First Ever Bottling

[BelfastBrewer]

My first ever beer is ready for the bottle tomorrow, it's an all grain IPA that I just took from a few different recipes. Today was its last day dry hoping with fuggle hops.

Was going to just put a teaspoon or half of brown demerera sugar in each bottle, any suggestions?

 

[fermentall]

Hi BB,1/2 tsp sugar in a bottle is enough in ales then put somewhere warm 4 a week or more.
then move to a cool place for at least 2 weeks, longer if possible then enjoy : ken.

 

[BelfastBrewer]

Great, thanks for advice, ill have nice beer early in the new year hopfully.

I am just going to use a basic siphon with a tap on it, but maybe get somthing better in the future

 

[Baz Chaz]

Half a LEVEL teaspoon will be sufficient, just use plain old granulated, it's a bit cheaper than using demerera and no difference :idea:

 

[jimp2003]

Half a LEVEL teaspoon will be sufficient, just use plain old granulated, it's a bit cheaper than using demerera and no difference :idea:

I was going to say that "half an teaspoon" is a bit ambiguous.

I would go by weight of sugar then you are likely to get a more consistent result between bottles and between brews. I use 80 g of sugar in a 23 l batch. First I boil it up with about 250ml of water then cool before mixing it into the beer in the bottling bucket. Of course if you are bottling directly from the FV or secondary I can see why you might not be able to mix the sugar into the beer before bottling.

 

[LeedsBrewer]

half a teaspoon is 3g. So for a 23L batch you'd use 138g if batch priming. I personally find this a little too fizzy for my tastes so go for around 120g

 

[MacKiwi]

I found this calculator really useful...

http://www.brewersfriend.com/beer-priming-calculator/

I over-primed my first few batches of beer. They took a long time to attenuate, and some never got back to being fully dry. The calculator is good because you can enter in the exact quantity you want to bottle - whilst I was aiming for 23l brew-lengths, I didn't always achieve that, and hence was adding too much sugar.

The lesson I learnt is "less is more" when it comes to priming - slightly flat beer is much nicer than slightly sweet beer... (yes, I know if you wait long enough it will all attenuate, but who has that kind of patience with your first batch of beer???)

 

[fermentall]

Jimp 2003,nothing ambiguous about it at all. I use cooks measuring spoons,the 1/2 teaspoon one is exactly that a 1/2 tsp. Use a funnel put 1/2 tsp of sugar in then repeat on each bottle,this means that each bottle gets the same 1/2 tsp in each of sugar ( ambiguous i think not) just my method, very easy & accurate in my opinion.ken

 

[jimp2003]

Jimp 2003,nothing ambiguous about it at all. I use cooks measuring spoons,the 1/2 teaspoon one is exactly that a 1/2 tsp. Use a funnel put 1/2 tsp of sugar in then repeat on each bottle,this means that each bottle gets the same 1/2 tsp in each of sugar ( ambiguous i think not) just my method, very easy & accurate in my opinion.ken

Sounds like you are very meticulous there fermentall but I know not all homebrewers are. I know a couple of guys who use the "half-a teaspoon" term and literally just do it by eye with a normal teaspoon. It drives me crazy! :nono: - You never get a consistent pint....

 

[Tricky]

+1 for a proper measure.

I too use a level 1/2 teaspoon measurer. Think i got a set of them (1 table spoon, 1 teaspoon, 1/2teaspoon, 1/4teaspoon) from the poundshop for.... you guessed, 1 english pound.
I've never had any problems with over priming or inconstency's by using this set. :thumb:

 

[Baz Chaz]

I always batch prime, easier and never had any problem, gone down to 60g of sugar for a 23ltr batch :thumb:

Dissolve 60g of sugar in 150ml water put in spare FV, then drop brew to be bottled onto it, bottle, leave bottles in warm for 1 to 2 weeks, take out into storage, wait another couple of weeks and drink :

 

[RokDok]

I always batch prime, easier and never had any problem, gone down to 60g of sugar for a 23ltr batch :thumb:

Dissolve 60g of sugar in 150ml water put in spare FV, then drop brew to be bottled onto it, bottle, leave bottles in warm for 1 to 2 weeks, take out into storage, wait another couple of weeks and drink :

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