In 2 weeks, the family has brewed a saison on Father’s Day, racked it to a secondary, and bottled it on the 4th of July weekend; mixing a crab feast with the bottling. And, oh yeah, I was forced to do a little research at Hudson Street Stackhouse, ordering a Saison Dupont – the beer we were striving for.

On Father’s Day, my kids and I brewed an extract saison. BTW, all my children are well over 21, so no corruption of minors in this house. It took us about 3 hours – we took our time. We decided to call it Devil’s Dad since the DME weight was 6.66, a 100th of the number of the beast.

Bottling day is my 2nd favorite event in the brewing process, next to sampling that first finished beer. We had plenty of help, so the process ran smoothly. Bottlers included me, the Hopnoses, Little Adventures and my nephew-in-law (is that a thing?). To prevent sticky floors, we used the dishwasher trick (see below).

There is something very satisfying about the sensation of hand bottling homebrews. No bottles were broken or animals injured during this very satisfying process.

We bottled exactly 48 12-ounce bottles or 2 cases. Perhaps that is a good sign? Maybe someone is looking out for us and our beer, hopefully not the Devil himself.

Afterward, we celebrated by chowing down on crabs, corn, and beer on the back porch. We’ll wait about 10 days for the carbonation to kick in before cracking open a few bottles.

One chore remains. It is not totally necessary but I usually insist on adding labels. We will use Hopnose’s label design. We’ll print 9 labels on a sheet, cut each one to fit on a bottle, brush with whole fat milk (a water-soluble and cheap glue) and enjoy.

Since labeling is a bit tedious, I’m offering a little incentive to any labelers. I’ll be making poppers from this week’s harvest of jalapeños.

Cheers!

Warren