Winter Solstice - bottling

When I ran out of time, I decided to name the imperial chocolate coffee stout "Winter Solstice." The darkest of beers for the darkest of days.

Ultimately I opted against oaking. No regrets. After four weeks in the secondary, it was time to bottle.

First, I needed to make some coffee, which I would blend with the beer in the bottling bucket. In a sanitized bowl, I mixed 4 oz coarsely ground dark roast coffee with 32 oz bottled water, then covered. Let that sit for a couple of days, then strained through a sanitized strainer into a sanitized pitcher. The yield was less than 32 oz, more like 24 oz, but it smelled great, and cold-brewing would eliminate the tannin flavor of hot brewing.

Boiled my bottle caps for 10 minutes. Boiled 3/4 cup corn sugar in 1 pint of water for 10 minutes. Strained the caps through a sanitized colander. Brought the sugar solution down to temperature, then added it to the bottling bucket. Added the coffee.

Brought the carboy upstairs. Cocoa powder remnants ringed the container right above the surface of the beer, which was a deep black color with dark brown bubbles on top. There was a ton of sediment on the bottom, probably a combination of expired yeast and more cocoa powder.

Racked the beer into the bottling bucket. No splashing. Ultimately yielded about 4 1/2 gallons, which was a little lower than I expected given that I was adding the coffee. But still about in line with what I usually get.

Bottled. Uneventful. Got 49 bottles plus a tick more that I sampled rather than capping. No splashing, no problems with sediment. All went well.

Final gravity was 1.022. Again on target. That's a high number in general, but expected for the style, and so I was happy.

Sampled it. Tastes great. A deep, rich chocolate aroma girded by an unmistakable coffee scent. Velvety mouthfeel. Not sweet at all, very bitter, but the predominant flavor is of cocoa with the coffee as an accent. Really, really good. Looking forward to sampling a finished bottle in a couple of weeks. Probably should give it three weeks before trying one, but may not be able to wait that long.

Next I'll need to make some labels. It will be a shame to give so much of this away. Maybe we'll do four-packs this year. It's a high-gravity beer, after all.