Impatience! - Can't wait to try my first BIAB

Sozzled · Feb 13, 2017

bigbud78 said:
how was the carbonation thou ? One of mine was quite sweet but it wasn't carbonated very well, give it another week or two in the warm and hopefully the sweetness will be replace by bubbles

It was carbed up quite well, which is what has me a bit worried about bottle bombs :-(

Sozzled · Feb 18, 2017

Well, thought I would give you an update.

Tried it again yesterday, opened it in the sink just in case there was a gusher, but...... nothing.

No carbination at all. Tried another 2 bottles, all the same.

I think the batch priming has failed this time. I relied on the whirlpool effect of racking to the bottling bucket to mix the sugar up. It looks like the one from last week that was super sweet an very fizzy got all the sugar (it was the last bottle out of the bucket).

So, a lesson learned, I'll need to give a little stir next time I batch prime.

wfr42 · Feb 18, 2017

Where were you storing the bottles?

If you can keep them somewhere warmer that might help car the rest.

I've not had any issues to date with batch priming but dissolve the sugar in 150ml of boiling water and then siphon on top of that.

Sozzled · Feb 20, 2017

They were in the airing cupboard for just over two weeks.

The solution I made for the priming was very syrupy (I didn't use much water) I think it was just to heavy to mix properly with the beer.

Another one I made a couple of weeks before this one has worked out great, maybe a little to fizzy, but I made a very watery sugar solution for that one so I guess it mixed better.

I wonder if I should stick a teaspoon of sugar in each one and put them back in the airing cupboard for another couple of weeks.

braziliain · Feb 20, 2017

In a recent 10 litre batch I used around 50g of priming sugar and it is pretty highly carbed. 125g for 16L sounds a lot! I use the priming calculator above which is great.

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

When I batch prime, I dissolve the sugar in boiling water then cool it. When I add it to the brew I always stir it in. Seems to work well for me.

Edit: Using the calculator above, for 16L and 2.0 volumes CO2 it suggests 72g sugar.

IainM · Feb 20, 2017

Sozzled said:
I wonder if I should stick a teaspoon of sugar in each one and put them back in the airing cupboard for another couple of weeks.

Yes. A fortnight warm and they should have eaten up any priming sugar that was there, so if some are still flat then I don't think you are risking overcarbonating them with just a tsp. I'd open them up one by one. You might lose a couple to gushing but they are a lost cause anyway. For the rest you've got nothing to lose and every chance of saving some.