Priming Preferences

[Pivovar]

Good Morning ... A Question, if you will? ...

I'd love to hear peoples opinions on priming the beer for bottling.

I have just finished my first brew, and, providing I achieve a stable S.G, plan to move onto bottling. I was going to syphon into a second bin, and then draw off to bottles from there, just to try and reduce sediment going to the bottles.....

Do people prefer to add the priming sugar to the second bin, in bulk, or direct to the bottles ... Adding the full amount of sugar to the second vessel, then bottling appears to be much simpler than adding teaspoons to each individual bottle? ... but there must be a drawback?

Any general bottling advice or experience gratefully received! .

Nick Pivo

 

[Covrich]

Personally I boil the sugar solution in a bit of water.. dump that in my sanitised bottling bucket then siphon on the solution which will mix it through..


Wait 20 mins or so and then bottle..

 

[Gunge]

I think bulk priming in a second vessel is what most 'bottlers' do? Saves a ton of time, ensures the sugar is fully dissolved and equally distributed, and eliminates the possibility of getting a stray grain being trapped between bottle and cap.

 

[doomy86]

I have used both methods. Nowadays i directly add the sugar to the bottles. This is because i found the perfect sugar cubes that have the ideal weight and size (they fit the neck) for my bottles.

When adding the sugar to the second bin, first dissolve it completely in hot water. Even when racking onto the sugar mixture, give it a good swirl before bottling to avoid uneven carbonisation (the heavy sugar mixture tends to stay at the bottom).

Cheers!

 

[Beersort]

Dextrose sugar weighed to the right amount. Dissolve in boiling water (enough to dissolve the sugar) let it cool a little bit. Pour in and stir using a sterilised paddle in the FV. Don't use bottling buckets often, always see them as another chance to catch an infection!

 

[chub1]

Personally I boil the sugar solution in a bit of water.. dump that in my sanitised bottling bucket then siphon on the solution which will mix it through..


Wait 20 mins or so and then bottle..

like what that bloke just said:thumb::lol:

 

[foxbat]

Table sugar dissolved in boiling water into the FV after cold crashing is complete.
Stir gently.
Go do something else for half an hour while it circulates
Bottle from tap on FV with a bottling wand.

 

[Norfolk79]

Personally I boil the sugar solution in a bit of water.. dump that in my sanitised bottling bucket then siphon on the solution which will mix it through..


Wait 20 mins or so and then bottle..

That's how I do it now. I did start off using carbonation drops when I did kits, although have since moved on. They are quite expensive, for what amounts to small solid drops of sugar!

 

[crowcrow]

I'm very new to this so can only go by what I've done so far which is spooning table sugar. The plastic spoons you get in kids medicines are good for the 1/2 tsp size, and fit in the neck well - though just bought some 'special' priming spoons off ebay that I wasn't that impressed with really - but do the job. Those the main reason that the sugar got stuck in them wasn't bad design - but me foolishly letting my 3 year old help me, and he kept eating the sugar when I wasn't looking... Not looking forward to seeing how many bottles are spoilt because of his spital, but so far they've been ok

Planning on getting a proper bottling wand and doing 2nd fermentation as I prefer to bottle priming over barrel - as I drink sporadically and I like variety.

 

[photek1000]

As above, I cacluate how much sugar I need for the batch size and beer type, tend to use unrefined sugar and boil with a pint of water, cool and add to bottling bucket if bottling or Pressure Barrel if using that, syphon on top and job done.

 

[Martybhoy]

OP - no drawbacks, apart from a bit of extra cleaning.

I haven't bottled straight from FV before, always from bottling bucket. I can only imagine that bottling straight from FV, after stirring dissolved sugar solution would kick up at least some sediment.

Table sugar straight into bottles is messy and time consuming. Carbonation drops are costly and you will have less control over the level of carbonation.

Batch priming is easy, cheap and effective.

Also, get a bottling wand. They're pretty cheap, but will quicken the process considerably and reduce oxidation too.

Sent from my MotoG3 using Tapatalk

 

[YourBrew]

Definitely a vote for batch priming here. I used carbonation drops once when i first started and didn't know what i was doing, never again. For a short time i dissolved sugar in boiling water and then used a syringe to evenly distribute a set amount into each bottle before bottling directly from the FV. It worked well, but took forever to do!!

 

[foxy]

Dextrose sugar weighed to the right amount. Dissolve in boiling water (enough to dissolve the sugar) let it cool a little bit. Pour in and stir using a sterilised paddle in the FV. Don't use bottling buckets often, always see them as another chance to catch an infection!

As above, but I prefer to run the beer into a sanitised bottling bucket and bottle from that, I think if everyone thought there was a chance of an infection being picked up from the vessel we were transferring to (bottles included)we would all be drinking straight from the fermentor.

 

[private4587]

What would you do if you have a mixture of mini kegs and bottles? as they have different levels of priming sugar i believe.

 

[LarryF]

For my tuppence worth, I bottle lagers into 600ml bottles with 1tsp sugar and ales and stouts into 500ml bottles with 1/2tsp and prime the bottles themselves. Having only ever done it this way using measuring spoon, butter knife and funnel I can do 48 bottles in a shade under 10 ten minutes and then bottle straight from tap on the FV using a wand.

 

[JapanBrew]

Definitely a vote for batch priming here. I used carbonation drops once when i first started and didn't know what i was doing, never again. For a short time i dissolved sugar in boiling water and then used a syringe to evenly distribute a set amount into each bottle before bottling directly from the FV. It worked well, but took forever to do!!

That sounds just like me.
Now I keg and force carb but I'm noticing that by force carbing quickly the beer never conditions out. My next batch I'm going to prime the keg then let it condition out in the keg. After a month, I'll transfer to new kegs. That should clear it up.