Beer Priming Calculator Questions

So after having had grand plans to do two brews yesterday and bottle what I have life got in the way and I achieved nothing except sanitising everything :-( I am going to bottle later today though, it is a Munton Pilsner Gold kit with Saflager 23 yeast (2 packets of) and has fermented for two weeks at 12 degrees, I did increase the temp to 18 for the past 3 days.

After a disaster with Carbonation drops (not very fizzy at all even though I used 2 per 750ml) last time I thought I would good old table sugar but using the priming calculator I am a little lost. The priming calculator asks you to pick the volumes of Co2 and for European Lager it says:

2.2 - 2.7 volumes

If I punch in 2.7 for 0.75 (bottles are 750ml) and the current temp of my beer is 18 so it suggests Table Sugar: 5.4 g. Would that seem about right to you? I am going to put these wrapped in a blanket in my shed for two weeks (sub 10 degrees) will that make any difference? Any help so I either don't have exploding bottles or over / under carbonate would be great :thumb:

I've used the priming calculator link on the forum once, I found it was really inaccurate and it wrecked a batch of beer. There is some theory about calculating dissolved co2 based on the temperature of the beer and adjusting your priming dose based on that, but like I said, it seemed very inaccurate to me.
I use the priming chart in Greg Hughes' book and it's spot on - pick your carbonation level for the style, choose which sugar you are using and add that amount. Always works bang on. Do you have the book?

You are correct for your 750ml bottles, calculator calls for 5.4g table sugar for 2.7 vols (and 3.9g for 2.2), and looks right too. I use the forum calculator and I believe others do and unlike RedDarren I don't have any problems with it. But in the end you will have to choose what you use.
I work on 4.5g for my teaspoons, so if it were me I would use one tsp per bottle which would give you carbing in the range you are looking for.
If you want to find out what your teaspoon of sugar weigh out 20tsp of sugar and then divide that weight to give you the weight of sugar in one. Then keep that tsp as your brewing spoon.
Or batch prime as a lot of others on here do.
You will need to keep your bottles in the warm for a week or two to allow the yeast to work on the priming sugar before you put out in your cold place to condition.
And if you are concerned about overcarbonation this can only cause by bottling before the primary has finished, too much sugar (you will be OK if using calculator) and in extreme a wild yeast infection (you will have to be really unlucky to have got one of those). But if you want to keep a check on how things are going put some beer in a fizzy drink PET bottle (adjusting sugar rates for bottle size accordingly).

Thanks Terry / Darren, I will keep the bottles in the house for a couple of weeks then transfer. Darren, I don't have that book but will pop onto Amazon and check it out!

I prime bottles individually rather than batch priming.
Everything gets half a teaspoonful of white sugar for a 500ml or pint bottle.
So a 750ml bottle would need 3/4 of a teaspoonful. Litre bottle a whole spoonful etc.

Tim1975 said:

Thanks Terry / Darren, I will keep the bottles in the house for a couple of weeks then transfer. Darren, I don't have that book but will pop onto Amazon and check it out!

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If you use your local library they might have a copy. Mine did. Try before you buy :thumb:

I use the calculator all the time for my batch prime's. Not had any issues with it.

I too use the calculator for bulk priming and all have worked out fine.

Cheers

Clint

Hmmm, thats interesting then, so you've all used it to good effect, no undercarbing? What was the temperature of the beer when calculating the dosage? Mine was somewhere around 0.3° when I used it for the first and only time, the dosage seemed very small and after a few weeks in the warm it was barely fizzing, it needed to be about 3vols, which it wasn't.

0.3? Mine have been around 20° straight from the fv into the bottling bucket.

Cheers

Clint

TheRedDarren said:

Hmmm, thats interesting then, so you've all used it to good effect, no undercarbing? What was the temperature of the beer when calculating the dosage? Mine was somewhere around 0.3° when I used it for the first and only time, the dosage seemed very small and after a few weeks in the warm it was barely fizzing, it needed to be about 3vols, which it wasn't.

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The temperature of the beer you should punch in is the warmest temperature the beer reached during fermentation. They say there's a problem if you cold crash for a long time because the beer re-absorbs the carbon dioxide but who knows.

I found the calc to be pretty accurate too. As long as you have a pet tester to check the carbonation progress that will indicate how long to keep them in the warm.

terrym said:

I work on 4.5g for my teaspoons, so if it were me I would use one tsp per bottle which would give you carbing in the range you are looking for.
If you want to find out what your teaspoon of sugar weigh out 20tsp of sugar and then divide that weight to give you the weight of sugar in one. Then keep that tsp as your brewing spoon.

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I found one heaped teaspoon gave 6g on a digital scale, but like most we probably have 3 different sizes of teaspoon, i ended up getting a set of these http://www.johnlewis.com/taylor's-eye-witness-measuring-spoons-assorted-colours/p2627564 but of ebay and a bit cheaper with free delivery. A level teaspoon in a measuring spoon is ideal for a 500ml bottle of reasonble fizz, 750ml bottles of cider i go with 1.5 level measure teaspoon.

HebridesRob said:

The temperature of the beer you should punch in is the warmest temperature the beer reached during fermentation. They say there's a problem if you cold crash for a long time because the beer re-absorbs the carbon dioxide but who knows.

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Yep, I use the temp the beer fermented at and ignore the cold crash and it seems to work out fine.

Ok, that seems to have been the problem then. Apologies for the spurious info.

Clint said:

0.3? Mine have been around 20° straight from the fv into the bottling bucket.

Cheers

Clint

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Mine have been in the 20c range as well. Have done stouts at 1.9 up to IPA at 2.1 and all have bee fine so far!

I have a vanilla porter fermenting at the moment; it's fermenting away at 19 degrees at the moment using an Inkbird and Aquarium heater in a trug. It's an extract brew of 18 Litres. My first extract beer; Way to Amarillo; was primed with 85g of brown sugar for a 22 litre batch (as per instructions) and it was flat as a pancake and I was subsequently told this would NEVER have been enough priming.

Checking the priming calculator porters should have between 1.7-2.3 vols so I intend to use 90g of plain white table sugar. Does that about right for this style / volume of carb needed? I don't want it fizzy but I don't want it totally "dead" either!

chewie said:

I found one heaped teaspoon gave 6g on a digital scale, but like most we probably have 3 different sizes of teaspoon, i ended up getting a set of these http://www.johnlewis.com/taylor's-eye-witness-measuring-spoons-assorted-colours/p2627564 but of ebay and a bit cheaper with free delivery. A level teaspoon in a measuring spoon is ideal for a 500ml bottle of reasonble fizz, 750ml bottles of cider i go with 1.5 level measure teaspoon.

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Chewie, you are a legend, I dug out some of those exact spoons and I managed to find one that was a perfect size for 750 and one a perfect size for 500, I also raided the drawer and found a metal funnel that would normally be used for piping icing and used that as my funnel :lol:

All bottled with correct priming quantities and now is the waiting game to see if this batch (using granulated sugar) turns out nice and fizzy :mrgreen: