Do most people syphon into 2nd vessel and add Priming sugar in one go?

[Bootcutboy]

Howdy all,

I just got my first batch of Wilko Cerveza lager bottled up today, it came out at a lovely 5.25% as I only brewed to 20L.

Anyway, my question is regarding the bottling process, do most people syphon into another vessel, leaving the sediment behind in the 1st tub or not bother?
And with the priming sugar, I found it a bit of a pain adding a tsp of sugar to each of the 36 bottles through a funnel, do people mainly use the method of adding all the priming sugar mixed in boiling water in one go? Are there any other benefits or drawbacks of doing this other than ease and time?

thanks a bunch y’all!

 

[The Baron]

I think that is what most people do who batch prime, I personally do not do this but do the old fashioned way i.e sugar into the bottles as I do not like the risk of moving beers from one vessel to another unnecessarily and risk oxidisation but this is only a risk if not done carefully I also find it only takes me a few minutes

 

[RichardM]

I add the priming sugar, dissolved in boiling water, to a second fermenting bin then siphon the beer on to that for bottling

 

[Charles Stanley-Grey]

I just batch primed and bottled 20L of Yorkshire Bitter, I put about half in the bottom of my kettle, then add the second half once its full. I try and angle the syphon output so it gives a gentle swirl to mix the sugar, without any splashing. I like the circularity of my ale going back into my kettle for bottling. If you do not already have one cannot recommend a clip on auto syphon and a bottle wand more! Also the little bottle cleaner squirt thing!

I guess there is a chance you might not get a perfectly consistent amount in the bottle when you batch prime, but bottling day is hard enough without having to add something to every single bottle.

 

[Drunkula]

The benefits of batch priming is that it's easy to really refine the level of carbonation you want. Until about 3 months ago I used to boil the sugar in water, dump it straight into a bottling bucket, syphon onto that so it mixes and then bottle.

Now I boil the sugar solution, very gently get a swirl going in the primary fermenter and then pour the solution slowly over the back of a spoon, move around so it really gets dispersed and then I leave it for about 15 minutes or so. The way I do it there's no way it's going to cause any more oxidation than going to the bottling bucket.

Really note - get the swirl going in the fermenter first and you don't need much; don't need to go down too far. The first time I did it I just poured the solution in and it sunk like a stone - you could see the syrup freediving to the bottom like a glassy comet leaving a sugary vapour trail before crashing into the trub.

Here's everyone's favourite link:
https://www.brewersfriend.com/beer-priming-calculator/

 

[Brewnaldo]

I mistakenly went straight from my boiler to FV yesterday with no settling time and as such the amount of tub is unreal. See it it every sample I took. It is settling put quickly but I suspect there to be so much of it that I will have to get a bottling bucket and siphon so will be making the move to batch priming also.

 

[terrym]

There's no right or wrong way, they all have their pros and cons. Sometimes I add sugar to bottles, sometimes I batch prime, and for me there isn't much in it. But I haven't tried adding syrup addition direct to the first FV.
I think you should try each method and then decide what suits you best.

 

[Zephyr259]

I used to batch prime in my bottling bucket but my current FV has a valve to dump the trub and yeast so I now do that same as Drunkula addding it to the primary and bottling from the side valve.

 

[pilgrimhudd]

I used to use a bottling bucket and batch prime the bucket, however i'm pretty sure the infection that spoilt 4 or 5 of my brews came from the tap, since I stopped using it my beer has been fine. Like someone said , there isn't much in either way. I absolutely hate bottling day.

 

[obscure]

When I bottle I tend to use carbonation drops, purely due to laziness. As with many thongs though you pay a premium for convenience.

When I keg I tend to just add sugar directly to the keg and then fill straight from primary.

 

[Rodcx500z]

If I bottle I use 1 sugar cube per 500ml bottle, if I pb I use 60 t0 100g sugar solution depending on beer type direct into pb and syphon the beer down the side of pb

 

[skulltat280]

I like the batch priming way. Sugar dissolved in water, pour into bottling bucket and rack beer onto it

 

[Session]

When I used bottles I really wanted to be able to adjust the amount of carbonation to style but also wanted to minimise the amount of oxygenation that transferring to a bottling bucket would cause.

I ended up making a sugar solution and adding this to each bottle using a 20ml syringe. At around 2.5ml (of 1g/ml sugar solution) per 500ml bottle this gave a nice level of carbonation for my IPAs, and wasn’t as much of a pain as it sounds! I got pretty quick with some practice, and it only takes a couple of seconds per bottle. The benefit to this is if I wanted to see what the style tasted like slightly higher or lower carbed I could add or reduce 0.1ml or however much I wanted and note the changes for next time.

Another reason for using this method was after a friend of mine did not stir/mix his priming sugar into his beer well enough (again to try and limit oxygen exposure), ending up with 80% of his beers being significantly undercarbed and having several massively over carbed bottles. Thankfully no bottle bombs!

As I have become more convinced of the positive effect of reducing O2 exposure I moved to kegging which makes things much easier, but obviously it’s a far greater outlay in terms of cost, and depending on the type of beers you like to brew may not have an enormous effect on the quality in the glass - particularly if you’re not a hop head.

 

[Bootcutboy]

Wow thank you everybody for such amazing responses, It is all taken on board and very much appreciated!

 

[Mike in Borneo]

Batch primed after auto syphoning from FV to a cleaned and sanitised bottling bucket fitted with tap. Then directly into bottles.

Precautions to avoid contamination and oxidation: I fill the bottling bucket with heavier-than-air carbon dioxide gas, from a home-made CO2 generator (citric acid + bicarb of soda). And I dissolve the priming sugar in boiled water, before adding to the bottling bucket, and stir gently to mix when syphoning the beer into the bottom of the bucket. In that way I maintain a constant CO2 layer on the beer as it fills the bucket, and as it transfers to bottles.