Golden syrup.

[NPi]

I like 330ml bottles, but they are a pain. It very much depends on my batch size and beer strength as to whether I use them.

I personally really like having an accurate measure on my total batch (by adding all filled bottle volumes together), before I prime. I then prime each bottle individually with a syringe, with the required amount of sugar dissolved into a specified volume of water to create a solution. It works well for me, and is worth it (for me), but I have to admit its a ball ache.

If you really hate bottling, I'd say use a pressure barrel. But failing that Brew2Bottle have said they are soon to release a fermenter, from which you can dispense from.

 

[Broken Toe]

I like 330ml bottles, but they are a pain. It very much depends on my batch size and beer strength as to whether I use them.

I personally really like having an accurate measure on my total batch (by adding all filled bottle volumes together), before I prime. I then prime each bottle individually with a syringe, with the required amount of sugar dissolved into a specified volume of water to create a solution. It works well for me, and is worth it (for me), but I have to admit its a ball ache.

If you really hate bottling, I'd say use a pressure barrel. But failing that Brew2Bottle have said they are soon to release a fermenter, from which you can dispense from.

This is very similar to my current approach, but with a teaspoon and a bag of sugar. I much prefer your approach and it no doubt gives much higher levels of consistency.

 

[Drunkula]

If you really hate bottling, I'd say use a pressure barrel.

And of course if you hate pressure barrels I'd say use bottles... or anything else that isn't inherently spiteful towards homebrew.

 

[NPi]

And of course if you hate pressure barrels I'd say use bottles... or anything else that isn't inherently spiteful towards homebrew.

Now now, some members love PBs, they're wrong mind, but don't get them started...

 

[An Ankoù]

How can that be easier than a bowl of sugar, a measuring spoon and a funnel?

I don't think it is, really. In fact it isn't. Forgot about relative ease and got carried away with whether it was feasible at all. I think Golden syrup might give a nice flavour to some beers, a little lighter than soft, light brown sugar. I think I remember Dave Line using it in his recipe for Carlsberg Special Brew (when it was a special brew and not the watered down shi'ite it is today).
Of course, it's infinitely easier if you haven't got any sugar, but you have a tin of Tate and Lyle's finest which has been lurking in the darkest recesses of the pantry for the last ten or twelve years.

 

[NPi]

This is very similar to my current approach, but with a teaspoon and a bag of sugar. I much prefer your approach and it no doubt gives much higher levels of consistency.

You'll find you can draw up the correct volume of liquid from a syringe quicker than you can a tea spoon and funnel (or at least I can). And as you say, far more accurate and consistent.

One person's half a tea spoon is another heaped

 

[terrym]

You'll find you can draw up the correct volume of liquid from a syringe quicker than you can a tea spoon and funnel (or at least I can). And as you say, far more accurate and consistent.

One person's half a tea spoon is another heaped

Maybe.
But that's why you should use a measuring spoon, or one that you have calibrated yourself, and keep exclusively for brewing, which is what I do.

 

[JohnB]

Priming bottles has always been a pain in the arris and I tried everything. carb drops, spoons of sugar, in-barrel which just stirs up sediment. I ended up with a nice big syringe like the one above. I make a syrup solution of known volume and inject all my bottles immediately before bottling. It's extremely precise. What you need to know is how much sugar is in the syrup solution and I've no idea on that. Once set up it takes about 1 second per bottle.

 

[Broken Toe]

Priming bottles has always been a pain in the arris and I tried everything. carb drops, spoons of sugar, in-barrel which just stirs up sediment. I ended up with a nice big syringe like the one above. I make a syrup solution of known volume and inject all my bottles immediately before bottling. It's extremely precise. What you need to know is how much sugar is in the syrup solution and I've no idea on that. Once set up it takes about 1 second per bottle.

That's a good shout. It eliminates the golden syrup need. Or can be used with a diluted one increase viscosity

 

[The-Engineer-That-Brews]

That's a good shout. It eliminates the golden syrup need. Or can be used with a diluted one increase viscosity

If you want to know how much sugar there is in the syrup, then could you try diluting it with a known volume of water and checking it with your hydrometer? I would maybe put a teaspoon of 'normal' sugar in a pint of water, take the reading, then in a fresh pint see how much syrup I had to add to get the same result.

edit: sorry replied to the wrong post - this was meant to be for @JohnB

 

[Broken Toe]

Update:

I tried both, sugared water and watered syrup. Both delivered with a 5ml syringe (which was the actual game changer) which was able to bridge over the neck of the bottle and deliver right into the filled bottle below the surface of the beer with no fuss

The sugared water was the easiest and will be my new approach going forward.

