Batch priming

Hi all

I batch primed for the first time with a Mosaic SMaSH last month. I tried a couple of bottles after 2 weeks carbing and they were drastically under carbed. Both were the last bottles I filled (I know they are because they are 330ml)

I’d assumed it was because I’d cold crashed for the first time so it was taking longer. I tried a bottle on the 21st and it was carbed to perfection but still felt like it needed some time to condition (head retention was poor, tasted “Young” etc).

I’ve opened 2 bottles tonight - one is like the last one I tried but ready for drinking but the other was a gusher. The gusher was one of the first bottles I filled (it was a flip top).

My bottles were spotless - washed, dishwashered, rinsed then Starsan so I can only think that it was uneven batch priming.

I dissolved enough caster sugar for 2.5 volumes of CO2 in boiling water, let it cool a little then added to my Fermentasaurus in the garage (after removing the trub/yeast collection bottle). I then carried the FV from the garage to the house and put it in the utility (which should have mixed the solution). I then left it to settle before bottling.

Have I done anything wrong here? Think I’ll be going back to sugar in each bottle if this happens the second time.

I think that the sugar solution will have made it to the bottom and not mixed in properly. How long did you leave it between adding the sugar solution and bottling?

Hi!
I always put the sugar solution in the bottom of the bottling bucket and transfer from the FV onto the sugar solution.
I have forgotten and added the sugar solution after the transfer, but I always give it a good stir and let it settle overnight in the cold.

Particularly if you cold crashed,

Bigcol49 said:

Hi!
I always put the sugar solution in the bottom of the bottling bucket and transfer from the FV onto the sugar solution.
I have forgotten and added the sugar solution after the transfer, but I always give it a good stir and let it settle overnight in the cold.

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+1 to this. I get a good swirl going on in my bottling bucket if I forget to add it before. Very little splashing / oxidation that way.

Sounds like the solution settled on the bottom and wasn't mixed

brewhaha said:

Particularly if you cold crashed,

+1 to this. I get a good swirl going on in my bottling bucket if I forget to add it before. Very little splashing / oxidation that way.

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+1 to this except I used to always bottle it straight away.

Thanks all, I’d only left it an hour or so, so that must have been my problem. It was still drinkable (very drinkable, lovely drop) so I’ll just make sure everything is well chilled and warn my Hogmanay party attendees that it’ll be a bit fizzier than it should!

I tried batch priming a few times but I found a funnel and spoon took less than 5 minutes for 40 bottles.

I always batch prime these days and have found a method that gives me better consistency than bottle primingbused to.

I dissolve my priming sugar in boiling water and add to bottling bucket as beer is being siphoned from primary FV I to bottling bucket.
I sort out the bottles with star san as the siphon is ongoing and then bottle straight away.
I’ve had neither a gusher or a flat bottle in the 4 brews I’ve done this way recently.

BeerCat said:

I tried batch priming a few times but I found a funnel and spoon took less than 5 minutes for 40 bottles.

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I think I’ll probably go back to bottle priming. All this talk of leaving overnight or using a bottling bucket kind of defeats the purpose of saving me time in my bottling.

I have “spoon scales” that get me a pretty consistent level of carbonation so I was really only wanting to save some time on bottling day but it doesn’t look like batch priming will.

MickDundee said:

I think I’ll probably go back to bottle priming. All this talk of leaving overnight or using a bottling bucket kind of defeats the purpose of saving me time in my bottling.

I have “spoon scales” that get me a pretty consistent level of carbonation so I was really only wanting to save some time on bottling day but it doesn’t look like batch priming will.

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Hi Mick I find using a teaspoon and wiping it over with the back of a knife gives me perfect average carbonation ( you can use different teaspoon for different carbing as they do not all measure the same). I have never had a gusher using this system and prefer it to transferring to another bucket so as not to oxygenate the beer more than I have to. But everyone to a system that works for them as once more the art of brewing is a science but not cast in stone.

If I'm bottling I use a tsp measure that came with a breadmaker and I keep that exclusively for brewing. And that's my advice to anyone using a measure to prime, i.e. find a measure (or measures if it suits) and use only for brewing. And if you want to find out how much your measure of sugar weighs, simply weigh out 20 measures of sugar and then divide by 20 to get the weight per measure. My 'teaspoon' is about 4.5g sugar.

MickDundee said:

I think I’ll probably go back to bottle priming. All this talk of leaving overnight or using a bottling bucket kind of defeats the purpose of saving me time in my bottling.

I have “spoon scales” that get me a pretty consistent level of carbonation so I was really only wanting to save some time on bottling day but it doesn’t look like batch priming will.

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If you can get your Mrs to move the funnel it's even quicker.

Why would you ever need to leave it over night, it would start fermenting and therefore not give you the correct carb in the bottle 30 mins is more than enough for me. No need for a separate fv either. Just give it a little swir.

Leon103 said:

Why would you ever need to leave it over night

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Hi!
If I've had to stir the beer, I leave it overnight to allow settling. The beer is already cold, having been cold-crashed, and keeping it cold inhibits fermentation.
Transferring onto the sugar solution means that bottling can take place immediately.

I have found the most reliable method for me.

For 40 bottles (20l): I measure out enough sugar for 25l, dissolve in boiling water so that I have 250ml of sugar solution.

Using an old Calpol syringe each bottle gets exactly 5ml of sugar solution before bottling.

I should always have 50ml spare just in case there are more bottles to prime than expected.

MickDundee said:

I’d assumed it was because I’d cold crashed for the first time so it was taking longer. I tried a bottle on the 21st and it was carbed to perfection but still felt like it needed some time to condition (head retention was poor, tasted “Young” etc).

I’ve opened 2 bottles tonight - one is like the last one I tried but ready for drinking but the other was a gusher. The gusher was one of the first bottles I filled (it was a flip top).

I dissolved enough caster sugar for 2.5 volumes of CO2 in boiling water, let it cool a little then added to my Fermentasaurus in the garage (after removing the trub/yeast collection bottle). I then carried the FV from the garage to the house and put it in the utility (which should have mixed the solution). I then left it to settle before bottling.

.

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Having read all this thread my theory is that the issue here is that you used a conical fermenter to batch prime with, and the sugar solution has eventually settled at the smallest point of the cone shaped bottom which is why one of the first bottles you filled was a gusher, and others have been under primed.

I batch prime and transfer to a bottling bucket using a tube pointed to the side, allowing a gentle whirlpool effect of my beer so i know the boiled sugar solution has mixed well. I then normally bottle about 10 minutes later, if you would rather not use a bottling bucket then i would go back to your previous method which im guessing is quicker anyway when you have a conical FV