#36 and #37: Kegged and bottled

After about four hours the two beers have now been transferred into bottles and kegs. This also includes removing the labels from two cases of beer bottles. I ended up with 23 bottles of the Christmas beer and 12 bottles of the witbier (each 330 ml). The rest went into two kegs. I used 50 grams of sugar in the bottles.

The FG of the Christmas beer was 1.022, quite a bit higher than I had expected. I assume that it has reached its final gravity as it was pretty active throughout the fermentation and there is a big yeast cake at the bottom. Three weeks of primary fermentation should be plenty. This is in theory a bit dangerous as the beer may continue fermenting in the bottle if there is actually more sugar left in the beer. I'll just have to keep a look at the carbonation level over the next few weeks. Another possibility is that the sample I used to measure the starting gravity was not representative. I've seen that before, but usually the other way around with the sample being higher in gravity.

The bottles of witbier are now to be stored in room temperature for about a week or two until all the sugars have been eaten up by the yeast producing [natural] carbonation. The bottles of Christmas have been placed in the fridge as the lager beer is to be lagered for a few weeks. They are in the fridge together with the two kegs. I'm targeting a lagering temperature of 1-2C. It should be down at that temperature tomorrow morning. At that time I'll also add some more CO2 to the kegs. The witbier should be ready to be served once it has been chilled and CO2 has been added.

I had a taste of the Christmas beer after measuring the gravity. It was warm and without carbonation, so it is not exactly like the final product, but the taste was promising.