Let's hope I got my calculations of concentration right now...

Thanks all

 

[Broken Toe]

For anyone interested this has led to my most consistent batch yet so far, in terms of carbonation, no duds and a good looking beer.

I will be using this method going forward

 

[Awfers]

I boil the priming sugar in 1 liter of water for a few minutes, dump that into the bottling bucket, then run the beer in out of the fermenter and make sure it gets well mixed (sometimes spin the bottling bucket around). Has taken the pain out of bottling.. Don't make the "syrup" too thick as it will not mix easily when running the beer in.

 

[JohnB]

@Broken Toe Pleased the idea helped, sir. I used to try mixing syrup into the bottling bucket, but it always left pockets of either over-carbed or under-carbed beer and it stirred up the crap from the bottom. I moved to the system of carbing the bottles immediately before bottling some time ago. I lay the bottles out in three's, and use a 30ml syringe I make a syrup of 50% solution which is not too thick, and squirt 8ml of solution (4 grams of sugar) per 500ml bottle and do 3 bottles at a time. I rarely get any problems now as long as I ferment the brew out properly before bottling. The only problem I ever had was one brew that had not fermented out fully, and I dumped my usual 4 grams in each bottle, but there was some residual sugar left in the brew - Ooooops! I had a brew of VERY fizzy bottles!

 

[An Ankoù]

Further to some of the answers above, this link tells you how to prepare a suitable syrup. The nutritional info bit seems to indicate that 1ml of the syrup contains about a gram of sugar.
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/sugar-syrup

 

[Hanglow]

For most beers I'll add any primings, a 50/50 mix of water and sugar, to the fermentor about two hours or so before bottling if I'm not bottle spunding. This means it'll start refermenting as I bottle, which will help with any negative impacts of oxygen. It'll also be well mixed by that point.

 

[Broken Toe]

@Broken Toe Pleased the idea helped, sir. I used to try mixing syrup into the bottling bucket, but it always left pockets of either over-carbed or under-carbed beer and it stirred up the crap from the bottom. I moved to the system of carbing the bottles immediately before bottling some time ago. I lay the bottles out in three's, and use a 30ml syringe I make a syrup of 50% solution which is not too thick, and squirt 8ml of solution (4 grams of sugar) per 500ml bottle and do 3 bottles at a time. I rarely get any problems now as long as I ferment the brew out properly before bottling. The only problem I ever had was one brew that had not fermented out fully, and I dumped my usual 4 grams in each bottle, but there was some residual sugar left in the brew - Ooooops! I had a brew of VERY fizzy bottles!

This sounds like my most recent approach. I went for 1g of sugar to 1g of water. Am I right to assume this would give me a 50% solution by mass. Therefore 1g of solution is ½g of sugar?

Further to some of the answers above, this link tells you how to prepare a suitable syrup. The nutritional info bit seems to indicate that 1ml of the syrup contains about a gram of sugar.
https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/sugar-syrup

I am bottling up a small parti-gyle this afternoon so I will try this more conc approach see how it handles

 

[An Ankoù]

I am bottling up a small parti-gyle this afternoon so I will try this more conc approach see how it handles

Report back, please.

 

[Northern_Brewer]

I don't think it is, really. In fact it isn't. Forgot about relative ease and got carried away with whether it was feasible at all. I think Golden syrup might give a nice flavour to some beers, a little lighter than soft, light brown sugar.

Traditionally it's been used as a homebrew hack to replace invert #1 (it's about 2/3 inverted) - using the same amount of syrup as crystal in British styles is a good starting point, it dries them out a bit. This video from Ragus shows how it's made (from about halfway through) :



[also in the prime-with-sugar-solution camp]

 

[Broken Toe]

Report back, please.

I made up the syrup using 50ml of water it resulted in 100ml of solution.

So it turns out it's not hugely different from golden syrup in terms of viscosity. Thick but not impossible to use. No dripping at all and was easy to get into and out of the syringe. It did develope a film on top of it as it cooled which was a bit of a pest.

I couldn't really work out how much I needed to add so I guessed it was about 1.25ml = 1g of sugar. I would guess this wasn't enough but I erred on the side of caution.