Bottling beer

For months, a 5-gallon batch of beer had either been sitting neglected in our closet or been aging to perfection, depending on your glass half full/half empty perspective. But last night our resident master brewer decided the time was right and did some bottling.

When washing and sanitizing the bottles, he got to try out his new bottle-drying tree (the red contraption in the foreground). It saves time and keeps the mess of dripping water to a minimum.

With me helping, it took about two hours to get the beer (a strong, coffee-flavored imperial stout) from a 5-gallon glass carboy into individual bottles. They'll sit in boxes for a few weeks now to age and carbonate before we can enjoy them.

Because of the ingredients needed, this homebrew was more expensive than usual. ~$90 in ingredients turned into ~512 ounces of beer, which works out to about $2.15 per beer (not counting the price of bottles, equipment, and time). That's pricier than most beers in stores but would be good in a restaurant.

The imperial stout is the eighth type of brew Mike's done since he started a few years ago. So far, we've also enjoyed:

• English brown ale
• Irish stout
• Rye IPA (India pale ale)
• Tripel
• ESB (extra special/strong bitter)
• Red/amber/Vienna/brown mix
• Cider (twice)

Next up is a Belgian dubbel. I'm looking forward to a very tasty fall!