Bottling the baby beer: a family affair

So, a couple weeks ago we brewed our baby beer (by which I mean the beer we'll be passing out when our third child is born, not a beer FOR babies). Yesterday--two weeks and a day before the due date--we bottled five gallons and kegged the other five. The traditional Hefeweizen finished at 1014 and tasted surprisingly clean; there was some clove and just a little banana, but frankly next time I might ferment at 66°F instead of 64°F just to get a little more of that classic Hefe character.

Since we've been kegging for over four years now, I tend to forget what a pain bottling is. Fortunately, I had a little help. Initially, Jonas helped me load bottles into the dishwasher:


Then, after the bottles were cleaned, Dorrie helped sanitize them before I filled and capped them:


All in all, we ended up with 49 12-oz. bottles and one 750 mL bomber (which we'll take to the hospital with us to celebrate). Now we just have to wait for the baby to make her grand entrance!