Silver spoon sugar cubes

[An Ankoù]

Newby question – if you’re batch priming before bottling, do you use the full amount of sugar / spraymalt in the batch ? I just batch primed and bottled yesterday: instructions said “1tsp of DME per pint bottle“, I had 40 pints, I carefully measured that 1tsp of DME = 4g, so pre-dissolved 160g of DME in 500ml of water, quick boil, and once cooled I carefully poured it in the fermenter, then later bottled. Do I have box of grenades, or all good?

Provided you stirred it well to get even distribution, it should be spot on. Did you rack your beer off the yeast cake, first?

 

[SouthDownsBrewer]

Provided you stirred it well to get even distribution, it should be spot on. Did you rack your beer off the yeast cake, first?

Hi An Ankou, as a newby I’m not entirely sure what ‘racking off the yeast cake’ means. If it helps: I just opened the lid of the fermenter and gently poured the DME solution in, VERY gently stirred and left it 5-10 mins and bottled from a tap on the fermenter.

 

[An Ankoù]

As your beer ferments, it produces an excess of yeast, which, as fermentation subsides, sinks to the bottom of the fermenter taking with it, protein material and hop fragments. Depending on the yeast, this will form a hard cake. At this point, you've got a couple of choices, either leave it until it has really finished fermenting and you have a stable hydrometer reading and then bottle it by running it into bottles in which you have already put the priming sugar, or run it into a clean fermenter leaving the yeast behind. Again, there are two choices, either leave it some days in a cooler place until the beer is clear and then bottle into primed bottles, or, when it is clear, run it into a third vessel to which you add all the bottling sugars and stir very well to ensure these sugars are distributed throughout the beer and then bottle. This is called batch priming. Some brewers will leave their beer to ferment out in the first vessel and then carefully transfer it directly to the bottling bucket.
I don't know what stage you added your DME solution and I hope your stirring was sufficient.

 

[SouthDownsBrewer]

As your beer ferments, it produces an excess of yeast, which, as fermentation subsides, sinks to the bottom of the fermenter taking with it, protein material and hop fragments. Depending on the yeast, this will form a hard cake. At this point, you've got a couple of choices, either leave it until it has really finished fermenting and you have a stable hydrometer reading and then bottle it by running it into bottles in which you have already put the priming sugar, or run it into a clean fermenter leaving the yeast behind. Again, there are two choices, either leave it some days in a cooler place until the beer is clear and then bottle into primed bottles, or, when it is clear, run it into a third vessel to which you add all the bottling sugars and stir very well to ensure these sugars are distributed throughout the beer and then bottle. This is called batch priming. Some brewers will leave their beer to ferment out in the first vessel and then carefully transfer it directly to the bottling bucket.
I don't know what stage you added your DME solution and I hope your stirring was sufficient.

Thank you An Ankou for the really helpful advice. In this instance I left everything in the first vessel, VERY gently stirred in the DME solution and bottled. Finger crossed my stirring was sufficient. I have been reluctant to siphon into a second fermenter in the past because of the risk of oxidisation which I’ve read about.

 

[Nicks90]

I've also done this method before and won't bother again.
Very carefully stirred the sugar solution in to the FV and than bottled straight from the primary. I did disturb the yeast cake and the bottles were very cloudy.
It still carb'd up well and dropped clear after 2 weeks, but I had a much thicker sediment at the bottom and it was easily disturbed when pouring.

To me sanitising a second FV and transferring the beer then adding the batch priming sugar.... Takes longer than adding the sugar to each bottle. Plus adds in contamination and oxygenation risks that just isn't worth it.

 

[Darren Jeory]

I add sugar and water solution to my bottling bucket then syphon into it...always worked for me

 

[Dogbyte]

I`m going to be bottling a Will`s Old English Ale kit in about 10 days. I`ve just added hop pellets today. The kit came with a muslin bag so you can filter out the hops when bottling.

It`s currently in the Fermenting Vessel, which has no tap, and my intention is to siphon it through the bag into the Second Bucket, the one with a tap, and use the Bottle Wand to fill.

The kit comes with 130g Dextrose. The instructions are that I should dissolve it in some water and add it shortly before bottling.

As a Noob, is it going to be a problem ensuring it is evenly distributed? How much stirring will it need, given that introducing oxygen ( and bacteria) is a bad idea? Or if I just add it to the second tub first, will it mix up enough just by siphoning onto the top of it? Is this a bad way around to do it? Some perspective from more experienced brewers , please.

Or am I just overthinking this..... .

 

[Tommo 2]

Yes mate, just mix your priming sugar in some boiling water and cover jug or whatever you use with something and let cool, put in your bottling bucket then siphon your beer onto it making sure that there’s no splash involved, this will mix the sugar up pretty well but then I always stir very gently and slowly so,s not to introduce any oxygen at all, always done it this way and never had any problems whatsoever

 

[Nicks90]

Can I ask why people let it cool? It's 200ml hot water about to be diluted with 20+ liters of beer. It won't raise the temp. Or am I missing something?

 

[Darren Jeory]

I never let it cool...I think the number of yeast that will die before it cools would hardly be considered genocide...there are literally billions of the little fu**ers

 

[Victor Churchill]

Yep, I too just put the sugar in a jug with either some water or a bit of the brew, microwave for a minute and stir to dissolve the sugar, pour into my bottling bucket (which has a tap), syphon the beer into the bottling bucket from the FV, making sure that the end of the syphon tube is beneath the sugar solution. Then move the empt FV, lift the bottling bucket to where the FV was, and get bottling.
I don't stir, just let the sugar mix with the syphoning beer in the bucket. I do experience a little variation in fizz between individual bottles, but not a serious problem.

 

[moto748]

Everything I read on the many threads on this topic convinces me that syringing syrup into each bottle is the easier and best method. No need for an extra vessel, and you can be confident that exactly the same amount of sugar is going into every bottle. Then later, if you decide your carboration is little to much or too little, you can easily adjust next time.

Whilst bearing in mind the general point that what seems like insufficient carboration after say three weeks in the bottle, may be plenty after six weeks

 

[Festival Man]

Newby question – if you’re batch priming before bottling, do you use the full amount of sugar / spraymalt in the batch ? I just batch primed and bottled yesterday: instructions said “1tsp of DME per pint bottle“, I had 40 pints, I carefully measured that 1tsp of DME = 4g, so pre-dissolved 160g of DME in 500ml of water, quick boil, and once cooled I carefully poured it in the fermenter, then later bottled. Do I have box of grenades, or all good?

Grenades, Yes. You have used circa double the necessary priming sugar. When I prime 5 uk, gallons in a barrel, i use the rule of thumb, that is 1/2 oz for each gallon, so 2.5 ozs, (71gms)