Priming bottles with a syringe

[user 47834]

If you do boil you have to deal with evaporation and all of your previous calculations will be out. Would have to measure volume after boiling and work out your dose again. You won’t have a nice round number like 10ml though.

Simmer for a minute is all you need, vaporation will be negligible, especially if you use a lid

 

[pilgrimhudd]

This is becoming far too complicated.
For a 20l batch
Put a jug on a scale and zero.
Weigh sugar eg 5g x 20l = 100g
Add boiling water UP TO 200ml INCLUDING the volume of the sugar.
Stir and you end up with 200ml of sugar solution.
5ml of sugar solution per 500ml bottle is the same as 2.5g of sugar per 500ml
As long as you top up to 200ml you will have 40 x 5ml doses.
Increase or decrease the amount of sugar to your carbonation preference. Eg 3/4tsp per bottle would be 7.5g x 20l = 150g.
Still top UP TO 200ml.

This is exactly what I do. A 200ml sugar solution 5ml per bottle, the amount of sugar depends on style, Saison gets about 120g, Bitters get 50g for example.

 

[Agentgonzo]

Well with a 1/2 teaspoon you can do level, slightly raised, rounded, heaped. I work it out first using the coffee scales (now I realise it sounds fussy as well) to get the target amount. If I can’t manage well enough I try with 1/4 teaspoon.

That's what I do too. Sometimes "a generous half teaspoons", sometimes "a bit under a half teaspoon"

 

[MashBag]

No?

IMO it's a bit OTT, but then I am not a bleach queen

 

[MashBag]

This is becoming far too complicated.
For a 20l batch
Put a jug on a scale and zero.
Weigh sugar eg 5g x 20l = 100g
Add boiling water UP TO 200ml INCLUDING the volume of the sugar.
Stir and you end up with 200ml of sugar solution.
5ml of sugar solution per 500ml bottle is the same as 2.5g of sugar per 500ml
As long as you top up to 200ml you will have 40 x 5ml doses.
Increase or decrease the amount of sugar to your carbonation preference. Eg 3/4tsp per bottle would be 7.5g x 20l = 150g.
Still top UP TO 200ml.

Yes. This is becoming far far too complicated.

 

[Agentgonzo]

IMO it's a bit OTT, but then I am not a bleach queen

I agree it's a bit OTT. As I've said, I do wonder if it makes any difference. But with a stainless steel funnel, it takes literally seconds. Not exactly a problem, and gives that slight peace of mind

 

[Brewshed]

I both prime and fine my bottles with a syringe and it works very well. For a 40 bottle batch I sterilise a jug and dissolve 6g of gelatine in boiling water and then dissolve 80g of caster sugar in the resulting solution. I then make up the volume to 200ml with boiling water and use a 20ml syringe to add 5ml of priming/fining solution to each bottle after filling it. This system is very quick and easy and has always worked really well.

 

[nidge]

I’ve just this second finished bottling 20 ltrs of my Saison and I dissolved 180g of sugar in 400ml of boiled water. Then used a 5ml syringe to add 2 lots to each bottle, hopefully getting 3.2 volumes of CO2.

Used pet bottles and it was so much easier than crown caps.

Was just reading down this thread to post the syringing method that I use to prime. I do the same as yourself SMP for my 40 bottles but make 10% more than required, so I'd do 198g in 440ml for your 3.2 volumes as sometimes I get 42-43 bottles out of the FV if I'm lucky . Saves having to make a second 15 or 20ml batch up if I'm short. Can i ask do you squeeze the air out of your pet bottles before capping?

 

[bobukbrewer]

You need to make the dosing syrup more runny, and your beer a bit stronger, which will give you around an extra 2 litres of product. But... I have always used a small plastic funnel and brewing sugar, with no problems at all, no clogging on the spout of the funnel.........

 

[SMP Brewery]

Was just reading down this thread to post the syringing method that I use to prime. I do the same as yourself SMP for my 40 bottles but make 10% more than required, Can i ask do you squeeze the air out of your pet bottles before capping?

I had luckily exactly 40 bottles worth. And yes I did squeeze the air out.

 

[Ale House Rock]

Well this thread has been an eye opener.

My plan was to use a funnel and a small measuring cup with 4g of priming sugar per 500ml bottle. I have been worrying about any damp clogging the funnel and was going to try to solve this by drying the cup, funnel and tops of bottles with a hair dryer after sterilisation to ensure everything is bone dry. Not sure if that would have worked, but can't see why it wouldn't, has anyone tried that before?

Now I have read this though, I am thinking I will just dissolve my sugar in water and use an old calpol syringe. 160g sugar in a measuring jug, topped up to 200ml of water to dissolve will give me 4g sugar for every 5ml portion.

Pretty sure I have my maths correct on that?

I primed this way once but found it too much of a faff so always batch prime now. Anyway, I'm not intending to put you off giving a go but what I'd suggest is you make a small excess so that you can be sure that you won't run out of your sugary solution before priming all 40 bottles. Maybe allow for 45 to 50 bottles depending on what you have available to measure the final volume.

