Home Brewed Beer: The Smoked Porter, Part 3

When we last left you, we were storing our beer for a week to let it ferment. After a week in the primary fermentation, we racked it to the secondary fermentation bucket. Basically, that means, we siphoned the beer from one bucket to another. Don't forget to sterilize everything before transferring!

We left the beer in the secondary for two more weeks, letting the remaining yeast do it's thing. 

After that, it's time to bottle. You want to give your beer a couple weeks in the bottle to carbonate. Bottling was was pretty simple.

Sterilize everything one more time. Don't forget the caps!

Bring 2 cups of water to a boil and add the the priming sugar to the water. 

Let that boil for 5 minutes.

Remove that from the heat and let it cool completely.

Once that cools, add it to your newly sterilized bucket.

Now, siphon the beer from your secondary bucket back into the other bucket. You want to get the beer off the remaining dead yeast at the bottom.

Give the beer and sugar a good stir.

And, check your final gravity. This tells you the actual amount of alcohol by volume.

Now for bottling...


We soaked our bottles in soapy water, then ran them through the dishwasher on heated dry.

Using the pour spout on your bucket, fill the bottles to about an inch to an inch and a half from the top.

Using the handy cap crimper tool, pop the tops on your wonderful concoction.

After that, let your bottled beer hang out for 2-3 weeks.

Zack would like to add that if you do buy a kit and decide to bottle your own home brew, ignore the timeline for fermentation in your instructions and follow our timeline. One week in the primary, two weeks in the secondary, and at least two weeks in the bottles.


Enjoy!