I'm a bit neurotic when it comes to cleaning my bottles; but that's necessary if you don't want your beer to spoil; that's one of many good habits I learned from Happy Mike when I brewed with him in Yokosuka, many years ago. If that's any sort of sign, I'm gonna be producing some great beer with a little more practice.
To help ensure that I get everything out of the bottle, I fill them with water and put them into my brew kettle to warm them up. I don't usually put much soap in the bottle because I brush them, and then rinse using a sterilizing solution. If the bottles weren't rinsed well once they became empty they develop a crusty film inside. Warming them up really gets any gunk loose from the bottom of the bottle.
My kitchen sometimes gets a little overwhelmed with bottles on days like this.
Now I transfer the un-carbonated beer from the secondary fermenter into the bottling bucket to mix with priming sugar. Priming sugar doesn't generate any more alcohol but it does activate the yeast again to produce carbon dioxide which, once trapped in the bottle when capped, will pressurize and carbonate the beer.
I neglected to take any pictures while I was bottling, I was a bit busy filling and capping.
Nonetheless, I have a cabinet full of bottles that will be ready to drink somewhere between one and two weeks!
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