A question of priming...

[Tony Dyer]

I brew small batches (10 - 12 litres) of ale, full grain mash. I ferment down until the gravity more or less stalls, usually at about 1010 or a little above. I then rack the beer into a small polypin with 30 - 50g (depending on the strength of the brew) of priming sugar. I'm careful to exclude all (or as much as possible) air from the process and from the polypin once full. the polypin then inflates over the next day or two, presumably from the effects of secondary fermentation. I try to leave it for aboit 2 weeks before bottling.

So far so good. But sometimes the polypin begins to 'deflate' - I believe that is IS airtight, so I guess that the gas is reabsorbed into the beer? Then when I bottle it, once again I'm careful to exclude unnnecessary air, the result on drinking, after another week or whatever is often fairly flat.

How can I get some life into the final product without using a pressure based system? Should I prime at the bottling stage too? I did this once accidentally but the results were inconclusive.

Any suggestions gratefully received.

Ta

 

[DavidDetroit]

I'm not sure why you don't bottle right after reaching your final gravity? I would be interested in finding that out.
Cheers.

 

[Baz Chaz]

I only bottle my brews, (15 litres) bit like previous poster wonder why bother with polypin ? I drop it from the FV when fermentation is complete, into a second FV, batch primed at 3g per litre and bottle straight away. Leave bottles in brew fridge/cabinet at 18 degrees for a week before into storage cupboard.
Not a lover of very fizzy beer, find 3g per litre is plenty for me.

 

[Tony Dyer]

Thanks David, Baz.
Well... because as far as I can tell, that's what my manual (Brew Classic European Beers at Home by Protz, Roger, Wheeler, Graham (ISBN: 9781852491178) ) told me to do! I have to say that it helps me to get the beer clear so it's nice and clean in the bottle, but it seems the process means that great tasting beer loses it's 'pzaaz'.

David your suggestion of racking it off and mixing the priming sugar ain the process, then bottling straight away sounds very sensible. Don't know why I didn't think of it as it should solve the clarity issue.

Cheers!

 

[terrym]

@Tony Dyer
It seems there is a disconnect in what you are doing/have been advised to do in the book.
There are some homebrewers who rack off into a second vessel, including me from time to time, so that the beer has a better chance of clearing before packaging, especially if you don't have cold place like a brewfridge. However no sugar is usually added at this stage. If sugar is added, some or all of it will be lost to the subsequent carbonation process.
So my suggestion to you is to is to continue to rack off as you are doing at the moment if it works for you, but only add priming sugar when you eventually package your beer, at a rate to achieve the carbonation level you require, in whatever you use to store your beeer whether it be bottles or whatever.

 

[Tony Dyer]

Thanks Terry. that makes sense and may be borne out by the fact that the brew before last I primed twice. Once at initial racking and then for bottling. this was due to a brain freeze on my part and led to slightly sweet biut reasonably carbonated beer!
You live and learn - or at least I hope so!