Batch updates

I've bottled 13 gallons of beer in the last week alone!
5 gallons of Imperial IPA
5 gallons of Belgian Grand Cru/Tripel
3 gallons of Blackberry Hefeweizen

I used Munton's "drops" as my bottling sugar for the Hefeweizen and am interested to see how it will turn out. After 3 days in the bottle, I checked one and noticed that all of the "drops" (they come as small pills or tablets of sugar) had broken apart, but a good bit of sludge at the bottom indicates that they still need to fully dissolve into the beer.

I'm a little disappointed with the 2 gallons of Blackberry Hefeweizen I've bottled so far. The blackberry taste seems to overwhelm the hefeweizen taste, but not in a good way. I hope with more time in the bottle that this beer will mellow out and the flavors will marry well.

I was very happy with the tasting of both the Imperial IPA and the Belgian at bottling. I have high hopes for both. I went ahead and tasted one of the Imperials last night (only 5 days after bottling) and it was well short of full carbonation, although it did have some bubbles to speak of. In any case, the flavor was right on for what I want, so I believe when it's ready it will be great! For the belgian, I laid out some money and bottled them in true belgian style with the proper bottles and corks and wire caps. A good number of these will be given away to my friend for his wedding. I'm also planning to age quite a few and give him more on his first anniversary. I also laid out some money for labels from MyOwnLabels.com, and I've very pleased with the results. I got both body and neck labels for this batch, and it makes the bottles look quite good indeed. I'll post the pictures later.

I have also purchased similar labels for other batches (Pale Ale, Irish Stout, Hefeweizen, among others) and will continue to do so. When applied to a clean and dry bottle, these labels stick very well and really make the beer bottle look classy. The only down side is that they're somewhat expensive, adding about $0.40 per bottle. I know this doesn't sound like much, but for some batches, that's as much as the cost for the beer inside! That said, I'll probably look for an alternate solution that will allow me to print the labels at home. For a special batch, though, the professional quality of these labels is sure to please!