I've got a festival german weis currently brewing at 24c and will be bottling once it stops bubbling as I dont own a hydrometer. I cannot afford a barrel so ive saved up some 1.5 and 2.5 litre plastic cider bottles. My question is how much sugar do I use to prime these bottles? I'm only a beginner so im abit lost also, how long do I have to wait before its drinkable? I will be putting the bottles outside in the shed after priming so it will be quite cold compared to its current temp of 24c
Priming old cider bottles?
- Thread starter samthor.
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Are the bottles airtight when closed?
Edit - maybe I was overthinking what you meant by old cider bottles , I had some rustic artisan clay pot in mind!!
do you mean supermarket PET bottles with screw caps?
Edit - maybe I was overthinking what you meant by old cider bottles , I had some rustic artisan clay pot in mind!!
do you mean supermarket PET bottles with screw caps?
Yes, the plastic ones, had a laugh at the idea of some old clay ones!
Well depending on how fizzy you like your cider I would probably use 1 TSP for the 1.5 and 1.5 teaspoon for the larger bottles. There are a few calculators available if you Google.
One suggestion is to batch prime if you can. Work out how much sugar you need and add to the whole batch , then it will be equally distributed no matter size of bottles.
Secondary fermentation should take 2 weeks and you should start to feel the bottles getting hard after 4 days (at 20 degrees ish).
I now leave my bottle beers.for a minimum of 14 days in a fridge after they have firmed up but used to drink them straight after.
Try a few at different intervals and see how the taste changes
One suggestion is to batch prime if you can. Work out how much sugar you need and add to the whole batch , then it will be equally distributed no matter size of bottles.
Secondary fermentation should take 2 weeks and you should start to feel the bottles getting hard after 4 days (at 20 degrees ish).
I now leave my bottle beers.for a minimum of 14 days in a fridge after they have firmed up but used to drink them straight after.
Try a few at different intervals and see how the taste changes
Oh, it weis beer not cider
Yes just realised when I reread , it's been a long day. Adjust my suggestion accordingly.
My go to is 145 grams of brewing sugar per 23L batch of 'ale'
Brewfather has a calculation tool to tell you how much based on style and batch size. I should be on commission the number if times I promote them!
I'm not bright enough to work out the maths!
Look up, just add the amount and it does everything for you. And it's free.
That's why I mentioned batch priming , you can then just add all that sugar to the whole batch before bottling
Leave them indoors for a few days after priming - if you put them straight out chances are the yeast won't have a chance to carbonate them as it'll be too cold.
CiderTropica
New Member
I made a barley wine a couple of weeks ago and primed the bottles with 1 tspn of sugar per 500ml glass bottle. I left them in a centrally-heated room for one week, opened one up, and it was flat as a pancake. The temperature variance at this time of year is no good for the yeast, even indoors. I put the bottles in a big box on a couple of heat mats and after another week they were fully carbonated -- and very drinkable. Now they are lagering in my garage.
So, putting them immediately outside in your shed will likely result in zero carbonation at this time of year. I recommend heat mats indoors with a stable temperature of 24°C for a week.
Will have to get another bucket then
I've only got 1 heat mat so I doubt I could place all the bottles on it, ive just bought a basic pressure barrel but it won't arrive for another few days. The brew has stopped popping today so ive turned off the heat and its now sitting at room temp 20c. Will it be OK just sitting in the fv until my barrel arrives in a few days?
CiderTropica
New Member
As far as I know, beer can sit in the primary FV for up to 4 weeks without problem. My barley wine was sat in the FV for 2.5 weeks from start of brew to bottling and I think it actually did it some good. Far clearer the longer it sat in FV.
I think another heat mat is a sound investment as it's very useful to have a few.
That might have been temperature variance, or it might have been that 1 week wasnt long enough and 2 weeks was. Did you have a maxmin thermometer by your bottles?
I dont use heat belts, the room my bottles sit in to carbonate stays at 18-21 degrees and it carbonates fine in a fortnight.
