Priming and Bottling

[mdex]

After reading through the forum I have seen a few different ways of doing this and though i'd ask a few questions before I bottle mine.

When I started the brew I used Asda bottled water and replace the caps straight after pouring. Will these bottles be ok to bottle to straight away or will I have to resanitise them?

When priming I would like to get an even taste across each bottle so don't want to guess half a teaspoon full for each bottle. I have a spare FV which I was planning on using to add the priming sugars but can I not just add them to the original vessel?

Mat

[Madbrewer]

I guess the 'bottling bucket' idea is to allow you to rack the beer off the sediment anyway and as it's goign to get a little agitation doing so - it's going to thoroughly mix the sugars into solution. Your solution would 'do' but you do need to make sure they are well mixed without getting air into solution. The yeast though?? Aren't you in danger of mixing that back into solution??

[mdex]

So I guess using the bottling bucket is a better idea aslong as I don't aerate the beer to much.

[randomdave]

Ive done 2 lager kits so far. all i did to prime mine was add the appropriate amount of sugar to boiled water (an a pyrex jug). mixed it up, microwaved it for 2 mins just to make sure no nasties in it, covered it an let it cool till about room temp. I then poured it into the FV gave a gentle mix and left that for about 30 mins to settle. then bottled it up. The first batch had some lovely carboonation. second batch has only been bottled 3 days an that too his getting nice an fizzy.

[MightyMouth]

You need to sanitise the water bottles before use, no sense ruining a perfectly good beer just to save a few minutes work.

I usually use a bottling bucket myself just to get the beer off the sedement so I can mix in the priming sugar but my last brew was a 10 gallon brew so I had no way to do this as both buckets were in use. I just drew off 500ml of beer from each bucket and added 50g priming sugar to each and then mixed them back in gently in when the mixtures had cooled and left it for 30 minutes to settle. This worked out just was well IMO so both ways are fine.

[mdex]

50g of sugar?

Is that enough? I have read about people using 100g or more for a 5 gallon brew.

I will be also be kegging a brew would that need more/less/same priming?

[Marts]

added 50g priming sugar to each

Depends how carbonated you want it I guess.

[MightyMouth]

I have tried everything from 30g to 90g for 23lt brew and found that 90g is like fizzy pop, anything over 70g is over carbonated and 50g is about what you get out of a cask which is what I like for most of my beers.

[randomdave]

as said before it depends how fizzy you want it. With my Lager kit i used 8g of sugar per ltr so used about 160g. Im sure you dont want beer that fizzy though.

[mdex]

Think i'll go midpoint 75g with my first lot and decide from there

[RichardG]

Thought I'd share my efforts with you all. I bottle my beer, but am not in the fortunate position of having a separate bottling bucket (must deal with that!). At first I followed the half-teaspoon per bottle system; very fiddly and obviously variable amounts per bottle. Didn't seem to cause any issue with my first brew though (a Woodfordes Wherry) beyond being fiddly! However my next brew (Muntons Traditional Bitter) has come out way over carbonated which may, or may not, be as a result of too much sugar in the bottles. After that I tried measuring out 80g of sugar, boiling that with 150mls of water then using a sterilised syringe to transfer that to bottles. Problem here is that I mis-calculated the total new volume and ended up with a fair bit of solution left. I'll find out in due course, but this brew may be under carbonated. It's also still fiddly. So, for my Nog which I bottled last night I decided to transfer the priming solution (75g sugar boiled in 150mls water, then allowed to cool to room temperature; the pan was covered with cling film during cooling) straight from the pan to the FV; gentle stir being careful not to disturb the sediment, then leave for 30 minutes, then bottle. The advantage of this for me is that it's a heck of alot easier, I hope to get a more even distribution of priming solution, and hopefully and can maintain sterility more effectively. As to any disadvantages, well, we'll see!

[MightyMouth]

@RichardG

I think you will find it works out much better that way but it would be too carbonated for my liking with that much sugar. I like an ale to be carbonated but with no fizz if you know what I mean. 50-55g per 5 gallons achieves this for me. The only thing I found different doing it that was rather than using a bottling bucket was a little more sediment in the bottles but perfectly acceptable and far easier.

[RichardG]

Yeah I was wondering about that myself MM. Time will tell of course, but I'll certainly remember your comments next time! I'm with you on the 'fizz' question. One obviously needs a certain amount of 'life' in the beer, but I prefer not to have much.