When you are ready to bottle your beer, sanitize your primary
fermenter and set it aside. Gather your clean bottles and caps, corn
sugar and pint of water. Sanitize your racking cane, a medium-sized
bowl, rubber tubing and bottling tube. Get two saucepans (one wide and
filled with 2 inches of water, the other small) and empty your
dishwasher. Place your label-free bottles mouth-down on the bottom
rack of your dishwasher (preferably on the posts). Run a dishwashing
cycle with no soap and the heat-dry turned on. Let the complete cycle
run and do not open the door until you are ready to bottle.
When the washing is done and the drying has begun, place your caps
into the wide saucepan and make sure they are all submerged. Place the
pan on medium-high heat until bubbles begin to form and the caps begin
to dance. Let them boil at this rate for exactly one minute and then
remove the pan from heat and let it sit undisturbed for at least ten
minutes.
Add one pint of spring water to the small sauce pan and bring it to a
slow boil. Add the 1 cup of corn sugar and mix vigorously to dissolve.
Let this mixture boil for at least ten minutes to kill any bacteria or
other organisms in the water, but make sure the water does not boil
away completely.
When the dishwasher drying cycle is complete, you will be ready to
bottle. Lift your beer onto the counter and set your sanitized
fermenter on the ground (with the lid covering as much as possible to
prevent contamination). Using your sanitized racking cane and tubing,
rack your beer from one vessel to the other using the method
prescribed above. This will further reduce sediment in your final
product and make bottling much cleaner. When the beer is 1/3
transferred, begin to slowly pour in the sugar solution to mix it into
your beer. This will give the leftover yeast something to chew on in
your bottles, which will produce carbonation.
Once racking is complete, set both ends of your cane and tubing into
the empty fermenter to keep them protected from contamination. Cover
your beer and move it to the counter. The next part is easiest to do
if you have your beer just above the dishwasher and use the lowered
dishwasher door as a work surface, but if that's not possible, you can
bottle on the floor instead. Take your pan of caps and set it near
your bottles along with your bottle capper.
Transfer your racking cane
and tubing to the full fermenter, and attach your sanitized bottling
tube to the free end of the tubing. Set your sanitized bowl on the
floor and press the end of the bottling tube against the bottom of the
bowl. Pump your racking cane to start the beer flowing and when you
have a smooth, bubble-free flow, lift the tube off the bowl. The
spring-loaded tip will close off the flow without producing bubbles,
and you are ready to bottle.
Take a bottle from the rack and slide the tube into the bottle until
the tip hits the bottom. Beer will begin to flow in quickly, so watch
the level rise and as soon as it reaches the rim, pull the tube out.
This will leave the perfect amount of air at the top, so take a clean
cap and place it on the mouth of the bottle, then carefully set the
bottle aside. Repeat this process for as many bottles as your brew
will fill, then go through and crimp your caps one by one with the
bottle capper. You should now have about 50 bottles of beer that
should be stored in a clean, dark and relatively cool place for at
least 2 weeks. The beer will only get better with age, but you'll
begin to notice a sharp increase in character by the 3-week mark.