The corn sugar and caps I ordered ended up shipping late, so we were forced to wait an extra day before bottling our American Ale. While an extra day may not seem like much, the effect it has on homebrew can be disastrous depending on your recipe.

Our ale seems to be unaffected, but it is always good to bottle your beer at the precise time it’s ready. We ended up with 72 bottles this round, which will be ready for tasting in about 10 days.

Many visitors to BEER dad ask me “how do you know when your beer is ready to bottle?” and some even ask how exactly you bottle it, so here are a few tips on when and how to bottle beer.
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I noticed yesterday our porter was ready for bottling, so we spent the evening sanitizing, priming, filling, and capping the bottles. It’s a lot of work, but worth it because we ended up with just under 70 bottles for only $30.

My porter now gets to condition for about a week before I raid it. You could drink some now, but it would be too sugary to enjoy. It will end up almost exactly 5% abv and slightly darker than the picture a few posts below.

We bottled the amber bock last night and are now patiently awaiting it’s arrival in our fridge.  In the process I was forced to finish my bitter so I would have enough bottles.

I will be beta tasting the bock later this week and will be researching how to make a good wine because my and BEER mom’s 2nd anniversary is just around the corner.

My amber bock will be about 6% alcohol when it’s ready.