Equivalent priming sugar for bottling

[Aleik]

Hi all,

I tried priming a pilsner a while ago, which stated half a teaspoon of sugar per bottle or 85g for a pressure barrel.

I took the boiled sugar solution route for bottling, and presumed 85g would do the trick, as it would for the barrel. However, 2 weeks at 20° (no joy) and then 3 weeks at 23° still led to a sugary, flat solution. Pretty sure a good 5 weeks would prime it, but not the case.

Half a teaspoon per bottle is much less than 85g sugar, but I'm wondering if i should have actually added more?

Doesn't seem to be any concrete instructions for the "safer" solution method, and i find myself in a similar spot with woodefordes wherry now.

TIA, Alex

 

[Drunkula]

Yeah, for bottling you want to go full whack. The figures for pressure barrels are much lower and you can only carbonate beer for old men, invalids and the teething.

Look for a carbonation calculator like so: https://www.brewersfriend.com/beer-priming-calculator/

Take the temperature as the last temperature it was when it was brewing - so if it finished at 19c but you cold crashed to 2c then use 19c. Let's see - for the style of lager you want 2.7 vols, and let's say you've got 23 litres - bish bash bosh - 168 g of table sugar. So yeah, you're undercarbed.

For a wherry you'd want more of the British style, but I'd still go top end to 2.0, that gives you 102g for 23 litres.

Now what are you going to do with that lager? Some might say open each bottle, add more sugar, reseal.. blah blah blah oxidation, some might say just drink it, some might say make shandy with it.

 

[Aleik]

Wow, much more sugar! I'm sure half a teaspoon per bottle added up to about 45g. Must. Leave. Instructions. Alone.

To be fair I've just drunk the lager and given a few bottles to friends (SHAME ON ME!); I bought the kit under the impression that "pilsner" (the original Bavarian thing?) would turn out like the type of lager my wife likes (a lighter one), going by what I thought the brewers' language for lager was. Turns out I'm talking out of my a*** and it's totally different. My Grandad drank Holsten Pilsner, possibly a bit like that.

6th brew, 6th kit. I don't dare advance yet. So many mistakes still being made! Thanks for your reply.

 

[Dutto]

.............
6th brew, 6th kit. I don't dare advance yet. So many mistakes still being made! ............

After many, many years of brewing, I'm still waiting for two things:

1. Brewing the perfect pint without making any mistakes along the way. and,
2. Meeting the female, nymphomaniac brewery owner who wants to take me to bed and then marry me for my good looks.

In my experience, most people screw things up by not reading and following the "Instructions" so I suggest that you carry on brewing, do nothing in haste and learn from your mistakes! :thumb:

 

[Aleik]

Haha! Thanks, tenacity is the key. I mean it's not like the results are positively DISliked. Not a difficult thing to just drink the stuff and try again. Tenacity is totally the wrong word :)