First time brewer. hi guys. Need some help.

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stylis

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Hi I'm just coming up to end of week one of my very first brew.
I've come across this forum whilst looking for advice about how much priming sugar I should use when putting my beer into a plastic pressure keg. Instructions only give amounts for bottles.
Brewing coopers Australian pale ale. Think my pressure keg is 25 liters.

Any help gratefully recieved.
 
Hi there stylis,

its simple multiplication and its dependent on what beer you are brewing. So as a rule of thumb its suggested that 5g sugar per 500ml bottle is a good starting point. So fro a 23L brew you will need somewhere around 230g of sugar. The recommended way to prime your beer is to bulk prime in an FV with a tap at the bottom. The idea is to put your priming sugar into the the bottling bucket then add the beer from another FV, this will mix it equally throughout the brew then you can either put into bottles via the bottom tap or put it int a pressure Barrel.

Lagers require more priming sugar and other beers maybe a little less. This is entirely dependent on your taste so you need to experiment a little.

if you are priming straight into the bottles then you have a harder job and if you are not using all the same sized bottles then it gets more complicated again.e.g. a 2L bottle will require 20g/bottle etc...
Hence the use of an FV for bottling.

{edit} - once primed and bottled you need to keep the beer warm for anywhere between a week and 2 weeks, this allows the yeast to convert the priming sugar into alcohol and CO2, the CO2 will sit above the beer at this point in time. Then you need to move the beer into the cold, this will force the CO2 into suspension in the beer and give you conditioning, again for a couple of weeks but its good practice to keep your beer cold or cool until you are ready to drink.
 
Thanks very much. I've got so much to learn. I will go and do this now whilst kids are in bed. Roll on next week when I get to taste the finish product. Thanks again for quick reply.
 
Welcome to the forum :cheers:

Leith, are you sure about your priming rates??

230g for 23l is a heck of a lot. The usual guide is 4-5g per litre.

Depending how fizzy you like it you can go for anywhere between 40g (barely no fizz) to about 120g (pretty fizzy) of 23l batch. I would suggest somewhere between 80g - 110g for the whole 23l :thumb:
 
Right I've just come back and seen your post about to much sugar. I have already put 150g in. I Didn't go for the full 230 as I was concerned about there being too much pressure as my pressure barrel is second hand and at least 15 years old, maybe older and I was a little concerned about putting too much in causing it to burst. Is 150g to much or will I be ok.
 
230g is a LOT of priming sugar for an aussie pale.
again, i would stick to somewhere beterrn 90-110g for the carbonation of the style.

Also, if you are putting your beer into a pressure barrel, there is no need to rack from your fermentation vessel into another one before the barrel; just dissolve your priming sugar in 1/3 - 1/2 a pint of boiling water, leave it to cool a little while, pour it into the barrel. then siphon your beer immediately from your FV into your barrel on top of this, with as little splashing/aeration as possible.
 
stylis said:
Right I've just come back and seen your post about to much sugar. I have already put 150g in. I Didn't go for the full 230 as I was concerned about there being too much pressure as my pressure barrel is second hand and at least 15 years old, maybe older and I was a little concerned about putting too much in causing it to burst. Is 150g to much or will I be ok.
It will be fine for this time, at least you will know how to adjust to your taste after this one.

If the barrel doesn't have a prv (pressure release valve) just keep an eye on it. Release some pressure if you feel it is necessary :thumb:
 
Yeah, no pressure release valve on this one so I will keep an eye on it. But thanks again for advice.
 

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