So I have bottled the last of the beer that I had fermenting in the house. Sure I am happy to have the process over with and be that much closer to enjoying the final product, but I suspect that the itch to brew some more will come along pretty soon. After splitting the original batch as I racked it to secondary, I let the unaltered half sit for about ten days before bottling and let this half continue to sit. After sitting in secondary for about three and a half weeks (a record for me), it was time to go into bottles.
Now on to the bottling details for the bourbon vanilla half . . .
As usual, there are not too many additional details to share with the bottling process (especially since these few bottles went smoothly), but if you have more interest in how it happens check out the video for the Blueberry Chocolate Stout bottling. There was nothing to add at bottling this time, but that video will give you the gist of the excitement that is bottling.
The evidence left behind by the vanilla bean.
Since it was only half of a batch, I boiled a light ½ cup (rather than ¾ cup) of corn sugar in 1 cup of water (instead of 2), cooled it, then added it to the bottling bucket before racking the beer over. This was all after rinsing the sanitized bottles and bottling equipment and allowing them to air-dry a bit. For this one I used a handful of 22 ounce bottles and the remainder went into the 12 ouncers. This felt like a good one to go into the larger bottles and it ultimately made for fewer bottles to fill (which is always good).
Taking the final reading
The final hydrometer reading left it with a specific gravity of about 1.015 which was a bit higher than I was hoping for and gave it a final ABV of roughly 4.94%. If those numbers are still accurate with the inclusion of bourbon into the mix I don’t know, but I would expect that it changes the game a bit. Something to do research on for the next time.
Not technically black, but very tasty!
The aroma was lightly earthy and sweet with slight bourbon warmth and a faint bit of vanilla (as expected). After drinking the sample I was impressed how the flavors blended smoothly with some light dryness and bitterness at the finish. It seems to be a good variation on the control half of the batch.
Now comes the waiting
Now comes the difficult part as I have to wait for it to condition and become carbonated. I will definitely be sampling this one in a week just to check in on the progress. If it goes well I think a full batch of this (with the appropriate tweaks) will be in my brewing future.
Stay tuned for the official review!
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