Bulk primed my batch - have i ruined it?

[ar_fudge]

Hi,

I am new to home brewing and I am currently brewing a 40 pint lager kit.

All seems to be going ok, fermentation went as described and afterwards I transferred by batch into a pressurised plastic keg along with the priming syrup as suggested expecting to leave the keg until it the lager was ready to drink.

At this point I was doing some further reading online and found out that brewing lager in a keg will never produce a fizzy lager as the keg cannot withstand enough pressure to carbonate the beer, and that you're better off bottling your brew if you want it fizzy. I do not want to produce 40 pints of flat lager, so I have taken delivery of some PET bottles to transfer my brew into.

My issue is that I added my priming sugar to my keg along with my brew 48 hours ago. If I bottle this now will the batch still be ok? or has too much time lapsed in between adding the priming sugar and bottling to achieve a fizzy lager at the end?

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!

 

[GHW]

Pressure barrels produce a carbonation more like a draught pint of bitter, rather than bubbly fizz, so yes, not ideal for lager.

You can bottle, the tricky bit is that you won't know how much of the sugar has already been converted to co2. I've done it before, when a barrel leaked, and I reprimed the bottles. The resulting brew was fizzier than I wanted it, but ok.

I'd open the barrel just a crack to let out any gas slowly, and leave overnight. That'll get most of the gas out without exposing to the air. You don't want any gas still in the beer when you bottle as it will just froth up as you bottle it, which is a real pain, and messy.

Prime the bottles lightly, so maybe 2g per 500ml bottle. That would be normal for an ale, but perhaps light for a lager. That will give you a bit of leeway if there's still residual sugar in the barrel that's hasn't been converted yet.

Keep the bottles in a box in case any blow their kids or explode (unlikely unless you go mad on the priming)

It's a bit of a hit and miss process in my experience, but doable. Good luck though!

 

[Dutto]

I've got this vision of a man with one foot on the quay and his other foot in a boat that is fast moving into the middle of the river!!

It's a fairly good analogy because, just like the man, you have to make a decision fairly soon or finish up getting stuffed!

I've had lager in a keg that has been so "frothy" that it took a good five minutes to pour a pint of liquid (I overdosed on the priming sugar) so you can get lager with a head from a keg; just probably not sufficient for your taste!

Back to your current problem, it very much depends on where you had the keg for the last 48 hours. If it was somewhere nice and warm (where it should have been) then the carbonation will be well underway and a certain amount of the priming sugar will have been used up. How much is beyond my ken to calculate but if you just swing it across into bottles the chances are that you will produce (horror of horrors) a flat lager.

Put it back in the keg and ditto.

I see that I have just been superseded by Garethhuwwilliams. His advice is spot on ...

... but the boat is still moving away from the quay! :whistle: :whistle:

 

[ar_fudge]

Thanks for the advice Gareth, really appreciate it!

It's good to know I've not ruined the batch, I shall follow your advice and hope for some bubbles at the end!

:

 

[ar_fudge]

I've got this vision of a man with one foot on the quay and his other foot in a boat that is fast moving into the middle of the river!!

It's a fairly good analogy because, just like the man, you have to make a decision fairly soon or finish up getting stuffed!

I've had lager in a keg that has been so "frothy" that it took a good five minutes to pour a pint of liquid (I overdosed on the priming sugar) so you can get lager with a head from a keg; just probably not sufficient for your taste!

Back to your current problem, it very much depends on where you had the keg for the last 48 hours. If it was somewhere nice and warm (where it should have been) then the carbonation will be well underway and a certain amount of the priming sugar will have been used up. How much is beyond my ken to calculate but if you just swing it across into bottles the chances are that you will produce (horror of horrors) a flat lager.

Put it back in the keg and ditto.

I see that I have just been superseded by Garethhuwwilliams. His advice is spot on ...

... but the boat is still moving away from the quay! :whistle: :whistle:

Ha ha. I'd better get a wriggle on then Dutto!!

 

[terrym]

Before you leap into the great unknown, how much priming sugar did you use?
You may have used enough to give your lager enough carbonation for it to be OK
By opening up and bottling with guessed amounts of priming sugar you can still end up with bottle bombs or flat lager.
Why not just leave it in the warm place for a week or more as you were going to do, then try it. You might find the carbonation is OK. If its not to your liking you can then release the pressure, swirl it round to redistribute the yeast, and bottle with the correct amount of priming sugar since you will have effectively started again.

