So here I am, anxiously waiting for my freshly bottled nectar to be ripen in the bottles. I suppose I should back up a week and explain how the bottling process went. 

For some reason I was under the impression that this pale ale only needed to ferment for 1 week...no secondary fermentation, no second week in the primary fermenter. The yeast was very active the first few days and the whole thing seemed pretty calm for several days in a row after that. Stupidly, I based my decision to bottle on these observations. I do have a hydrometer, but I'm not really sure how to use it properly, and I decided that shooting from the hip was OK for this first round. 

I learned from other online posts that I could have risked extreme pressure build up in the bottles had the fermentation still been happening, leading to "bottle bombs"...a somewhat undesirable version of a "works bombs" with added glass shrapnel. However, I've had no problems so far, so I think I am in the clear for the most part. 

The most exciting part about bottling is the moderately high level of stress involved with trying to make sure everything is sterile. Not only does the task carry a certain amount of worry, it goes without saying that it's a pain in the rear to clean 40+ bottles. 

This is a rather unpleasant look into the fermenter. Fortunately, a lot of the hop sediment was pushed to the walls of the bucket. I was actually very pleased with the the look of the beer as it was coming through the siphoning tube. 

I tried to get a shot of the relative clarity of the beer as it was flowing, but I can see now that this picture sucks. 

So yada yada yada, all of the bottles are filled and stored away in a dark spot at room temperature. I was definitely not going to rip labels off of all of the bottles, but eventually I would like to put a little effort into making some of my own labels...if for no other than to just distinguish more easily between my home brew and some beer that I might actually want to drink. 

 

*Footnote: I tried a beer about 4 days into the bottle conditioning phase because I wanted to learn and be aware of the changes that take place over time. It was palatable in that I finished it without any issues; however, it was basically raw and "green" as expected. I'm crossing my fingers that it will round out nicely into a mild pale ale with some pop. We'll see.