The Uninitiated asks for Guidance from the Village Elders

[Heltor Chasca]

I come to you as an uninitiated member of the tribe to speak in peace and ask for advice from the wise village elders. While you are seated comfortably around the edge of the hut, and I am knelt pitifully on the floor, I want you to listen carefully to my problems.

(Well not really – I am after a few bits of advice about beer kits)

I have a 40 pint fermenting vessel bubbling away with Woodforde’s Admirals Reserve in it, and I am not far away from racking it off. I would like to bottle about 12 pints of it and store the rest of it in a pressure keg.

There seems to be 2 schools of thought: 1/ If you bottle it; put the priming sugar into the fermenting vessel before you the beer goes into the bottles. 2/ If you put it into a keg; put the priming sugar into the keg before you siphon it off.

Questions are (as I want a mixture of bottles/keg):

1/ Should I put the priming sugar into the fermenting vessel before transferring the wort into the bottles and then into the keg?

2/ Or should I put the priming sugar into the keg; siphon all of the beer into the keg and leave it for 2-3 weeks to settle/carbonate etc. Then can I bottle 12 bottles straight from the keg and the remainder of the beer stays in the keg?

3/ Or neither of these and you may offer some better advice?

Thank you all and I look forward to hearing your words of wisdom.

[Garth]

I would prime the keg and bottles separately, if you try and add the priming sugar to the fv you're going to stir up all the yeast and muck at the bottom when you try and evenly distribute the sugar.

If it's only 12 bottles, I would put 1/2 teaspoon of sugar in each one, then fill either directly from the fv, or from the keg after a week or so. Even if you've primed the keg, still prime the bottles later as most of the sugar will have been used up.

[Normski]

Hi Heltor Chasca

I’m not one of the elders, but I usually do the same as you are intending. Bottling some and kegging the rest.
I think quite a few also do this as you can leave a few bottles for a longer time to condition and find out how it would have tasted if you hadn't drank it all from the keg. Another useful thing is if you use one clear glass bottle, you will be able to see it as it clears, You do need to keep the clear glass bottle in the dark or cover with a cloth so as not to let sunlight get to it.

I bottle 8 x 500ml and keg the rest. Do not add the priming sugar or whatever you are going to use to prime to the fermenting bin. It has sediment at the bottom and you don’t want to stir this up.
I normally use around 85g in total. I simply measure the priming sugar in to a sterilized pot and weigh it. then add a half teaspoon to each 500ml sterilized bottle before adding the beer, then cap it and give it a few shakes.
This usually leaves me the exact amount to prime the keg, for the amount of beer that is left in the fermenting bin. I simply add the priming sugar to the keg as the beer is gently being filled into the keg, Let it half fill and then it will mix in its self. Pour the beer in to the keg as gently as posible, do not splash it, I use a tube and make sure it is resting on the bottom of the keg, then the beer flows into the keg and does not splash. you can give it a little gentle stir, but i find this is not nessasary.
I have done this many times and it works for me.

Welcome to the site. Im sure there will be some more advise from others. Normski

[Heltor Chasca]

Thank you both. I'm thoroughly looking forward to trying out the techniques you've discussed on saturday...!

Equally I'm looking forward to being part of what looks like a fantastic forum.

If any other suggestions come up, I'll have my ear close to the ground.