Batch Priming

[gingerneil]

I have been using sugar or carbonation drops directly in bottles. However, the Festival kit that I am about to bottle came with a bag of priming sugar. I'm a little nervous about adding all of this to the FV and then stiring up all the sediment prior to bottling. I don't have a second FV for a two-stage approach. Am I worrying about nothing ?? Should I just add the priming packet into the brew, stir very gently and then bottle? Maybe wait another day before bottling to allow settling?

 

[lancon]

boil a litre of water up in a clean pan, add sugar, swirl it to dissolve, pour in fermenter leave slowly and around the surface, leave a couple of hours.

 

[gingerneil]

ok - makes sense... but a whole litre ? Sounds quite a lot for the reasonably small amount of dextrose (I think thats whats in the sachet).
I can leave it to settle while I sanitise the bottles and get everything else ready.

 

[stephen1546]

ok - makes sense... but a whole litre ? Sounds quite a lot for the reasonably small amount of dextrose (I think thats whats in the sachet).
I can leave it to settle while I sanitise the bottles and get everything else ready.

I usually make a syrup using perhaps 3 cups of water, but i have a 2nd FV. Unless you just use the priming sugar in each bottle.

 

[gingerneil]

I wondered about that - but I think I'll go with the batch approach this time to make things nice and easy.

 

[DavidDetroit]

Since you do not have a second vessel at the moment, I would set the priming sugar that came with the kit aside for the time being; it will last a long time and you can use it if/when you decide to batch prime.

Use your usual method for now.

Batch priming in your fermenting vessel and then waiting like that isn't ideal. The idea is to get the beer into bottles as quickly as possible, once you're ready to bottle.
Edit: You don't need more than a half of a liter for the batch priming method. You can also use beer instead of water.

 

[lancon]

ok - makes sense... but a whole litre ? Sounds quite a lot for the reasonably small amount of dextrose (I think thats whats in the sachet).
I can leave it to settle while I sanitise the bottles and get everything else ready.

just use enough to dissolve plus a little more

 

[Justin Dean]

Completely dissolve in boiling water and leave to cool, Syringe the correct rate in each bottle for a consistent carbonation between bottles (if you are bottling)

 

[JonBrew]

Completely dissolve in boiling water and leave to cool, Syringe the correct rate in each bottle for a consistent carbonation between bottles (if you are bottling)

That's a seriously chunky signature you've got there

 

[user 18729]

I’d part with £10 and buy another fermenting bucket if I were you

 

[DavidDetroit]

I’d part with £10 and buy another fermenting bucket if I were you

I thought about suggesting that as well. Great suggestion.

 

[gingerneil]

Yes - I def plan to pick up another bucket. I'll go with the old method of priming each bottle for this one, then grab a bucket for next time.

 

[Poochops]

I sanitise my glass Pyrex jug and a spoon with 3/4 kettle of boiling water, leave it a minute, tip it, add the sugar and enough water to dissolve, pour it straight in the FV being careful to sprinkle it around. I usually use less than 250ml and never wait for it to cool, 10 minutes later I’m bottling.

 

[labrewski]

Had this kit last year followed all instructions apart from time in fv which needed to be extended to another 10 days batch primed my first time ever and it never carbed properly about 60 % I'd say would have been a sweet beer otherwise I font trust batch priming few gram of sugar in each bottle never fails that's just my opinion

 

[ExpatBrewer]

Bulk-priming in the primary FV is possible and something I've been doing for a while now. However, I cold-crash my brews and most often use high-flocculating yeast strains. Under these circumstances the method works very well. The sugar is dissolved in boiled water, poured and gently stirred into the FV, left for a couple of hours to disperse...then bottled. I'm not sure if I'd feel totally confident using this method with a brew at room temperature though, and less so with a medium or low flocculating yeast like US-05.