I got my brown ale bottled up today, after it had spent about 3 days sitting with a gravity of about 1.012 at 19.5°C. Having dropped from about 1.044, that gives an approximate ABV of about 4%. I added enough sugar, dissolved and briefly boiled in a small amount of water and then rapidly cooled, to carbonate to about 1.9 Volumes of CO₂. That should give a bit more bubble than my previous brew but still not be anywhere near as fizzy as the first one and is in the target range for the style of beer.

It was a fairly small brew. I was aiming for up to 7.5l and, with losses along the way (mainly from filtering off beds of sediment at various stages), it was down to 6l before bottling and I ended up with ten full bottles and one that I topped up with about 25% water before capping. That last one will be interesting; it could be undrinkable but it might also prove to be a technique for extending a short length brew by creating a weaker session beer.

As you would expect, one of the other causes of loss was drawing off a sample to test. Initial indications are that it is very much the type of result I had hoped for. Now the wait until mid-October, when it should be bottle-conditioned enough to give it a proper test.