Last weekend, I had a blast brewing my first batch of homebrew, it’s an Irish Stout and I can’t wait to taste the finished product.  It’s been fermenting all week and all signs point to it being a great fermentation.  I brewed it last Saturday and when I woke up on Sunday, the wort was was bubbling out through the airlock.  I had to quickly rig a blow off bucket which was a fun learning experience by itself.

Tonight, I siphoned the beer out of the carboy and into a white plastic brewing bucket that had a spigot for bottling near the bottom.  I added the priming sugar to two cups of water and boiled it for 5 minutes before adding it and stirring it into the beer.  I believe I did this backwards, I think I should have put the priming sugar solution into the bucket first and then siphoned the beer into it and let it mix that way.  But, live and learn, hopefully it doesn’t make much of a difference.

My main concern is that I thought I had 5 gallons of wort in the carboy when I started and I know you lose some with the blow off bucket but I only ended up siphoning 3.5 gallons into the bucket.  I left a little bit in the bottom of the carboy with the spent yeast.  I hope I didn’t mess up my initial measurements and not add enough water.  Only time will tell.

I had already cleaned and sanitized my bottles earlier this morning so I was ready to go.  I got all of the beer bottled and capped.  I ended up with just about 2 cases of beer.  I put them in a quiet place to carbonate and the rest is now out of my hands.

Now I just have to figure out what I want to brew next!