Batch Priming

[damienair]

Hello all,

I have tried to research this myself without having to ask you. I am a little confused, I am a Newbie after all. I have my second Kit in an FV which is nearing the end or has finished fermenting as it has been on since 24th of December. I'll take a reading tomorrow and Thursday and will bottle then. This is a Cooper Hefe Wheat Kit which I brewed using 1 Kg of Dry Malt Extract and 0.5 Kg of Dextrose. I have been searching online for the best advice for Batch Priming this brew. It is my first time to batch prime and my first time using Glass Bottles with Caps. So I am trying to do it right without having any caps blow off due to over priming. My first brew is conditioning in my Garage since New Years Day and I used Coopers PET Bottles and Carbonation drops on that one.

The Priming Calculator when using Carbonation Guidelines for a wheat beer of 3.3-4.5 Volumes estimates 246.5g of Dextrose at the lower volume.

I read somewhere else that for a wheat beer 10g per litre is correct which would give me 210g of Dextrose for the batch priming.

I have also read from a thread here on a review of this kit that 150g of Table sugar and 180g of Golden Cane sugar was used to batch prime.

I will be using Dextrose, so is 210g of Dextrose OK for me to use so as to batch prime this brew or should I go with the calculator?

Many thanks,

Damien

 

[dad_of_jon]

I tend to use 160g of brewing sugar for 20l of wheat beer because otherwise the last of the batch gets a bit fizzy

 

[damienair]

I tend to use 160g of brewing sugar for 20l of wheat beer because otherwise the last of the batch gets a bit fizzy

Thank you very much for your advice and feedback. Very much appreciated. Looking forward to tasting this in a few weeks.

Damien

 

[Justin Dean]

find a carbonation chart on the web which will tell you the answer for each option mate

 

[takeabiteopeach]

I think its natural to be worried about bottle bombs at first, particularly if you're going for high carbonation like 3.0+, but believe me there's more to it than just the amount of sugar you put in (how much residual yeast you have left for example, and how well the sugar has mixed).

The best results i've had for bottling are (and this is just me, you will find everyone has their ideal method and this assumes you have a bottling bucket / alternative bucket for bottling out of rather than coming straight out the primary):

- Take the amount of priming sugar you are adding and add it to 500ml boiling water to make a sugar solution, letting it cool, and add that to your bottling bucket
- Connect a long, santised bit of pvc tubing (food grade, i use 3/8) to your fermenter tap if you are using a bucket or conical and drop it into the bottom of the bottling bucket (you dont want your beer dropping from a height to mix oxygen in, so just drop the tube into the bottom of your bottling bucket and let it mix with the sugar solution, this is why you want to sanitise as you're essentially going to fill from the bottom up)
- Drain your fermenter into the bottling bucket, then bottle out of that bucket

General rule of thumb is, don't bottle when you're still seeing daily gravity drops, but also don't leave it too long because you might not have enough yeast left to condition in the bottle, had this problem with a Tripel i made recently that I cold crashed and I've just started not crashing in the fermenter now and just letting it settle out in the bottle.

 

[damienair]

I think its natural to be worried about bottle bombs at first, particularly if you're going for high carbonation like 3.0+, but believe me there's more to it than just the amount of sugar you put in (how much residual yeast you have left for example, and how well the sugar has mixed).

The best results i've had for bottling are (and this is just me, you will find everyone has their ideal method and this assumes you have a bottling bucket / alternative bucket for bottling out of rather than coming straight out the primary):

- Take the amount of priming sugar you are adding and add it to 500ml boiling water to make a sugar solution, letting it cool, and add that to your bottling bucket
- Connect a long, santised bit of pvc tubing (food grade, i use 3/8) to your fermenter tap if you are using a bucket or conical and drop it into the bottom of the bottling bucket (you dont want your beer dropping from a height to mix oxygen in, so just drop the tube into the bottom of your bottling bucket and let it mix with the sugar solution, this is why you want to sanitise as you're essentially going to fill from the bottom up)
- Drain your fermenter into the bottling bucket, then bottle out of that bucket

General rule of thumb is, don't bottle when you're still seeing daily gravity drops, but also don't leave it too long because you might not have enough yeast left to condition in the bottle, had this problem with a Tripel i made recently that I cold crashed and I've just started not crashing in the fermenter now and just letting it settle out in the bottle.

Cheers, thanks so much for your reply. Yes that is exactly the process which I am aiming to do. I recently purchased an auto syphon and clip and I got some extra pvc tubing so as to syphon from the fermentation bucket to the very bottom of my bottling bucket with tap and bottling wand. It was a pretty active fermentation and only started to show signs of a slow down in bubbling through the airlock a couple of days ago. Initial OG was 1.044 and I checked it yesterday, FG was 1.006 , so I'll test again tomorrow and bottle tomorrow evening or on Saturday morning. Should be a 5% beer, I tasted a sample from the trial jar yesterday evening and you could drink it from the bucket. :-) It was lovely. So I am really looking forward to trying it in a few weeks.

Damien

 

[takeabiteopeach]

No problem, it was the bit I was most worried about when I first started brewing too, because you read the 'bottle bomb' stories and think the worst, but i've not had a bottle bomb yet, worst case has either been a poor capping seal (do not try and re-use erdinger alkoholfrei bottles) or poor carbonisation due to a lack of viable yeast left in the product due to cold crashing the fermenter.

