Priming 500ml Bottles for noobs

[Paul Southworth]

Hi Guys,

First post.

A mate and I have made a fairly basic brew with a coopers lager kit, dry yeast from the brew shop and black rock malt.

We have dry hopped it with riwaka hops and want to bottle it in 500ml euro bottles.

 

Can anyone tell me

1. how to prime the bottles, or bulk prime the brew. 
2. how to calculate how much sugar
3. what is the best sugar to use (dextrose etc)

All help appreciated.

Cheers

Paul

[Brett Mason]

I found carbonation drops to be the easiest option to start with which you can get from either your homebrew store or from most supermarkets (in the homebrew section). With 500ml bottles I usually use two drops per bottle.

 

BTW, one thing I stressed about the first time was getting getting the beer bottled as soon as possible. Relax. A couple of weeks is fine. In fact the extra time will give the yeast more time to settle out for a clearer beer.

[Chris Banks]

Just as a point of difference I find a very level 1/2 tsp of table sugar in a 5 hundy bottle works fine for me. Providing you have achieved your final gravity that is.

Makes for a nice level of carb and the sugar is always lurking in the kitchen!

 

 

 

[jt]

If I were bottling a whole batch I'd bulk prime. Not sure where the best info is though sorry Paul

Use a calculator - promash or beersmith should both have them - to check the amount of sugar for the style you've brewed.

I'd go plain white table sugar

 

It's common to over carbonate, done it myself for years, level teaspoon in a 750ml, until a wise man persuaded me to halve that. It took a leap of faith, thought I'd end up with flat beer. It didn't happen and it was a good result

[Karl Hayes]

Hi Paul.

 

I suppose you have a 23 L batch so if you melt about 150g of ordinary table sugar in about a quarter litre of hot water you should be fine. Chuck it in and allow the sediment to re-settle (about 3 hours).

 

Cheers.

[James P]

I'm pretty sure everyone has there own favourite way to prime, and all work!!!

For instance I used to use dextrose, instead of table sugar (my elderly home brewing neighbour told me... ). And the bulk priming tool available online I used to use before Beersmith: http://webspace.webring.com/people/ms/sirleslie/AlcoholChart/Primin...

 

[Paul Southworth]

Thanks for all the info guys, most helpful.

@Karl yes it is a 23L batch.

@Brett whats the drops made from?

@Chris god knows what FG we are supposed to be aiming for.

[Richard Deeble]

Hmmm. I'm guessing that you used 1.7kg of coopers plus 1.5kg of the Black Rock in 23 litres-that gives you an OG of 1.042. I wouls expect your final gravity to be from 1.010 to 1.008. As long as you get a stable gravity for 3 days I wouldn't stress too much about where it ends up. I found my first brews were ending with quite a high final gravity, mainly because I probably wasn't treating my yeast right by not aerating the wort well, providing them with nutrients, and allowing the temperature to get too cold too quickly so the yeast were dropping out of suspension.

 

Those drops are made from a mix of dextrose, sucrose and glucose from memory. They do work really easily. I recently bottled a beer and realised I had forgotten to add my priming sugar and the drops were a life saver!

 

I personally found bulk priming the best way of starting when I first brewed, simply because It allowed me to siphon my beer off the layer sediment and dry hops. Nothing worse than having bottles half full of sediment. All you really need to do is work out your carbonation rate with a calculator like this one:http://www.ibrewmyown.com/BrewBlogger/index.php?page=tools&sect...

After that, just boil up some dextrose or regular table sugar (i have found dextrose to be best) in a sanitised jug with about 2 cups of water. I just santise my jug, boil water in the kettle, then put it in the microwave for 2 minutes, then shove it in my sink with water just to cool it off a bit. 

After that you would just pour your priming sugar solution into the bottom of a sanitised bucket or fermenter with a tap, then use and auto siphon that you can buy for pretty cheap at a homebrew store to siphon the beer into the sugar solution. The main thing here is to keep the bottom of siphon out of the yeast/trub on the bottom of the fermenter, and to avoid aerating the beer too much by splashing it or letting it run down the walls of your bucket. 

 

Once you've siphoned off most of the clear beer that you can get, all you need to do is bottle the regular way. Easy, and means you get a nice clean beer.

[Paul Southworth]

thanks Richard, most helpful.

[Paul Southworth]

Just an update.

The beers tastes great off the Barrel. Riwaka hops have been in for 10 days in mesh bag weighted down.

The specfic Gravity is 1013. But have no idea where it started forgot to measure.

 

Bottling tomorrow. i will let you know how it goes.

Cheers

Paul