*Phew*!
What a day! We have bottled, racked, manhandled and slung about 14 gallons of brews today! Cleaned & sanitized 2x 5-gallon carboys, 4x 1-gallon carboys, and about 75x bottles of various description. Not to mention all the support gear, most of which required repeated attention between steps.
First, the Honolulu Hefeweizen was ready to bottle. We sanitized the bottles last night, only had to clear the auto-siphon to get rolling. This was our first experience capping, and we have one of those 2-handed jobbies. Never again. Next trip to the LHBS, we get the Cadillac model table-top capper!
Then, I had my 3 weekend cysers to bottle. Those went into Grolsch bottles, with brand-new gaskets. (Those new gaskets are a BITCH to get on!) Also, my JAO was ready for bottling. Also into the bottles of Grolsch.
Which left me 4 1-gallon carboys to clean. And into them, I racked my Antipodal Mead from Papazians' book. We racked the 1st gallon onto some fresh strawberry guave juice, the 2nd onto fresh starfruit, the 3rd onto fresh strawberries, and the last onto medium toasy French oak cubes from Stavin. The remainder found its way into 3 Grolsch bottles.
Seemed a great way to celebrate my anniversary!
Of course, now I have these 2 empty 5-gallon carboys hanging around... :
What a day! We have bottled, racked, manhandled and slung about 14 gallons of brews today! Cleaned & sanitized 2x 5-gallon carboys, 4x 1-gallon carboys, and about 75x bottles of various description. Not to mention all the support gear, most of which required repeated attention between steps.
First, the Honolulu Hefeweizen was ready to bottle. We sanitized the bottles last night, only had to clear the auto-siphon to get rolling. This was our first experience capping, and we have one of those 2-handed jobbies. Never again. Next trip to the LHBS, we get the Cadillac model table-top capper!
Then, I had my 3 weekend cysers to bottle. Those went into Grolsch bottles, with brand-new gaskets. (Those new gaskets are a BITCH to get on!) Also, my JAO was ready for bottling. Also into the bottles of Grolsch.
Which left me 4 1-gallon carboys to clean. And into them, I racked my Antipodal Mead from Papazians' book. We racked the 1st gallon onto some fresh strawberry guave juice, the 2nd onto fresh starfruit, the 3rd onto fresh strawberries, and the last onto medium toasy French oak cubes from Stavin. The remainder found its way into 3 Grolsch bottles.
Seemed a great way to celebrate my anniversary!
Of course, now I have these 2 empty 5-gallon carboys hanging around... :