Total output: Five 64 oz growlers, one 32 oz 1/2 growler, and six 22 oz bombers.
Before bottling even began, I figured out I would need a second bucket for sanitizing bottles and equipment. I mean, if you are going to use the bottling bucket to hold the beer you've racked from the secondary fermenter, that leaves only the brew kettle as a sanitizer reservoir while you're bottling. Note to self: always make sure the kettle's spigot is closed before starting to fill with six gallons of sanitizer solution.
The brew tastes like a flat, but very hoppy session beer at this stage. If it carbonates properly in the bottles, I'm confident this will be quite drinkable. Maybe not the most complex brew ever made, but it will be actual beer that I made. How cool is that?!
On the minus side, I'm pretty sure this beer will be hazy/cloudy. I was late to add the Whirlfloc pellet (related to Irish Moss) during the boil to draw out proteins that cause haze. To try and make up for that omission, I used isinglass forty-eight hours before bottling, with the beer well-chilled in the garage. Maybe some of the haze will settle out as the bottles condition.
I lost about three quarts in the boil, racking to secondary, and testing for specific gravity. From an initial six gallon boil, I ended up with just over four gallons for bottling. This discovery backs my earlier suspicion about boil off. And it has given me a good reason to mark my carboys all at the 5 gallon mark.
My choosing mixed sizes for bottling is an experiment to see how the different vessels support carbonation. I'm curious to see if the size of the bottle has any affect on the beer's taste. Plus, carrying a growler to share with a friends is easier than dealing with several bottles.
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