What do you prime your bottled beer with and why

[Cazamodo]

At the recent Homebrew Festival I was chatting to a brewer with some years of experience who had had great results priming each 275ml bottle of imperial stout with a teaspoon of Port. I am going to give it a go, or at least a few bottles out of a batch

That sounds great. I'm definitely going to try that! Could try a Port Porter!!

Damn people are on to me

I brewed a porter with a recipe thrown together for work, and we decided to try it with port as a crazy experiment.
We now put a bottle of port in every 9 gallons, and the punters love it!
Saying that, we do serve it more from a keg than cask, but its darn good!

[CestrIan]

At the recent Homebrew Festival I was chatting to a brewer with some years of experience who had had great results priming each 275ml bottle of imperial stout with a teaspoon of Port. I am going to give it a go, or at least a few bottles out of a batch

That sounds great. I'm definitely going to try that! Could try a Port Porter!!

Damn people are on to me

I brewed a porter with a recipe thrown together for work, and we decided to try it with port as a crazy experiment.
We now put a bottle of port in every 9 gallons, and the punters love it!
Saying that, we do serve it more from a keg than cask, but its darn good!

That's good to know Caz!

If your serving from a keg I take it your just adding the port towards the end of fermentation. If it was a 750ml bottle in 9 gallon then that's 10ml per pint which is double what Boris suggested.

Any chance of posting the recipe (before I post one and take all the credit)?

[Cazamodo]

Haha unfortunately I cant post any work recipes. Yea its 750ml in 9gallons. I find it smoothes the harshness of the porter out. It was a pretty simple porter, nothing too special. I actually add the port when I fill the keg up, so when its fermented and crash cooled. Then give it a good shake before serving (this is bright beer in the keg)


EDIT - Also I wasnt paying attention when I replied, just to point out, I dont use this to prime at all, literally just an addition.

[Mther]

I was advised to use 132 grams for priming 25 L of american IPA. How much water would you use to make the syrup?

Also, does 132 gr sound reasonable?

[Hanglow]

I'd use a calculator

http://www.brewersfriend.com/beer-priming-calculator/


That's about 2.2 volumes which is fine, possibly a bit on the low side for an american IPA which tends to benefit from being fizzier. You could go to 150g or so . Just depends on how you like your beer

I'd use maybe 200g of water to keep it nice and runny (easier to dissolve into the beer)

[Mther]

Cheers Hanglow thanks for that.

[molehill]

I am trying dextrose brewing sugar as a bottling sugar for the first time and wondered what others are adding by weight to 25lt of English ale ... Tribute (1011 / 4.2 abv).

[fisherman]

When my stock of bottled beer is nearly full i bottle my last two ten gallon brews without any priming at all.By the time i come to drink them they have used some of the dextrins to carbonate perfectly if i mash on the warm side. I do hate over carbonated beer, I would rather undercarbonate and use the syringe method for draught beer. Fizz is out.

[normevans]

I generally prime with fermenting wort. I always rack into a secondary fermenter at terminal gravity and collect yeast from the primary. I use a 'Whitelabs' vial to store the yeast in the fridge and is best used within the next 2 weeks. The yeast is covered by beer and a bung and airlock fitted to the vial. The day before bottling I make a 'starter' of about 2litres using sugar and malt to an OG of 1.100 - 1.300. This is enough to prime 90-100 bottles, my usual brew length. Fermentation is usually at high krausen on the day of bottling. I then use a medicine dropper, the type with a bulb on the end and add 15ml -20-ml into a 500ml Grolsch bottle. This usually carbonates perfectly. The reason is that any oxygen pickup during bottling will be metabolised by the new injection of yeast. Adding yeast at this stage is beneficial for high alcohol brews, especially Belgian beers where the original yeast may be depleted. This is also true of lagers after a long cold ferment. The beer is carbonated and drinkable in 10 days but will improve noticeably if left longer. This may seem like a lot of mucking about but I think it is worth it as the carbonation is not overly gassy and head retention is improved.

[molehill]

I may have to give that a go at some point.