Best way to prime my bottles.

[tightbarsteward]

My 1st ever brew is fermenting nicely so i've been giving some thought to the best way of priming for bottling. Being a novice I'm not sure best way of doing it with the equipment I have.

At the mo my IPA is a an FV with a tap so I have a bottle stick and was just going to fill the bottles straight from the FV. Can I just prime the FV and stir it up a bit? Will that work OK?
Having looked at CrownCaps informative post on bottling I am now in 2, maybe 3 minds.

I have an empty FV but with no tap. I may be able to fit a tap on it. If I can i'm thinking of priming this FV and transfering my brew to it then bottle from this as per Crown Cap did.
Or
Is it feasable just to put a bit of sugar straight into the bottle before they are filled or would that be a pain in the arse?

Also there may be other methods I'm not aware of if anyone could shed some light it would be most appreciated.

[Swiller]

I put mine straight into the bottles it only takes a few minutes, you can carefully transfer the brew into another fv and gently stir in the priming sugar, I would recomend making a syrup of it first by mixing the sugar with water and microwaving it in a pyrex measuring jug then letting it cool covered before you add it, again being carefull not to release too much Co2 when stiring. By stirring the sugar into the fv that the brew is in you risk disturbing the yeast sediment, and as you have no tap on the other fv I would go for the sugar in the bottle way. More than likely someone on here will disagree.

[tightbarsteward]

Cheers for the reply. Just found this link http://web.archive.org/web/200703201726 ... ttling.htm

It says you can add the cooled sugars to the primary fermenter bucket and bottle from that so i'm just going to go down that route and see how it goes.

[mickhew]

I've added priming sugar to the FV a few times now, and bottled from there, it works fine, and saves time too. I use 85g sugar (for ales) , dissolved in boiling water, then cooled, added to FV, left for 10 mins, then gently stir it. The sugar solution should sink on it's own to a degree. Transferring to another bucket, or priming bottles is too time consuming for me.

[floydmeddler]

I've added priming sugar to the FV a few times now, and bottled from there, it works fine, and saves time too. I use 85g sugar (for ales) , dissolved in boiling water, then cooled, added to FV, left for 10 mins, then gently stir it. The sugar solution should sink on it's own to a degree. Transferring to another bucket, or priming bottles is too time consuming for me.

Don't you stir up sediment? You'd hate my process: Primary then secondary, then to a priming bucket then bottled.

[MightyMouth]

The best way IMO is to draw off about 500ml of beer and add 65g of sugar to it and heat it to boiling in the Microwave stirring the sugar in about halfway through then let it cool to room temperature either by placing the measuring jug in some water or just let it cool naturally. The gently stir this into the FV. If you stir very gently you wont raise the sediment and you will get a much more even priming through the batch.

[neilos]

I've only done 2 brews, but I'm really happy with my method I use, seem to be getting good results so far

I ferment as usual in FV#1 with a tap set about 30mm from the bottom of the bucket to avoid as much sediment as possible. When I'm ready to bottle I fill up FV#2 with sanitising solution and sanitise all my bottling equipment. Once sanitised I empty the now sanitised FV (with a tap set as low as I could get it) and get ready to transfer my brew. I dissolve my sugar in about 200ml of water and boil in the microwave, then allow to cool to room temp. I raise FV#1 up onto the worktop and attach 2 meters pipe to the tap of FV#1. I actually fill up the tube with sanitising solution with the aid of a siphon clip at one end. I've found that this stops and air bubbles travelling back into the FV. I open up the tap and obviously nothing comes out until you release the clip at the other end. I release the clip and drain off the existing fluid in the pipe and the first bit of brew as this will contain yeast that has settled in the tap. Clip back up and I'm ready to go. Put FV#2 on the floor below FV#1, add the sugar solution. Then ensuring the pipe is coiled up into the bottom of FV#2 (I have a long pipe as I find it works better) I release the clip and allow FV#1 to empty out, tipping FV#1 as it gets to the bottom to avoid any air gulping down the pipe. Then swap the FV's over, using FV#1 as a drip tray for bottling up. I over hang my bottling stick over the edge of the work top right infront of my white washing machine, as this makes it easier to see how full my brown bottles are!

I'm sure much of that is technically wrong, but it works well for me!

[6470zzy]

You could give Munton's Carb Tabs a whirl too, they are fine if you are only bottling a few. Other than that just add the liquefied sugar to your bottling bucket and you are in business.

http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipa ... ation.html

Check out the calculator, it can be helpful.

Cheers

[tightbarsteward]

Cheers for all your replies. The calculator is interesting and has thrown up another question.

According to the calc, if I have 23L at 21C for IPA I would need to prime (with corn sugar which I think is dextrose?) with around 135g. However in the kit instructions it says prime the bottles at the rate of 8g sugar per litre x 23L = 184g which, having read from other priming posts seems a shit load of sugar!

Does this amount sound plausible or is my 14 year old son gonna wake up covered in glass and beer when the bottles explode in the airing cupboard above his bed?!!!

[6470zzy]

Cheers for all your replies. The calculator is interesting and has thrown up another question.

According to the calc, if I have 23L at 21C for IPA I would need to prime (with corn sugar which I think is dextrose?) with around 135g. However in the kit instructions it says prime the bottles at the rate of 8g sugar per litre x 23L = 184g which, having read from other priming posts seems a BS load of sugar!

Does this amount sound plausible or is my 14 year old son gonna wake up covered in glass and beer when the bottles explode in the airing cupboard above his bed?!!!

I think that 135gm sounds like an appropriate amount to me

Cheers

[MightyMouth]

My personal opinion it that is way too much priming sugar for an IPA. I would say no more than 75g for 23 litres unless you like very carbonated beer. I usually prime with 130g for 46 litres for ales.

[scottmoss]

hi,

I prime all my kegged beer with 3.5oz (100g) and they turn out great.

[floydmeddler]

My personal opinion it that is way too much priming sugar for an IPA. I would say no more than 75g for 23 litres unless you like very carbonated beer. I usually prime with 130g for 46 litres for ales.

Yes, that will be very fizzy. I've always went for 80g (1.8 volumes) and now feel it is too much. I want to replicate cask ales as much as possible so am planning on much less next time. Probably around 65g.