Bottling beer and reducing yeast creep in the fridge

Hello there,

I returned from the Congo yesterday, my head as usual has not quite caught up with my body, so what better to focus on than brewing related shenannigans? Todays task was split into three sections.

First was to split the 15 gallon of Saison. I drew off a 5 gallon batch which went into my all time fave FV. A 5 gallon glass piece of scientific glassware borrowed from a lab in the 60's and given to me in the 90's. I used it as a change storage jar for years before cleaning it out,fitting a thermometer strip and giving it a more noble purpose.

As you can see from the first picture i have a test tube of Brett C and a 1/2 Kg of extra light spray malt. Personally i feel that spraymalt is a bit of a cheat but in this instance it is the perfect tool for the job. I added the spraymalt to the glass FV and started the run off from the conical FV.

The spraymalt clumped up but thats not a problem as i added half of a shaken test tube of Brett C to the fermenter so i'm sure it will make a good start on the spraymalt. I have not used any brett's before and must admit i am taken with the fruity highly strung zinginess of it.

The end result is a continuing experiment which will chunter away in the spare bedroom.

The second half of the brett c test tube was placed to the side while i address part 2 of today's task 'the taming of the yeast bottles'. I have a few yeast samples which were moved from one fridge to another as they were taking up too much space.

I have Duvel, Chimay,Saison Dupont, a few various US05 gens and now Brett C. I bought a few test tubes from Hop & Grape shop at the same time as the spraymalt. I used just a smidgen of the spray malt in each test tube, and decanted the best part of each yeast sample i had into each of the 50ml tubes. It felt wrong to be pouring the remainder away but in the end i had some control of the fridge back!

I aimed for a 3 carb volume profile on this beer for part 3 of the task. Luckily, my son offered to help so we rattled through the bottling quickly. Once completed i had a look in the FV. There was basically nothing left of all those KG's of apricots and candi.

The apricot shells fell apart at a touch and this is the result of one hand stir.

This Dupont is one aggressive yeast!

He's sixteen and he likes to lift weights and brew beer with his old Dad. I feel very lucky to know him!

While shopping at hop & grape i also bought a few plastic corks and wire cages. I am aiming for a champagne like experience with this beer and i think i'm getting there!

This is the best label i have ever done, seriously cool!

The Saison has been like no other beer i have made. It fermented down to 1.000. No kidding, there has been a hydrometer floating in the FV since the beginning. I was gobsmacked when i looked in yesterday and there was all that beer trying to kid on it was water! Lots of zesty fruit and very dry so far from the sample i tried. We are off to chill at our apartment on Monday so we will see what a few weeks conditioning does to the beer. Look for an update at the end of July. Cheers!