Beer Scientist: Spring Maibock Finish and Bottling
After letting the maibock ferment in secondary fermentation for four weeks, fermentation had stopped and it was time to bottle the batch. I moved the carboy to the counter and started preparing a priming sugar bath.
A priming sugar bath is two cups of water and 4.5 oz. of priming sugar, in this case corn sugar. I boiled the water, added in the sugar, and let the bath boil for another minute, to make sure that the sugar was fully dissolved.
I cooled the priming sugar bath down to 80 degrees F. so that I could add the bath to my maibock batch.
To calculate the Alcohol By Volume, I took a final sample of the batch and got a final gravity reading.
The final gravity of the batch is 1.010, which makes the ABV of this beer: (1.065-1.010) x 131 = 7.2%, a fairly strong Maibock. I returned the sample and added in the cooled priming sugar bath to the bottling bucket.
I siphoned the batch into the bottling bucket, which also mixed the batch with the priming sugar bath.
As you can see, I was able to separate the batch from sediment that accumulated during secondary fermentation. Sediment is a mixture of proteins created by fermentation and other particles that existed in the batch. Separating the batch away from the sediment gives the maibock a cleaner taste and a clearer beer.
I prepared the bottling bucket for bottling. I placed a drip pan under the bottling tube to catch any drips that occur during bottling. I also sanitized two cases of 12 oz. bottles.
I started filling each bottle up to the rim with the bottling tube. I filled as many bottles as possible, which turned out to be all 48 bottles.
Using a butterfly bottle capper, I pressed metal bottle caps on the bottles, creating an air tight seal on the bottles.
I then stuck the bottles in the pantry to age and carbonate for three weeks.
This marks the end of Finishing and Bottling of the Spring Maibock. Come back next Sunday to see what batch I’m making next!
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