The Range Irish Stout

[GazzaW57]

Today is the day when I bottle my Range Irish Stout. The hops have been in the brew for 3 days now so I’m going for it.

The only question I have is that the instructions advise adding a half teaspoon of sugar to each bottle and I just wanted views on whether this would be enough. I am considering siphoning the brew into another vessel and batch priming with 120 to 140g of sugar dissolved in a little warm water. I’ve had good results that way, but would appreciate any thoughts on this.

Thanks,

Gaz

 

[MrJay83]

I tried adding sugar to each bottle before and it's too much hassle. IMO, batch priming is the way to go.
Also, shouldn't you be boiling the sugar water for a few minutes?
I usually double the weight of sugar for my water (i.e 150g sugar = 300mm water). I find if you go much less you tend to get variations in bottle carbonation... But that also depends if you get a good swirl when racking.

 

[obscure]

While I do individually prime my beer I use either sugar sachets, or a proper measuring spoon, the problem with following instructions that say half a tea spoon is how much actually is that some of my tea spoons are half the size of some of my other ones, and trying to get just half a spoonful each time is no easy task (not helped by the fact that I often have a beer while bottling).

Basically if you are happy with batch priming do that, and if you do decide to individually prime your bottles make sure you have a way to ensure you can accurately measure how much sugar you are priming each bottle with.

Edit: Personally I prime stout at about 5g a litre so for my personal taste 120g in a 23L batch is about right, however as with many things you preferences may be different.

 

[GazzaW57]

I tried adding sugar to each bottle before and it's too much hassle. IMO, batch priming is the way to go.
Also, shouldn't you be boiling the sugar water for a few minutes?
I usually double the weight of sugar for my water (i.e 150g sugar = 300mm water). I find if you go much less you tend to get variations in bottle carbonation... But that also depends if you get a good swirl when racking.

Thank you. I think I will go down the route of batch priming and yes, I would boil the water in the first instance.

 

[GazzaW57]

While I do individually prime my beer I use either sugar sachets, or a proper measuring spoon, the problem with following instructions that say half a tea spoon is how much actually is that some of my tea spoons are half the size of some of my other ones, and trying to get just half a spoonful each time is no easy task (not helped by the fact that I often have a beer while bottling).

Basically if you are happy with batch priming do that, and if you do decide to individually prime your bottles make sure you have a way to ensure you can accurately measure how much sugar you are priming each bottle with.

Edit: Personally I prime stout at about 5g a litre so for my personal taste 120g in a 23L batch is about right, however as with many things you preferences may be different.

I think you’re right in that 120g will be just about right. Thank you.

 

[GazzaW57]

I just decided to ‘quality assure’ a bottle of the stout. It’s been in the bottle now for about 5 weeks: 2 weeks in my warm cupboard, and the rest of the time in the garden shed, which is understandably cool!

Initial impressions are that it’ll benefit from a further couple of weeks in the bottle, but I’m already getting subtle coffee notes from it. The head didn’t last as long as I hoped, but we’ll see how, or if, that develops over the coming weeks. Whilst have high-ish hopes for this, I do have to remember that this kit only cost about £14 for 40 pints. It’s more than drinkable.