The Long Awaited Day: Beer Bottling!

Faithful blog followers, do you remember this post about brewing day four months ago?

Well today was bottling day! Huzzah!!!

So we took the carboy of beer that has been sitting in the closet fermenting since October...

 and managed to siphon it into the white bucket with a spout next to it

(after a lot of sanitizing of bottles and caps and tubes).

Then I (wo)manned the spout and filled the bottles while Clay capped them.

And here is the result:

and again in the cupboard...

It's an Imperial Stout and it measured at 8.9% ABV (alcohol by volume).  

Becky the Snail Mailer posted a really good idea for a name on my original posting: Bête Noire, the black beast.

I'm not using that name, but it is quite similar to the name I finally arrived at.

Three Dark Mules Imperial Stout

named after the three mules you see on the sidebar,

Molly, Elmer and Livee.

This is in tribute to them because I miss them a lot. This summer my parents had to sell them because of health issues with my dad.  It was a hard choice, but with another Wisconsin winter on the horizon, it would have been too much for my parents.  So they were sold, all three together to a farm an hour or so away from where my parents live.

Hopefully when I go to visit my parents next I can also visit the mules.  Their new owners use them to give trail rides, so perhaps I'll even be able to ride my sweet Livee again.

But, tonight is a night for celebration, and I'm doing that with a delicious cocktail, a Martinez (a precursor to the Martini), and a marvelous letter from a newish penpal.

Have a good night!