Priming bottles with a syringe?

[marksa222]

Hi, just a thought, I used carb drops on my first brew and don't have many left now. I also don't have a bottling bucket. I've heard half a tsp per 500ml bottle is about right to prime, but I'd quite like my beers to all be the same. I have about 3 different sized teaspoons and is it half a heaped one or half a flat one etc.....

I have a little 5ml syringe that my 7 week old son has just finished using for a course of antibiotics with. I just wondered, if say half a tsp was 2.1g and I was making 40 500ml bottles, If I added 84g of sugar to 200ml water and heated it to disolve, would it be ok to use the syrine to dish out 5ml to each bottle and would this have any ill effects? I just thought by doing that I'd get a more consistant level of carbing throughout the batch.

I'm assuming there's probably a reason why I've not read about this as an option and it'll probably be a really daft problem that will make me feel stupid for asking, but thought it might be worthwhile.

 

[calumscott]

If you have a little 'un you're bound to have a measuring spoon kicking around!! :lol:

1/2 a teaspoon should actually be "a 2.5ml measure, levelled". :thumb:

You could make up a syrup though and add a certain volume of that to each bottle.

I haven't checked properly but I think your maths works out about right... :thumb:

 

[marksa222]

If you have a little 'un you're bound to have a measuring spoon kicking around!! :lol:

1/2 a teaspoon should actually be "a 2.5ml measure, levelled". :thumb:

You could make up a syrup though and add a certain volume of that to each bottle.

I haven't checked properly but I think your maths works out about right... :thumb:

No little measuring spoons yet.. he's getting his grub from source... as it were.
Also what kind of sugar is best to use?

 

[fermentall]

ordinary granulated sugar is fine :thumb:

 

[calumscott]

for priming granulated is fine.

However... what's the beer?

If you are working with syrups then you can use whatever you like! I once primed a coopers stout with treacle on someone's recommendation and it was really nice.

You could use anything that's made of sugar! So any kind of sugar, syrup, treacle, molasses, honey, malt extract... and they'll all bring a very little "something" different to your beer.

 

[RobWalker]

just batch prime. anything else is laborious. :lol:

 

[calumscott]

just batch prime. anything else is laborious. :lol:

Too true. I'm assuming the OP doesn't have the luxury of a bottling bucket...

 

[RobWalker]

OP should buy one - nothing like keeping your syphon, funnel, bungs, airlocks etc in sodium metabi solution so they and the bucket are always sanitary on brew/bottling day too...makes life so easy :lol:

 

[calumscott]

Do you reckon the OP will be allowed one what with all the paraphernalia with which his abode will be festooned such as to attend to the needs of the aforementioned seven week old offspring? :lol:

I think the syringe is safer rather than the profusion of beer gear... you and I both know the second FV is the first step on a very slippery path...

 

[marksa222]

lol have I missed something? OP?

 

[ScottM]

lol have I missed something? OP?

Original Poster..... you

I would definitely recommend a second FV that can double up as a bottling bucket. Takes away the hassle of priming no end.

As for the syrup...

84g of sugar equates to an increase of 53ml when added to a body of water. Therefore you would need to add 84g of sugar to 147ml of water in order to be left with 200ml of syrup solution.

However, I would recommend 2.5g (as said above) per bottle, depending on the type of beer, so I would tend to go with 100g. 100g would increase the volume by 63ml, so 137ml of water would be required.

HTH :)

 

[marksa222]

As for the syrup...84g of sugar equates to an increase of 53ml when added to a body of water. Therefore you would need to add 84g of sugar to 147ml of water in order to be left with 200ml of syrup solution.However, I would recommend 2.5g (as said above) per bottle, depending on the type of beer, so I would tend to go with 100g. 100g would increase the volume by 63ml, so 137ml of water would be required.HTH

very clever...

I think I will get a second bucket tbh. Would it make it much easier to bottle from a bucket with a tap? I've never syphoned anything, so don't really know what i'm doing, though it looks easy enough on a youtube tutorial.

There's one in wilkos that looks decent, so id avoid paying postage from buying one online but it doesn't have a tap.

 

[ScottM]

As for the syrup...84g of sugar equates to an increase of 53ml when added to a body of water. Therefore you would need to add 84g of sugar to 147ml of water in order to be left with 200ml of syrup solution.However, I would recommend 2.5g (as said above) per bottle, depending on the type of beer, so I would tend to go with 100g. 100g would increase the volume by 63ml, so 137ml of water would be required.HTH

very clever...

I think I will get a second bucket tbh. Would it make it much easier to bottle from a bucket with a tap? I've never syphoned anything, so don't really know what i'm doing, though it looks easy enough on a youtube tutorial.

There's one in wilkos that looks decent, so id avoid paying postage from buying one online but it doesn't have a tap.

You would need to syphon between vessels but the Little Bottler is a great addition to any bucket with a tap. Makes bottling very easy :)

 

[RobWalker]

yeah, the little bottler is good. a standard tap is near useless however, no good for samples as it usuallly just supplies you with trub - I only use mine as a quick source of sodium metabi solution and one that makes a lot of mess at that usually - and it's just another thing that can go wrong, to be honest. if you arn't considering a little bottler for it, i would just get a standard bucket.

 

[calumscott]

+1 for the little bottler. Mine's over a 1000 bottles old now...

 

[marksa222]

You would need to syphon between vessels but the Little Bottler is a great addition to any bucket with a tap. Makes bottling very easy

Yeah got one of them. Do they fit on the end of a syphon tube?

 

[ScottM]

You would need to syphon between vessels but the Little Bottler is a great addition to any bucket with a tap. Makes bottling very easy

Yeah got one of them. Do they fit on the end of a syphon tube?

The little bottlers fit on the end of a tap, the bottling stick/wands fit on the end of a syphon tube.

A little bottler is basically a bottling wand with a tap attachment :)

 

[Charlatan]

Do your little bottlers leak? Mine has a fairly constant drip from it and requires a tub below to catch spillage.

 

[ScottM]

Do your little bottlers leak? Mine has a fairly constant drip from it and requires a tub below to catch spillage.

The one I have for my syphon does, pretty constant drip like you say. I can make peace with that though as it's so good at filling

 

[wigwamheed]

I got an auto syphon off eBay and a bottling wand from the mm. Works great really quick and full to the brim leave the perfect space in the neck. As previously mentioned as soon as you start buying extra buckets, though, you will always need one or two more. I've had to be really strict with myself, I know I'll buy a bucket to dedicate to a particular job then fill it with beer by accident and have to get a new one, so seven and a half quid forra bucket suddenly steamrolls into that plus grain and hops and yeast