...and continues

I succeeded in getting both batches bottled this weekend.

The Cream Ale had a final gravity of 1.012, making the ABV 4.9%
The Czech Pilsner had a final gravity 1.014, but since I never got an accurate OG, I have no idea what that makes the ABV. Live and learn.

I managed to get 2 full cases of each beer; specifically, 12 22oz bottles and 24 16 oz bottles of each.

Now begins the two-week countdown. I'm pretty sure I'm more excited than my soon-to-be sister-in-law is about her wedding, which happens to fall on tasting day. (Just kidding. I don't think it's physically possible to me more excited than my sister-in-law.)

The whole situation went surprisingly smoothly. I cleaned my bottles with oxyclean, then santized them in the dishwasher. The rest of the equipment was cleaned with OneStep and sanitized with Iodophor. The only equipment needed were the bottles and caps (of course), bottling bucket, auto siphon, and bottle filler.

I hit a small snag when I realized that the bottle filler I have didn't fit on the spigot of my bottling bucket. Luckily, I had a 4-foot length of extra siphon tubing that fit on both the spigot and the filler. I think for my next bottling day, I'll cut the tubing to a few inches so the filler sits right below the bucket, though it wasn't that much of a hardship to have the extra length.

With the bottling bucket positioned right above my dish washer, I was able to fill the bottles very quickly. The first batch (Cream Ale), was done with the help of my friend Julie while my husband and her fiance watched UFC. I bottled the Pilsner today with the help of my husband. Since I had (some minimal) experience, it went slightly faster this evening than it did yesterday, and I spilled considerably less beer on the floor.

Now I need to get some kind of labeling system together so I don't confuse the two brews.