Yeast poop disaster (or not)

Some weeks back I started working on our "Sweet Seduction" Peach Apricot Ale. The image to the left (click to view larger) shows the labels we've had printed (they are reusable vinyl; the pink border shows where they peel off from the backing). The design was the idea of my lovely wife, so don't go calling me a perve.

ANYway... I started with a Blonde Ale recipe. Did the initial sorcery with steeping grains, boiling hops, adding malt, yeast, and setting aside for a week in a big bucket Primary Fermenter. I'd ordered some Vintner's Harvest Peach Puree and Apricot Puree all the way from Oregon (just south of where we lived for years in Vancouver, Washington); this stuff gets great reviews and is quite pure. So after a week in the Primary, I siphoned the semi-beer into another big bucket the Secondary Fermenter. Approximately two and a half pounds each of the Peach Puree and Apricot Puree had been poured into the bottom of the Fermenter before siphoning the ale from the Primary into the Secondary. With all that new sugar, the yeast had a feasting good time. I checked the airlock every day, and could see that the yeast was digesting those sugars for 3 weeks! In case you didn't know, beer is basically yeast poop. The yeast digests the sugars, craps out alcohol and CO2, the airlock lets the CO2 out and we keep the alcohol. And some solid junk falls to the bottom of the bucket Fermenter.

So far so good. When the bubbling in the airlock had pretty much stopped after 3 weeks, it was time to bottle. What I should have done was to siphon the beer from the Secondary Fermenter back to the Primary (which should have a spigot near the bottom). This leaves the solids in the bottom of the Secondary Fermenter, and allows the happy brewer to stir in a little syrup for the yeast to digest in each bottle to give the beer some fizz (CO2).

But I'd been having a beer or two when I first started the Blonde Ale, and I started it in the bucket that doesn't have the spigot (the one that should be the Secondary Fermenter). So when I "racked" the beer to the Secondary Fermenter ...oops! ...I was really siphoning the beer into the bucket that has the siphon and that should have been the Primary Fermenter. I don't know if this makes sense to you, but the point is that when I bottled this weekend, I should have siphoned the beer from the bucket with the spigot to the bucket without the spigot, cleaned the bucket with the spigot, then siphoned the beer back to the one with the spigot, stirred in the "priming sugar" (now a syrup after dissolving it in a little warm water), and then filled the bottles using a little hose attached to the spigot. I wasn't thinking clearly, and didn't do any siphoning, I did gently stir in the syrup of priming sugar, and we then bottled.

Bottom line: This beer won't be as clear as it should be. I'll have to pour very, very carefully. Hopefully the little bit of sediment that did make it into the bottles won't result in any off flavors. And sometimes little accidents result in wonderful discoveries. I'm hoping this ends up being a tasty ale ...even if we are just drinking yeast poop.