Well after driving 5 hours back to the good 'ole U S of A, I prepared to bottle! With some help from my dad we managed to get 41 bottles of beer and only a very minor spill. Thanks everyone for your support and reassurances through out my first batch. I didn’t think to sample any of my product as we were filling bottles but it sure smelled tastey!
I figure in 3 or 4 days I’ll start my 2nd kit, and I have my first hard cider experiment fermenting as we speak. And some very anxious friends and family waiting to sample lol.
Don’t worry to much. I am sure kegging is easier but I have been bottling since I started brewing about 4 years ago and really don’t mind it that much. It takes me a little over an hour to bottle 5 gallons and they are much easier to give away as gifts that way. you can even personalize the bottles with some label paper and a decent printer. plus you can squirrel away some bottles to see how they develop over time.