 

[moto748]

Agree with the above; I always allow for a few extra 'doses'.

If anyone needs any 5 ml syringes, I have a few of them....

 

[Neale]

This is becoming far too complicated.
For a 20l batch
Put a jug on a scale and zero.
Weigh sugar eg 5g x 20l = 100g
Add boiling water UP TO 200ml INCLUDING the volume of the sugar.
Stir and you end up with 200ml of sugar solution.
5ml of sugar solution per 500ml bottle is the same as 2.5g of sugar per 500ml
As long as you top up to 200ml you will have 40 x 5ml doses.
Increase or decrease the amount of sugar to your carbonation preference. Eg 3/4tsp per bottle would be 7.5g x 20l = 150g.
Still top UP TO 200ml.

Ive been using this method for a year or so now and its incredibly easy. I just weigh the appropriate amount of standard table sugar then pour boiling water up to the 200ml mark and stir for a minute or two. Never had any infections.

The best part is that a calpol syringe is actually about 5.25ml when pulled all the way to the stop. I fill my 500ml bottles pretty much to the brim so its just a full calpol syringe for each bottle.

Sometimes I fill 330ml bottles as well so I use the same solution but only put 3.4ml of sugar solution in, (340ml filled to the brim). So basically what ever volume your bottle is just divide the bottle volume by 100 and thats how many ml to put in each bottle. Easy.

The sugar solution flows out of the syringe without any problem. I fill all the bottles I'm expecting to use with the hot sugar solution in one go. It cools pretty quick in the bottle. Then I take the prepared bottles to the FV to fill them.

 

[evil.soup]

Ive been using this method for a year or so now and its incredibly easy. I just weigh the appropriate amount of standard table sugar then pour boiling water up to the 200ml mark and stir for a minute or two. Never had any infections.

The best part is that a calpol syringe is actually about 5.25ml when pulled all the way to the stop. I fill my 500ml bottles pretty much to the brim so its just a full calpol syringe for each bottle.

Sometimes I fill 330ml bottles as well so I use the same solution but only put 3.4ml of sugar solution in, (340ml filled to the brim). So basically what ever volume your bottle is just divide the bottle volume by 100 and thats how many ml to put in each bottle. Easy.

The sugar solution flows out of the syringe without any problem. I fill all the bottles I'm expecting to use with the hot sugar solution in one go. It cools pretty quick in the bottle. Then I take the prepared bottles to the FV to fill them.

That is pretty much what I will be doing, should be far easier and my split into 200ml of water will give me 5ml fluid per dose.
How much sugar do you normally mix with 200ml?

 

[Spratt]

I'm sure I must be missing something here, but if you're using 500ml bottles why not just use those little sachets of sugar that you often get in B & Bs?

I have been doing that for the last couple of years and am happy with the result. Just snip the top off the packet and pour the contents straight in. No need for a funnel. and I've never Starsanned or anything like that.

 

[evil.soup]

I'm sure I must be missing something here, but if you're using 500ml bottles why not just use those little sachets of sugar that you often get in B & Bs?

I have been doing that for the last couple of years and am happy with the result. Just snip the top off the packet and pour the contents straight in. No need for a funnel. and I've never Starsanned or anything like that.

I have seen someone doing that in a you tube video, what weight of sugar are they normally though? (Heading to Greggs to fill me pockets...)

 

[Agentgonzo]

I have seen someone doing that in a you tube video, what weight of sugar are they normally though? (Heading to Greggs to fill me pockets...)

I just weighed a couple from different places (my family are like magpies). one vendor was 2.2g, another was 2.8g. So roughly half a teaspoon.

 

[evil.soup]

I just weighed a couple from different places (my family are like magpies). one vendor was 2.2g, another was 2.8g. So roughly half a teaspoon.

Useful info, cheers. I am a little stuck with 1kg of priming sugar to use up now of course, but handy for future reference.

It does leave me wondering, have a been fleeced paying around £3.50 for 1kg of priming sugar when 1kg of table sugar is under £1? Not the greatest loss in my life of course, again, just curious.

The priming sugar I have is like a fine powder rather than grains and seems an off white colour rather than bright white, so does that mean it is different from the stuff you can get in the shop, more efficient maybe?

 

[Steve.]

Using a funnel, I generally put my finger near the neck of the bottle so the funnel spout doesn’t touch anything, it never clogs. Only issue is with a lively brew that needs capping each time. Just stick the funnel in the sugar bowl to stop it getting damp. If you need to dry it spout you can use a cotton wool bud or rolled up kitchen roll

 

[Agentgonzo]

It does leave me wondering, have a been fleeced paying around £3.50 for 1kg of priming sugar when 1kg of table sugar is under £1? Not the greatest loss in my life of course, again, just curious.

It might be dextrose or glucose or some other sugar that's not table sugar, which the yeast would find easier to ferment. However, they find table sugar pretty easy to ferment, and the differences of different priming sugars have been shown to make no noticeable difference to the beer.

Though over the course of 5-10 batches that comes out at about a penny a pint... I wouldn't worry too much about the cost of it