We cleaned the absolute shit out of our saved up bottles, and we decided not to worry about removing the labels; they’ll come off just fine in time. We soaked our bottles in sanitizer for about an hour, rinsed them off, dried them, then repeated the process, but the second time, we used a carboy/bottle washer. Man, the bottle washer sure does a good job, even in our low-pressure kitchen sink.

Instead of priming sugar, we used dry malt. I wasn’t sure where I’d read it, but I remember reading something that said to use dried malt instead of priming sugar. We mixed it with about a pint of boiled water, poured it into our sanitized bottling bucket, and siphoned our beer into the bottling bucket. The siphoning went smoothly and didn’t introduce hardly any extra air into the beer.

Randy bottled, I capped. It only took about ten minutes or so to get them all bottled. Of course, we poured one out for testing purposes, just to be sure what we did make was actually beer.

The first couple sips of our first brew were actually already slightly carbonated. I was expecting some really flat beer, but it actually made me burp a little. Surprised, was I. We also popped one open the second day, and I think I should have refrigerated it because the head came screaming out. Day two after bottling and already good head and carbonation… fine by me! And the beer was good. It was very good!

Grolsch bottles let you test the carbonation and you can still reseal it.

Bunch of clean empty bottles ready for my first home brew!

My first brew bottled!

Me with our first home brew, May Be Ale, we called it.