 

[ar_fudge]

Before you leap into the great unknown, how much priming sugar did you use?
You may have used enough to give your lager enough carbonation for it to be OK
By opening up and bottling with guessed amounts of priming sugar you can still end up with bottle bombs or flat lager.
Why not just leave it in the warm place for a week or more as you were going to do, then try it. You might find the carbonation is OK. If its not to your liking you can then release the pressure, swirl it round to redistribute the yeast, and bottle with the correct amount of priming sugar since you will have effectively started again.

I did as the kit instructed and used 85 grams of sugar for approximately 40 pints.

 

[ManseMasher]

http://www.brewersfriend.com/beer-priming-calculator/

That seems a little on the low side for a lager according to the calc in the link....

 

[dad_of_jon]

Thanks for the advice Gareth, really appreciate it!

It's good to know I've not ruined the batch, I shall follow your advice and hope for some bubbles at the end!

:

as you have pet bottles you can always release a bit of gas if they get too hard

(unlike glass bottles with caps so you have more margin for error with priming sugar there. )

 

[terrym]

I did as the kit instructed and used 85 grams of sugar for approximately 40 pints.

It is a bit on the low side as ManseMasher has said, but you would have bottled with that amount anyway if you hadn't had a PB so carbonation would have been about the same!
Anyway my advice still applies.

 

[Spapro]

Using much more that 85-100g in a pressure barrel is a waste of sugar, they only hold about 7-8psi before the pressure relief valve vents the excess CO2 off (if the pressure barrel lid has a valve fitted which most do).

So if the OP had added 150g to make things fizzier then the carb level would have been about the same as 85-100g in the end (assuming the pressure reliefe valve is there).

Should still end up with a decent pint and can bottle the next one with 150g of sugar batch primed before bottling for a fizzier 'lager' level of carbonation.

 

[ar_fudge]

Before you leap into the great unknown, how much priming sugar did you use?
You may have used enough to give your lager enough carbonation for it to be OK
By opening up and bottling with guessed amounts of priming sugar you can still end up with bottle bombs or flat lager.
Why not just leave it in the warm place for a week or more as you were going to do, then try it. You might find the carbonation is OK. If its not to your liking you can then release the pressure, swirl it round to redistribute the yeast, and bottle with the correct amount of priming sugar since you will have effectively started again.

Thank you for providing me with an alternative terrym. I have however bottled now with 2g's of sugar in each bottle. I'm a little too impatient to wait another week to then re prime the batch. I know I need show a bit more patience if home brewing is going to work out for me, but surely I can be excused this one time, with it being my 1st attempt?!

 

[ar_fudge]

ManseMasher and Spapro, do these lager kits air on the side of caution then when advising the amount of sugar to prime with? it's good to know there are other resources out there like brewersfriend's priming calculator, which I will be taking a look at for future brews.

 

[terrym]

I'm a little too impatient to wait another week to then re prime the batch. I know I need show a bit more patience if home brewing is going to work out for me, but surely I can be excused this one time, with it being my 1st attempt?!

Patience is the friend of the Homebrewer (repeated below :whistle:).
Nevertheless hope your first brew is a success :thumb:

 

[Spapro]

ManseMasher and Spapro, do these lager kits air on the side of caution then when advising the amount of sugar to prime with? it's good to know there are other resources out there like brewersfriend's priming calculator, which I will be taking a look at for future brews.

Not sure why they recommend 85g of sugar for a lager kit, unless its specifically for kegging as thats about right for a keg.

As mentioned by others there are carbonation calculators which are good to use as the temp of your beer when bottling (ie chilled or room temp) when bottling do affect a little the amount of sugar to use. This is because the amount of dissolved Co2 already in the beer is affected by its temp.

However as a very general rule of thumb for a lager a good starting point is:
150gms sugar for 22litres batch priming
= 7gms per litre
= 3.5gms per 500ml bottle.

I only ever use regular tate and lyle style white kitchen sugar for priming, not sure how using dried malt extract or anything else affects the amounts used etc.

Obviously this is based on the brew fermenting out fully prior ot bottling so no residual sugars left in unfermented which could lead to bottle bombs.

Hope this helps