Bottling.

[cerevisia]

What do you good people use to prime your bottles with? I normally use the Coopers or Brewcraft sugar drops, but is there another way of doing this?

Thanks in advance.

[Reviled]

Do a search on bulk priming, thats the way to go - if you still want to bottle, but really, kegging is where its at, and yes, it is worth the money!!!

[cerevisia]

Great advice, thanks!

Am looking at kegging at some point too..

[denimglen]

I pretty much never bottle anymore but I go with the 'bulk priming' method.

Measure out the sugar needed and boil in a bit of water to make some syrup. Cool and pour gently into a bottling bucket. Rack beer on top. Add bottling 'wand' to tap and go for your life.

[cerevisia]

Thanks for the advice! :D

Er... Bulk priming method? How much would I need roughly for 330ml bottles? (Monteiths/Mac's/Hoegarrden/Tiger you get the idea..

Does it taste different/better than the sugar drops?

[Matthew]

I use dextrose. Got it from New World in the beer (homebrew) section. It was something like $3 for a kg. It's basically just really fine sugar.

[cerevisia]

Ah ok, thank you! How much do you put in per bottle?

[JoKing]

With bulk priming, your dont put the sugar in the bottle. You add it to either the fermenter (just before you bottle) or as DG says above into a seperate bottling bucket.

[cerevisia]

Ah ok, do I have to rack the beer in order to do this? (I've never racked before but I guess there's a first time for everything.) Or do I just add it to the brew in the fermenter?

[Matthew]

Couple of ways. Straight into the bottle use 1tsp of dex for 330ml. That should be plenty. I use 2 tsp for 750ml. For bulk priming it's probably best to rack to another container or fermenter so you're not bottling a chunk of that yeast cake at the bottom of the primary. I have some tubing and just siphon it from one to the other. I personally just add the dex to the bottle so I know each bottle is going to have exactly the same quantity. If you want a lower carbed beer just half the quantity of dex per bottle. 1 tsp will give it good carbonation.

[cerevisia]

Thanks again.

[jt]

Best to check a priming calculator to get the right amount of sugar or dextrose for priming.
Promash has one and presume Beersmith does too - I was surprised how much I was overpriming and how much better my beer tasted when I reduced the amount (halved in most cases)

[cerevisia]

Sweet, will look into it, cheers!