Jamjar1982
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I think I may have been too careful on the amount of priming sugar, after reading about exploding bottles! ������
I have another batch that I set back by a few weeks so should be bottling soonish. I was thinking about priming with brown sugar to give it a bit of a different flavour. Do you have any recommendations on how much priming sugar to add and how long it usually takes to get a good fizz?
Also, for priming, do you basically add the sugar, bottle it and then leave it in the cupboard until you wish to drink it? I only ask as I've seen people mention that they prime for a week at room temp and then refrigerate until ready to drink.
Thanks for your help people!
I use this helpful calculator to judge my priming... http://www.brewheads.com/priming.php I wouldn't go above 3 volumes of CO2. Most european lagers are around 2.4 - 2.6. In the past I have used plastic bottles so if they get too close to exploding I can just crack the lid off a bit. Not an exact science but it works. You should be ok using capped bottles or flip lids if you follow the above calculator. This is what I do:
1) ferment completely
2) rack and clear
3) make yeast started (usually about 0.1g)
4) dissolve calculated priming sugar into beer
5) add yeast
6) siphon into bottles, stirring constantly
Here is some useful if not slightly mind bending info http://https://byo.com/bock/item/1132-master-the-action-carbonation I'm sure there is much more useful info on this forum at your disposal also.
The problem I have as I keep saying, is that this way it will finish dry (and you get some sediment in the bottom of the bottle). You can add more sugar to your liking at the priming stage and use one plastic screw top bottle as a tester to see if the bottle gets hard. If it's all good heat pasteurise your glass bottles in a large pan to 65c (use a bottle filled with water and insert a thermometer) this way you kill off the yeast, heat sanitise and get sweet fizzy beer. It does have its disadvantages though like bottles cracking in the heat or over carbonating if you take your eye off the ball...
Chilling the bottles will slow down or maybe make the yeast dormant if you don't go down the heat route. Obviously once you ferment out the yeast will eventually die anyway. Chilling also helps the beer absorb the co2. Too hot or too cold and the co2 just squirts out the bottle when you open it. (Think opening a warm can of coke). Hope some of that helps.