Witbier - carbonation level/ sugar level?

[brewbear]

I have a witbier that looks to be finished fermenting (from 1052 to 1010 after 14 days). I intend to bottle this one, but whenever I've done hefeweisse I've been disappointed and seemed to have severely under-carbonated. I always bottle with 1/2tsp table sugar. I don't have a bottling bucket available, and use a bottling wand straight from primary, with sugar directly in each bottle.

Any experiences/ suggestions of the right sugar level for a witbier? When I looked in to hefeweisse, it seemed I was using almost half as much sugar as needed.

For reference, the beer is currently at 21c in the brewfridge, and I'm aiming for Hoegaarden levels of carbonation. Any suggestions/ recommendations gratefully received!

[Jocky]

2.5-2.9 volumes of carbonation will get you what you want. That's going to be 6.5-8g sugar per litre.

Batch priming makes this easier - make a sugar solution for the whole batch amount (boil the required sugar in some water for 5 minutes) and then mix in a bottling bucket.

Or you can try chilling your FV down as far as you can for a day or two, and then add the sugar solution direct to the fermenter. Swirl it slightly as you do so and leave for a few minutes to diffuse. Then bottle away.

[brewbear]

Cheers, Jocky. At another time of year I'd go with your last suggestion, but with ambient temps so high I'm not sure my brewfridge will be able to achieve low temps. I'll keep that in mind do future though.

Thanks for the note on sugar levels.

[Jocky]

Chilling is just a precaution to stop the large volume of yeast rapidly eating the sugar before you can bottle it all, but I suspect it's not particularly necessary.

FYI my brew fridge is outside and hasn't had any problems pulling beer down to 2-3c even in the warm weather.