Bottle Conditioning

[Western Brewer]

Hi
Drinking my Summer Lightning clone which is very drinkable but I have one question. It could do with a bit more carbonation for my tastes. Some bottles have more than others despite priming each bottle with 1/2 teaspoon of sugar. I think that some of them could of been a bit fuller to aid carbonation.
Now I did rack this into a secondary container for a couple of weeks, then bottled it. So was there enough yeast carry over for conditioning or should I have dunked the sypthon tube into the sediment in the primary to ensure enough yeast was carried over?
Thanks for your input.

[BlightyBrewer]

You should have had enough yeast in there. My bottled beers have been totally variable when it comes to carbonation, so I don't know what else to suggest.

[mysterio]

Undoubtedly there would have been enough yeast, dunking into the sediment would defeat the point of a secondary.

It sounds like you had varying levels in each bottle, this might have something to do with it. Generally bottles with less 'headspace' take longer to carbonate in my experience. The carbonation should level out, more or less, in a couple of weeks.

If not, I suggest for your next batch to dissolve a single amount of sugar (boiled in a cup of water to sanitise) in the secondary and giving it a stir (being careful not to aerate). This will help insure consistant carbonation. Also, when bottling it might help to put the siphon to the bottom of the bottle when filling so it doesnt foam up as much and it will be easier to fill to nearer the top (about 1cm/half an inch is recommended).

[bod]

i've always found adding the sugar in bulk to the bottling bucket beore racking the beer on top gave me a more uniform level of carbonation over all the bottles, instead of an amount of sugar in each bottle.

that and a little time always works a treat.

[PieOPah]

In the past, I have always bottled directly from the fermenter. I have a couple of problems with this -

a) It takes me an age to put the sugar in each bottle and then add a small amount of boiling water to disolve the sugar (and on 1 occassion the bottom of a bottle fell off due to the hot water...)

2) The carbonation levels ALWAYS vary. I try and put exactly the same amount of sugar/water in each and I try to fill them all the same amount, but this is impossible to do manually.

iii) Different amount of slurry get into each bottle. While not really a problem, it is something I would like to avoid if possible.

Since I moved on to all grain brewing, this means I now have a little more equipment than I did previously. From my Bucket in Bucket MT, I now have an extra fermenting vessel. This means that I now have 2 fermenters both with taps. So, what I plan on doing (and as yet haven't since I haven't used bottles for so long) is racking my beer to the spare fermenter. Prior to this, I will have added my priming sugar. This will get evenly distributed through the beer and the trub will be left behind (or what does come through will be evenly distributed!).

The result will be every single bottle should have the same carbonation.

[TheBigEasy]

Some bottles have more than others despite priming each bottle with 1/2 teaspoon of sugar

Its much better to add the sugar in bulk to the beer and then bottle. You get a much better distribution of sugar. 1/2 teaspoons can very greatly between bottles.

[noby]

As others have said, batch priming is the way to go. 1/2 teaspoons of sugar is just too fiddly. At least with a uniform amount of priming sugar in your bottles, you can eliminate this from your enquiries, and look at head space, caps etc.

POP's proposed method is exactly how I do it. Racking the beer onto your sugar solution will be enough to distribute it thoroughly through the beer; so no need to mix, and risk oxidation.

[Western Brewer]

Thanks for the advice I shall add the sugar to the beer before bottling next time.