Bottle priming a quad

[Monkhouse]

Hi guys, my quad has finished fermenting now, went from 1.096 all the way down to 1.004 in 3 weeks so it’s 12.1%abv.
Anyway I’ve got 2 options with regards to what levels of carbonation I can give it, I’ll be using 500ml brown ex mcewans champion bottles (which I’ve never had issues with where others I’ve seen fail after a few months in the bottle)
I weigh my bottles, I’m quite sad.
This quad will be packaged in 50 of these 500ml bottles and I can either use:
- a carbonation drop per bottle (3.3g carb drop) works out at 2.5 vol
Or
- I’ve got a spoon which can accurately measure 4g of granulated sugar which is 2.9 vol

 

[nickjdavis]

just bottled a Quad a few weeks ago at a rate of 6.8g/L of Dextrose....all went into 330mL bottles that previously held a variety of lagers, Belgian beers, Impy Stouts....no issues.

I wouldn't know what it was in terms of volumes of CO2...I just adjust rates based on outcomes of previous brews...carbonation a bit low...try a bit more sugar next time...etc etc etc.

 

[Monkhouse]

just bottled a Quad a few weeks ago at a rate of 6.8g/L of Dextrose....all went into 330mL bottles that previously held a variety of lagers, Belgian beers, Impy Stouts....no issues.

I wouldn't know what it was in terms of volumes of CO2...I just adjust rates based on outcomes of previous brews...carbonation a bit low...try a bit more sugar next time...etc etc etc.

What’s the fizz like on the quad now? Your volume of co2 would be 2.5 so I’m curious if this is enough or not

 

[nickjdavis]

Carbonation is pretty damned perfect...carbonation should be high but it shouldn't be sharp and fizzy. I would suggest this is "moderately high" but any higher and, along with the alcohol warmth it might have a little bit of unwelcome bite.

It is very young though...just less than 2 months in the bottle....give it another 10 months in the bottle (mine is 10.4%) and the hint of harshness and the higher alcohols will hopefully fade and meld into something truly wonderful. (Its very good as it is, even in its youth).

 

[Monkhouse]

Carbonation is pretty damned perfect...carbonation should be high but it shouldn't be sharp and fizzy. I would suggest this is "moderately high" but any higher and, along with the alcohol warmth it might have a little bit of unwelcome bite.

It is very young though...just less than 2 months in the bottle....give it another 10 months in the bottle (mine is 10.4%) and the hint of harshness and the higher alcohols will hopefully fade and meld into something truly wonderful. (Its very good as it is, even in its youth).View attachment 90561

That looks awesome, I may have to borrow your recipe if mine turns out crap, what was your finishing gravity btw? I’m worried the m41 may have gone overboard with mine lol!

 

[nickjdavis]

OG was 1.090 FG was 1.012; 32.2 IBU, 41 EBC

Recipe was pretty simple (essentially its the same as in James Morton's book "Brew")...

4.4kg of Belgian Pilsner Malt
4.4kg of Belgian Pale Malt
0.9kg of D-45 Candi syrup
0.9kg of D-90 Candi syrup
Northern Brewer for 60 mins to deliver 19.7IBU
Styrian Goldings for 30 mins to deliver 7 IBU
Hallertauer for 15 mins to deliver 5.6 IBU

Mashed at 65c for 80 mins
75 minute boil

Fermented with Wyeast 3787 Trappist High Gravity (was the yeast cake from a Belgian Single brewed before this beer) deliberately allowing the temperature to free rise to what it wanted. Would have only intervened if the temp rose above 30 degrees....as it happened, it reached 29 degrees and sat there for 3 or 4 days before slowly dropping back to mid 20's for a few days...once I had three consistent FG readings I crashed cooled it, transferred to a secondary vessel and left it for a couple of weeks at around 4 degrees to clear. Then bottled. Most bottles are in cardboard boxes in dark cool corners of the garage waiting for next year.

 

[Monkhouse]

OG was 1.090 FG was 1.012; 32.2 IBU, 41 EBC

Recipe was pretty simple (essentially its the same as in James Morton's book "Brew")...

4.4kg of Belgian Pilsner Malt
4.4kg of Belgian Pale Malt
0.9kg of D-45 Candi syrup
0.9kg of D-90 Candi syrup
Northern Brewer for 60 mins to deliver 19.7IBU
Styrian Goldings for 30 mins to deliver 7 IBU
Hallertauer for 15 mins to deliver 5.6 IBU

Mashed at 65c for 80 mins
75 minute boil

Fermented with Wyeast 3787 Trappist High Gravity (was the yeast cake from a Belgian Single brewed before this beer) deliberately allowing the temperature to free rise to what it wanted. Would have only intervened if the temp rose above 30 degrees....as it happened, it reached 29 degrees and sat there for 3 or 4 days before slowly dropping back to mid 20's for a few days...once I had three consistent FG readings I crashed cooled it, transferred to a secondary vessel and left it for a couple of weeks at around 4 degrees to clear. Then bottled. Most bottles are in cardboard boxes in dark cool corners of the garage waiting for next year.

Sounds good, thanks for that. I haven’t got the ability to crash cool unfortunately, no way to cool my brews at all apart from sticking the odd couple of bottles in the fridge but I’ve never let that hold me back from trying any recipe that I want lol!
I’ll see how this 12% quad turns out, it’s a recipe from the apartment brewer on YouTube.