Pre-Cut Bottled

Pre-Cut Ale with Fir has been done fermenting for about a day. That is, the airlock no longer re-rises when I push the lid of the bucket to get the CO2 out of there. Done enough for me.

I bottled it today. I am...um...how can I say this...curious to see how it will come out. The FG is 1.007. BeerSmith told me it would be 1.011. Maybe the 0.50 lbs of Honey gave it that extra burst of fermentability. The flavor is sort of sourish, and thin. It reminds me of the Sparkling Maple Wine I made this summer, which had a FG of 1.000. It was gross. At least this has a smell and taste of piney fir bough to keep it interesting beyond the pure alcohol of the rest of the flavor. I am considering the possibility that there is contamination. I used a half an open packet of dry yeast from a few months ago, so it could have been contaminated. This would explain the low FG, since wild yeast are a bit less picky about what they'll eat. It could also explain the sour-ish taste, since the notorious characteristic of wild yeast is an acidic fermentation byproduct.

At any rate, I got about fifteen 22-ounce bottles out of it. I dosed it pretty good with corn sugar - 3.25 oz, to get around 3 volumes of CO2. In a word, fizzy. Think Champagne or cellared Gueuze. Time will tell, but I expect to have this one around for a while waiting for it to "mature" in the bottles.