sugar, secondary fermentation, kegging and bottling

[heftyporker]

Hi everyone!
I've got my 5 gallon brew in its secondary fermenter now. When I transferred it I put 3oz of sugar in. Im going to be kegging it in a week or so. Do i need to put more sugar in the keg? How much? Will all this extra sugar change the taste of my ale (st peter's ale)? I'd rather it stayed true to its original taste.
If you think I should put sugar in the keg, if I then decide to bottle some of my brew, should I put sugar in the bottles too?!
All this sugar is worrying me! I don't want it to taste of ****! (or sugar!)
Cheers!
HeftyP :drink:

 

[Runwell-Steve]

You add sugar at the time you either keg or bottle.

The purpose of the sugar is to create a small amount of fermentation, which creates CO2 to carbonate the beer.

You don't need to add sugar when you tranfer to a secondary FV, unless your secondary FV is you keg.

Personally my process is this.

Once wort is mixed up and made I put it in the fermenter and add the yeast.

I leave it alone then for 2 weeks, then check that fermentation has finished.

I then transfer to either keg or bottle, at this stage adding the sugar.

For Ale I usually add at a rate of 85gram per 25 Litres.

 

[johnnyboy1965]

Hi everyone!
I've got my 5 gallon brew in its secondary fermenter now. When I transferred it I put 3oz of sugar in. Im going to be kegging it in a week or so. Do i need to put more sugar in the keg? How much? Will all this extra sugar change the taste of my ale (st peter's ale)? I'd rather it stayed true to its original taste.
If you think I should put sugar in the keg, if I then decide to bottle some of my brew, should I put sugar in the bottles too?!
All this sugar is worrying me! I don't want it to taste of ****! (or sugar!)
Cheers!
HeftyP :drink:

I think you have got confused somewhere along the line. Dont worry all is not lost.
Secondary fermentation (IMHO is a waste of time) is just to let the beer clear quicker. You dont need to add sugar during secondary. If you have added 3oz of sugar, just leave it a little longer for this sugar to ferment.
Lets say for instance that you want to bottle half and keg the other half. Just add 1/2 tsps of sugar to each bottle and add 40g to the barrel.
The main thing is that you let it ferment out the extra sugar you added to the secondary. Just leave it another week and then proceed

 

[heftyporker]

Whoops! Hopefully haven't messed up my first brew!
What if I transfer it to the keg next week but without putting more sugar in? I can then inject a Carbon capsule to keep it from going bad, and then as I wait 3 or 4 weeks before drinking it, the natural carbon dioxide will create extra pressure. Im assuming at least some carbon dioxide will still be created without putting more sugar...natural fizz?

 

[luckyeddie]

You can indeed keg it next week and force-carbonate. Just crack the top after you've put the first squirt of CO2 in - it's heavier than air so it will displace it - that will reduce much of the chance of oxidation.

It would still be best to add a bit of priming sugar anyway - then you will know that it will carbonate properly.

One aspect of secondary fermentation / conditioning which is most definitely NOT a waste of time is getting the beer off the yeast cake. This is especially important with lagers because autolysis (similar to rotting) of dead yeast cells will (I am informed) ruin the beer.

 

[heftyporker]

Thanks for the advice. I always think it's an interesting discussion "to secondary ferment or not to secondary ferment"...Creates lots of discussion and debate!

Any more advice from anyone else would be great! But I think I might put maybe a couple of oz in the keg like you said.

Cheers!

 

[luckyeddie]

Thanks for the advice. I always think it's an interesting discussion "to secondary ferment or not to secondary ferment"...Creates lots of discussion and debate!

Any more advice from anyone else would be great! But I think I might put maybe a couple of oz in the keg like you said.

Cheers!

Put a fiver on Derby County to win at QPR on Monday night.

:whistle:

 

[Richard33]

Hi everyone I have made some irish stout which I have transferred into 500ml bottles. I was told to add 1 carbonation drop per bottle which I did. It has been second fermenting now for just over a week and last night I tried a bottle just to sample and just because I couldn't wait to try it . When I pored it into a pint glass the stout had no head but was gassy . Is there anything I can do to make the head better? It did taste really good though.