Waxing Bottles How-To

I've been in homebrewer mode a bit this weekend. I got my 1st Anniversary Barleywine transferred over to secondary, ordered a kegging setup, and worked on a little project I have going for Christmas. I decided that this year I was going to make something special for some of my beer-loving friends, and settled on a spiced Belgian Strong Dark Ale. Wanting it to look a bit more special than plain brown bottles, I opted to wax the caps. I've always thought that this looks nice on a bottle of commercial beer, and Brewmaster's Warehouse carries multiple colors of wax beads. Since it's for Christmas, I went with red. I didn't see much information about this process for brewers, so I decided to put together my own how-to.

Step one was melting the wax. Seems pretty simple and obvious,

but one of the things I learned was that you can't put wax in the microwave to melt it. Wax is oil-based and has a fairly low flash point, so it can catch fire easily before it's even finished melting in the microwave. Instead, candle makers suggest using a double-boiler. That's basically a pot inside a pot. You put water in the outer pot, and it serves as a buffer between the inner pot and the source of heat that keeps it from scorching whatever is inside. Since I didn't have a double boiler, I decided to use a glass jar in a pot of water. Glass can shatter if it changes temperature quickly, so I let it sit with the wax beads in it while the water was warming up as well. You could also use an empty can, but make sure you use something you won't mind getting dirty, because it's very hard to clean the wax out afterwards. You definitely don't want to put it directly in a good pot.

The wax took half an hour or so to melt fully. I kept the heat on low after the water started boiling, and then stirred with a bamboo skewer we had lying around. Then it was time for step two, dipping the bottles. This was a pretty simple process, and only took 20 minutes or so for two cases of bottles. Basically you just have to flip the bottle upside down, let it sit in the wax for 10-15 seconds, then let the excess wax drip back into the jar. Very easy.

And then it was time for step three... well, actually there was no step three. That's it, sit back and relax. It's a nice way to present the bottles, and in theory it has some advantages for the beer. Supposedly, it can help reduce problems with oxidation, since the wax can keep oxygen from getting into the bottles as it ages. I don't know how much truth there is to that, but it certainly can't hurt. Considering the strength of this beer, it's possible that whoever gets it could let it sit for a few years, and hopefully this will allow them to age it optimally with the least off-flavors possible.

- Adam