Carbination

[jamie0691]

Hi All, I posted a few months back as was just getting started in my home brew.

Well started drinking it after leaving since June and it is very fizzy. When I was bottling I put 8g of Granulated sugar in each 500ml bottle as this is what the kit said (Coopers Australian Lager). Bottles were left for 2 weeks and some moved to the fridge and the rest left in the airing cupboard.

I am going to start another Lager soon, but can someone advise a way to stop the high carbination. Are the coopers drops better? Or would cold conditioning help more?

 

[nobyipa]

i batch prime always

Carbonation Guidelines by Style
British Style Ales 1.5 - 2.0 volumes
Belgian Ales 1.9 - 2.4 volumes
American Ales and Lager 2.2 - 2.7 volumes
Fruit Lambic 3.0 - 4.5 volumes
Porter, Stout 1.7 - 2.3 volumes
European Lagers 2.2 - 2.7 volumes
Lambic 2.4 - 2.8 volumes
German Wheat Beer 3.3 - 4.5 volumes
and use a priming calculator like this to achieve it
http://www.brewersfriend.com/beer-priming-calculator/

boil up your sugar or what ever in 3 to 400 ml for a few mins to sterilise the sugar etc
you don't want thick syrup though
you want it evenly distributed through out your beer
never got on with carbonation drops

wait till it cools to temp of your beer
stir not letting any air in leave for half hour then bottle

 

[nobyipa]

so looks like 2.7 grams of table sugar to each 500ml bottle to achieve 2.2 volumes CO2

American Ales and Lager 2.2 - 2.7 volumes


YOUR 8 GRAMS GOT YOU 5 VOLUMES CO2 VERY FIZZY

 

[PD]

4 - 5gms of sugar per bottle for a lager....dont want anymore or it will cause you problems.
about 3 gms for ales

 

[jamie0691]

Thanks all, newbie mistake. Same as dropping half the bottles downstairs when moving them!

Will the co2 discharge into the beer eventually?

 

[GavH]

For future reference, I can recommend a small plastic funnel and some measuring spoons to prime your bottles with. 1/2 tsp per 500ml for Ales/1 tspn for Lagers scooped straight into the funnel sat atop the bottle. Jobsagoodunwhatevertheweather.

 

[MattN]

Or use the table and link above. That is what I did and made adjustments as I brewed more beer. I have settled on 1.95v for bitters/ales and 2.5v for lagers.

Matt

 

[Diggerg]

I just batch primed my latest brew after 2 failed attempts with carbination drops.

 

[Ceejay]

I implore you to batch prime! It's so much easier and more consistent. :thumb:

Make a sugar solution, boil it for 5 or 10 minutes. Cool, pour into bottling bucket, rack beer on top, bottle.

V.s. having to measure out so many grams of sugar and pour through a funnel into each bottle and then not being certain the sugar's mixed in.

 

[GavH]

V.s. having to measure out so many grams of sugar and pour through a funnel into each bottle and then not being certain the sugar's mixed in.

That's just my point, with proper measuring spoons and a broader definition of how much sugar is needed, each bottle is primed in seconds few. Add up all the time taken to measure out x grams of sugar, y ml of water, sanitise everything, boil it, cool it, then add it to a second vessel, then rack onto - would I really be saving time over my current method? I'm not convinced. Sure, if you want to be uber-precise, it becomes more time consuming and a necessary evil, but I'd be surprised if anyone can truly discern the difference between certain 'volume' levels. Ballpark is good enough when it comes to my levels of carbonation. As for why you'd fail to be certain the sugar has mixed - the mind boggles why the laws of chemistry only apply in a bucket and not a bottle in the Ceejay household. :?

So, for MY purposes, measuring spoons and a funnel ARE quick AND easy. Hence my recommendation. To each their own.

 

[Ceejay]

^Fair enough. Many ways, cats etc. I see your point about laws of chemistry etc, sugar not mixing properly. Not sure where I was going with that. I had assumed that, given the amount of inexperienced brewers that moan they've got no carbonation, that it's because they've dumped a load of sugar straight into the bottle and it's not mixed properly with the beer. I guess not.

 

[jamie0691]

Looks like I have started a heated debate ha ha. Ok so looks like batch priming would be good, but what do you mean by rack? All i did with my current batch was line up the bottles, then add sugar, brew and cap. Then left them in the airing cupboard.

I will calculate the sugar and batch prime on my next brew and see how it turns out.