solution. Once mixed, the bottling bucket was elevated and the bottles filled. For this batch I decided to use my liter EZ -cap bottles along with the smaller pint versions. Today's yield was just shy of 16 liters (or a little more than 1.5 cases). Two weeks of conditioning in the bottles and then the Blue Loon will be ready for consumption. Cheers!