Earlier today I bottled my first batch of homwbrew and things seemed to go good. The real hard part was yesterday when I had to clean out and get rid of the labels of 50 bottles. Doing 6-10 bottles at a time wouldn’t be an issue but doing so many at once took a little while. Now I just need to stay patient for a few weeks and hopefully I will have some good beer. After all is said and done I think I will be happy with it, and I really had a good time doing it so I am happy.
A couple of thoughts on things I will do different next time. First is make sure to make sure I fully mix the wort as it goes into the fermenter to make sure it gets enough oxygen. I also need to pay more attention to my OG reading as on this batch I didn’t pay much attention to it. Also as I bring the wort down to fermentation temp. I need to mix it so I can get more accurate readings. I think I will do one more kit and then start working from recipes.
Dont stress it too much. You’ll get a system down, and stremline everything. Besides, worst case scenario, your beer isn’t world class. But it is YOUR beer. It’ll be awesome, don’t worry.
Wow removing 50 lables @ once would be a no-go for me too much of a waste of time. I purchased bottles from my brew store. I am saving and cleaning my remaining store bought sixers tho. I did the same thing on my 1st batch - not mixing and aerating the wort enough. Finished brewing my second batch Saturday and made sure I thoroughly mixed and shook the bucket. nice air lock action this time.
Tasted my 1st batch yesterday (lager kit - saflager) which i will call aleger (10 days in bottle) and was surprised that it looked/tasted as good as it did - drank the whole bottle!. Clarity and carbonation looked better than some commercial brews i have had. nice foaming head w/ good retention. beer had a slight sulfer aroma probalbly due to low wort aeration and higher than suggested initial pitching & ferm temp. nice malty/hop flavor. i am sure the beer will improve even more with longer bottle aging.
Remember to rinse out those bottles soon after emptying them so you don’t have to spend much time cleaning them out next time. Get that second batch going.