Tiny lager bottling question...

[Rukula]

The first time i brewed, i didnt really read up on bottling, so i just used a siphon to get the beer from the bucket into the bottles with some sugar. The result was great, and i had no problem with carbonation at all..

However, i read someone posting about his lager not carbonating, and another guy replied that you should drag your siphon along the bottom of the bucket to get the sediment mixed up in it, if you don't do that, you may have a problem with carbonating your lager. Is this true? is this ********?

And again with my sugar question. How much sugar makes a normal carbonated beer in a 0,5L bottle...? I enjoy lagers like Budweiser and Heineken. So is one teaspoon good? More? Less? why?

Thanks!

 

[aneray]

However, i read someone posting about his lager not carbonating, and another guy replied that you should drag your siphon along the bottom of the bucket to get the sediment mixed up in it, if you don't do that, you may have a problem with carbonating your lager. Is this true? is this ********?

Absolute bull.

When bottling add a level teaspoon of sugar per pint or batchsparge. This is syphoning your brew into a clean fermenter, dissolve 80g of sugar and add to clean fermenter and syphon brew onto it, based on 40 pints.

Bottle as normal.

 

[keith1664]

I think the problem with bottling lagers that have actually been lagered (ie stored for several weeks at a cold temperature) is that most of the yeast has become dormant and dropped out, this is usually overcome by reintoducing a small amount of fresh yeast, I suppose kicking up a small amount of the old yeast may serve the same purpose. However if you haven't lagered there should be no problem as there'll be sufficient yeast still in suspension.
And half a teaspoon of suger (or less) is ok for ales, you need more for a lager as they're meant to be more fizzy. So try a teaspoon and see if you like the results.

 

[Eric_S]

I also think results can vary massively too!

I've been lowering my levels of priming sugar over time - I originally started with about 120g of sugar in a 20l batch, and have been bringing it down about 10g for each subsequent batch.

The last two (AG) were bottled at 100g and 80g respectively, and both don't seem to have much fizz after a 5 weeks in the bottle, so the 20g difference doesn't seem to have made a huge difference, and both beers have a decent layer of compacted yeast on the bottom of the bottle. The beer tastes divine however so it's not the worst that could have happened. My Coopers Euro (last kit before AG) was bottled at 100g as well and that has plenty of fizz.

Treatment for all has always been the same - rack to bottling bucket, remove some beer and disolve the priming sugar in that (heated), then stir in gently and bottle away.

 

[shearclass]

Oi! I wrote a long reply to his and posted it, but it isn't here!?

:evil:

 

[shearclass]

basically, to cut a long story short, i said bottle as usual, but rack to another FV or barrel (whatever is spare), add disolved priming sugar t that before racking, then bottle as normal.

I have done 2 lagers that have been actually lagered, and they both were clear, and carb'ed up no bother. I believe a pint of crystal beer has thousands (millions?) of yeast cells in suspension, so it should carb fine if you give it plenty of time.

 

[abeyptfc]

Oi! I wrote a long reply to his and posted it, but it isn't here!?

:evil:

OH NO YOU DIDN'T!!!

 

[DaveMack]

Oi! I wrote a long reply to his and posted it, but it isn't here!?

:evil:

OH NO YOU DIDN'T!!!

PANTO SEASONS STARTED :party:

 

[Mark1964]

OH YES HE DID but sometimes when 2 people hit the submit button at the same time only 1 persons post gets on :thumb:

 

[Aaron]

That was my lager that hadn't fizzed up. I left for two weeks in primary, racked to secondary for one week, batched primed with 160g of white sugar for 20lts, stored it warm for one week and then cold for one week.

I've now moved it back into the warm to see if I can get it going again.

When I tried it, it didn't taste overly sweet, certainly a lot less sweet than at bottling after I primed it. It did have a certain amount of carbonation in the glass but it just didn't have that 'ping' in the mouth I was hoping for and used to from commercial lagers.

I don't want to get into opening each bottle and adding extra yeast/sugar unless I really have to so would it be a good idea to give each bottle a little movement to try and stir up the yeast?