 

[damienair]

No problem, it was the bit I was most worried about when I first started brewing too, because you read the 'bottle bomb' stories and think the worst, but i've not had a bottle bomb yet, worst case has either been a poor capping seal (do not try and re-use erdinger alkoholfrei bottles) or poor carbonisation due to a lack of viable yeast left in the product due to cold crashing the fermenter.

Thank you. Yes I have spent ages reading forum posts, googling and watching YouTube Video's. I wanted to try batch priming as I will be using different sized bottles. I even got Belgian Flag bottle caps for the Coopers Belgian style Wheat beer. First time to use a capper too. I've learnt loads since I started on the 7th of December. That's been the best part so far, reading and researching. I am sure the actual drinking and bringing my Neighbour round to help me out will be even better again.

 

[MZonard]

I think its natural to be worried about bottle bombs at first, particularly if you're going for high carbonation like 3.0+, but believe me there's more to it than just the amount of sugar you put in (how much residual yeast you have left for example, and how well the sugar has mixed).

The best results i've had for bottling are (and this is just me, you will find everyone has their ideal method and this assumes you have a bottling bucket / alternative bucket for bottling out of rather than coming straight out the primary):

- Take the amount of priming sugar you are adding and add it to 500ml boiling water to make a sugar solution, letting it cool, and add that to your bottling bucket
- Connect a long, santised bit of pvc tubing (food grade, i use 3/8) to your fermenter tap if you are using a bucket or conical and drop it into the bottom of the bottling bucket (you dont want your beer dropping from a height to mix oxygen in, so just drop the tube into the bottom of your bottling bucket and let it mix with the sugar solution, this is why you want to sanitise as you're essentially going to fill from the bottom up)
- Drain your fermenter into the bottling bucket, then bottle out of that bucket

General rule of thumb is, don't bottle when you're still seeing daily gravity drops, but also don't leave it too long because you might not have enough yeast left to condition in the bottle, had this problem with a Tripel i made recently that I cold crashed and I've just started not crashing in the fermenter now and just letting it settle out in the bottle.

Thanks for the practical advice. I've been letting the pvc tube splash beer into the bottling bucket and so introducing lots of oxygen. That, and lousy hard water might be behind 'less than satisfactory' results I've had.

 

[takeabiteopeach]

Thank you. Yes I have spent ages reading forum posts, googling and watching YouTube Video's. I wanted to try batch priming as I will be using different sized bottles. I even got Belgian Flag bottle caps for the Coopers Belgian style Wheat beer. First time to use a capper too. I've learnt loads since I started on the 7th of December. That's been the best part so far, reading and researching. I am sure the actual drinking and bringing my Neighbour round to help me out will be even better again.

welcome to what will become one of the most rewarding and expensive hobbies of your life

 

[MZonard]

welcome to what will become one of the most rewarding and expensive hobbies of your life

No, that was sailing...

 

[takeabiteopeach]

Thanks for the practical advice. I've been letting the pvc tube splash beer into the bottling bucket and so introducing lots of oxygen. That, and lousy hard water might be behind 'less than satisfactory' results I've had.

yep, oxygen is the worst thing you can add to fermented beer, you'll get that stale/carboard taste. softly soflty is the best approach when bottling / transferring, so filling from the bottom up, no tipping or pouring.

re: water treatment, there is an excellent sticky here (Beginners Guide to Water Treatment (plus links to more advanced water treatment in post #1)) around the basics. also, you can get those 5L bottles of mineral water from supermarkets for your brew days as a base. it'll add a couple of quid onto a brew day, but you've got a better 'base' water to work with.

 

[Drunkula]

https://www.brewersfriend.com/beer-priming-calculator/
I got for 3.3 volumes with wheats. I bloody love it. Never had any bottles burst, not even the crappy koppaberg ones that are made of of fluff and whispers.

Don't bother with a bottling bucket any more - I make up the priming solution (don't let it cool because pointless), gently swirl the fermenter near the top and then pour the solution over the back of a spoon while moving my hands like a geriatric hoola-girl. Then I leave it 15 minutes or whatever. Reckon it's less oxidation than piping off to the bucket.

Don't just pour the solution in without the spoon and gentle waft - because it's denser than the beer it'll just sink straight down and you'll be playing gush-gush roulette.

 

[MZonard]

https://www.brewersfriend.com/beer-priming-calculator/
I got for 3.3 volumes with wheats. I bloody love it. Never had any bottles burst, not even the crappy koppaberg ones that are made of of fluff and whispers.

Don't bother with a bottling bucket any more - I make up the priming solution (don't let it cool because pointless), gently swirl the fermenter near the top and then pour the solution over the back of a spoon while moving my hands like a geriatric hoola-girl. Then I leave it 15 minutes or whatever. Reckon it's less oxidation than piping off to the bucket.

Don't just pour the solution in without the spoon and gentle waft - because it's denser than the beer it'll just sink straight down and you'll be playing gush-gush roulette.

OK, I've just tried this approach with a fermenter containing 20 litres of stout. Mostly in 330cl bottles as I find at 6.5% it's a sipping beer. I've put a towel over the crates in case of gushers

 

[damienair]

Thanks everyone for your advice. I bottled the beer last night. All went well. I was a little concerned about the siphoning. Even though I primed the auto siphon it seemed to pull a lot of air across the line. I hope it won’t affect the batch. Next time I’m going to install a tap on the FV and drain through the tap instead of siphoning to the bottling bucket for batch priming. I used 180g of dextrose with 500ml of water. Almost 24 hours since and no explosions in the hot press. Thanks again. You learn something new every time I guess.

Damien