bottling day: EPA

the good :
- the quick-release hose attachment that i devised last week for my sink came in mighty handy. originally intended for in-place refills of the 3li water filter that sits in my fridge, the hose also made itself useful for filling up sanitizing buckets, rinsing out bottling buckets, and ... uh, no, just those two things.
- bottling is, in my experience, a totally eristic experience, regardless of whether the brew is dedicated to that particular deity. today was no exception. my kitchen smells of beer because my bottling wand is unreliable and prone to spewing beer all over the place.
- i filled up a grolsch bottle and used the original cap. yay!
- i re-used an orval bottle. orval bottles are hecka-cool lookin.
- i thought up just-in-time an appropriate glyph for the bottlecaps to differentiate them from the previous four beers.
- i re-organized my beer closet. now i have an archival case, though it hasn't got any EPA in it yet. found some of batch #1 and put it in the fridge for guests (one guest in particular).
- the beer is chocolatey (how? shouldn't be), malty, candy-ish, and yummy.

the bad :
- those aren't the flavors i was going for. it tastes very much under-hopped and way too sweet. hopefully the beer will change in the bottle into something closer to my target. the silver lining to this cloud is that now i'm actually motivated to pursue this recipe more scientifically. i'd like to come out with what i intended (worked for the previous beer) and if, after it's aged a little, it's still way off i will tweak the recipe and methods to see if i can get closer to target. sadly, i may have to wait until winter to get the appropriate temps.
- one of the bottles broke while i was trying to pull it out of the dishwasher. that's what you get for bumping into an orval bottle, youse!

the ugly :
- i could not for the life of me cap my KWAK bottle, which is a shame, because the bottle fuckin says KWAK on it. how cool is that? also it's honkin-big, and has a really cool shape. likewise, i could not cap my lindeman's bottle, which has a similar shape but is smaller.
- one of my gulden draak bottles had mold in the bottom and had to be tossed. ack.
- i think i need a better way of sanitizing the bottles. the dishwasher is nice and easy but it always leaves condensation inside the bottles. it hasn't had a big impact on beer flavor or sanitation but it makes me nervous nonetheless.