Living the Larabie Life: Homebrew 101

Corey likes to homebrew and the kids like to help. They are actually learning a bit about chemistry in the process so that's a good thing. The most recent batch is an amber ale that is a Phat Tyre clone. They have already created the brew, allowed it to ferment and now it is time for bottling. After this you just let it age a bit. The kids wanted to help with the bottling so I took some pictures of the process.

First, Corey brought the brew up to the kitchen. Here you can see my very happy husband with the 5 gallon bladder of brew. Behind him you can see that Morgan is already working on step 1.

Here is a close up of what Morgan was working on...sanitizing the bottles. The bottles are put into the sanitizing solution and needs 2 minutes of contact. If you notice the necks of the bottles are down in the solution while the bottoms have floated up. This happens and Corey ensures that the bottles are fully sanitized by allowing them to sit this way for 2 minutes and then putting solution into the bottles so that the deep inside has 2 minutes of contact as well.

Corey fills the first bottle. Then he starts showing the kids how. This is the first time he has used the bladder with the spigot for fermenting, usually he uses a bucket, so filling the bottles is a little different.

Here is Morgan filling some bottles. She figured out that the best way for her was to be on her knees so she could be eye level with the spigot to ensure good filling...and not overflowing.

Alex takes his turn learning how to fill the bottles. You can see Corey showing him where the beer is in the bottle and that they need to put some more in it.

Morgan decides to be brave and taste the beer. Here is her reaction. Think she likes it?

Now time for capping. Morgan has helped cap before and so she's an "old pro".

Alex is taught how to cap the bottles by Morgan and she gives him a helping hand by holding the bottle while he tries his hand at it. It takes some oomph to get the caps on.