So after consulting with my boss about the conditions of the room where I put my Mr. Beer keg/fermenter, I realized that it was too cold. It didn’t look like anything was happening for a day or 2. The room was my pantry, which is perfect as far as no light is concerned, but apparently at about 60°F, it was too cold. He said it should be closer to 70°F. So I moved it to the top of my refrigerator. As we keep the apartment about 67, it should work better (especially since heat rises). So all last week, I opened the curtains and blinds to let the sun in to heat the apartment when we were at work (programmable thermostat automatically turns the heat off, but the sun does a great job).
After a day on the fridge, I noticed a bunch of bubbles had formed at the top of the beer. Those bubbles remained and I checked when we got back from our ski trip this weekend and they’re gone. I imagine that means it’s done fermenting. Unfortunately, I now need to make sure I have enough bottles and I need to get some caps and a capper (my boss said he has an extra capper that will be included with the stuff he gives me, hopefully I’ll get that this week). So the beer will remain in the fermenter for another couple days while I await the capper. Then it’s time to bottle. I’ve heard cleaning the bottles is the biggest pain in the ass. I don’t look forward to that, but I do look forward to drinking this beer.
Actually, cleaning the bottles is not that bad. You really just need to rinse them out thoroughly, unless there’s sediment from the beer/yeast, then you just swish a brush around in there really quick to get rid of it.
After rinsing/cleaning the bottles, if you have a dish washer put them in on the hottest cycle. This should thoroughly sanitize (or even sterilize if it’s hot enough) the bottles.
If you don’t have a dish washer, then you need to soak the bottles in a sanitizer solution, or sterilize them in your oven.
What I find to be a pain is getting the labels off (assuming you’re recycling commercial bottles). Some labels come right off after a short soak, others you can soak overnight and still have to scrape and scrub the paper and glue off the bottle.
Here’s a question… I’ve seen on BA that you shouldn’t just put them in the dishwasher (or maybe it was in the Mr. Beer book regarding the plastic bottles). I won’t put the plastic ones in the dishwasher, but will the glass. Do they need to be upside down and do I just run it without dish detergent?
Definitely upside down - and without detergent. You’re really just using the heat to kill any germs/bacteria that may be on the bottles.