Hello and a quick question please

[AndyA]

Hi all, it's been around 35 years since and I last made any homebrew beer and I'm about to give it a go once again.

I've just bought an MYO Irish Stout kit and I've had a quick read of the instructions and would like to check something. When bottling, they say to add 1/2 teaspoon of sugar per bottle, I'm going to be using a Pressure barrel though. As the kit makes 40 x 500ml of beer, will I simply be using 40 x teaspoons of sugar, or is there a preferred amount?

Many thanks

 

[tondy79]

Well I guess your calculation would be 40 x HALF teaspoons to equate to the 40 bottles. This would be about 80g, and seems to be about standard advice for priming a ~40 pint pressure barrel.

I don't like my beer so carbonated though (particularly stout), so I would probably drop down to 40 or 50g as a personal preference.

 

[jof]

Oh, and if you do bottle it, rather than trying to guess 1/2 a teaspoon, you can use one of the little coffee spoons or a kitchen measuring scoop

 

[AndyA]

Thanks tondy and jof, much appreciated Yes, 1/2 teaspoons!

 

[Clint]

I only used 50g for a pb as I think they're rated at 14psi.
But then I could be wrong!

 

[Rwilts]

Should we signpost @AndyA to all the discussions about PB now or later ??

 

[Twostage]

I only used 50g for a pb as I think they're rated at 14psi.
But then I could be wrong!

Yes, I think it is around 14-15. Then the laggy band thing around the vent starts to let some of the pressure out.

 

[Clint]

That's if your keg has one! The cheapest ones don't.

 

[matt.]

Are you considering batch priming?
It's been a game changer for me.
There is a calculator on the net for establishing the best volume of sugar for your brew.
Brewers Friend I think.

I've just used it for my Mangroves Jack IPA Grapefruit beer.
21 litres was ,90 gm.
Allowance can be made for temperature and CO² content.

After fermentation finished I rack into a bucket with a bottling tap attached and mix in the sugar. And away I go.
Just making sure the sugar is properly dissolved.

The last two brews have carbonated well.

I guess if you're going to use a barrel it will be a simpler operation.
I use bottles. Luckily I have the time and space to bottle.
I also think I'd drink way more if my beers were on tap. Too easy to return for a top up.

 

[AndyA]

Thanks everyone.

I've ordered a King Keg pressure barrel, bottom tap and with a pin valve. There don’t seem to be any homebrew businesses around here any more, so I thought I'd go with the pin valve cartridges as they should be more readily available.

I have been looking through some posts here, trying to decide between using pb's or bottles, but I came away wanting to try a PB again.

 

[jof]

I've been looking through some posts here, trying to decide between using pb's or bottles, but I came away wanting to try a PB again.

I use bottles because my modus operandi is to have 1 bottle a night.

If your use case is to get your mates round for a weekend session, then pressure barrels are the way to go.

Kegs are the next step up from pressure barrels if you persue the hobby further.

 

[AndyA]

Once the beer has been in the pressure barrel and if I wanted to transfer some of the beer into bottles, would I then still need to add some sugar to the bottles?

 

[jof]

Hmm. That's a bit of a loaded question.

No problem if you transfer to bottles & then drink then in a couple of days. That's known as bright beer.

If you are using it for secondary fermentation or because it's going flat (you don't have CO2 injection or you have a gas leak), then I personally would add more sugar to each bottle.

If it's somewhere in between it becomes a bit more hit & miss.
Some beer styles are more tolerant to this than others but
you are opening up the can of worms that contains:
Beer going stale. (Excess oxygen exposure)
Risk of infection. (Increases every time you transfer it)
Beer going flat.

But sometimes it has to be done as you have nothing to lose.

 

[tondy79]

Agree with jof. If you think you will want some bottles to give away, my preferred approach would be to bottle a few at the outset with a bit of sugar, and then put the rest into the pressure barrel, and generally try to avoid the messing about with bottling from barrel as far as possible.

For the times when you just want to take some to a friends house for immediate sharing, a growler and a bit of tubing long enough to go from your tap to bottom of the growler is a decent option.

 

[AndyA]

Thanks again jof and tondy

Would it be useful to add a pressure guage to the PB? I've seen one on Ebay that appears to be reasonable.

https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/29653493...rByGcDqQc6&var=&widget_ver=artemis&media=COPY

I was wondering if there might be a suitable Co2 control valve, that'd work with a pin valve and the smaller 8g/16g cartridges, but I've failed to find anything so far.

 

[Tommo 2]

In my opinion 80grms is spot on for a king keg, I use that amount for most of my beers , bottled or kegs .

 

[jof]

Thanks again jof and tondy

Would it be useful to add a pressure guage to the PB? I've seen one on Ebay that appears to be reasonable.

I was wondering if there might be a suitable Co2 control valve, that'd work with a pin valve and the smaller 8g/16g cartridges, but I've failed to find anything so far.

If your set on "barrels" go with what you currently have & use it as a learning experience, don't jump straight into ordering more & more stuff until you know what you really need.

If you think it's good & want to continue most on here would say move to corny kegs. That's metal pressure barrels more like breweries & pubs use.

There's loads of threads about them.
You can pick them up reconditioned at reasonable price & if you change your mind later they hold their price well in the 2nd hand markets.

I can't give any more detail as I'm a bottler.

 

[AndyA]

That's a fair comment, I'll see how I get on with the barrel first

The deed is done, or at least it's been started. My first homebrew attempt in 35 years.

 

[Clint]

Is Homebrewonline still going? I remember going to their store on an airfield while up in York many years ago. I still got some buckets of theirs but after much cleaning the details are fading.

 

[AndyA]

Is Homebrewonline still going? I remember going to their store on an airfield while up in York many years ago. I still got some buckets of theirs but after much cleaning the details are fading.

Sadly not although they still show up in the search results. Brew2bottle took over their business apparently, they're based in Colne IIRC. I ordered my Keg from them yesterday.

I'm not seeing any bubbles in the air trap yet Hopefully there'll be some signs of life tomorrow.