# Bottles With Priming Sugar



## pdilley (26/7/09)

Figured I'd write this post since I made a text file to stuff away onto my computer folder for my brewing.

4 grams of sucrose (cane/beet/granulated sugar) per litre will ferment to give 1 volume of CO2.

Therefore 3 grams of sucrose (4 times .75) per 750ml bottle will ferment to give 1 volume of CO2.
Therefore 2 grams of sucrose (4 times .5) per 500ml bottle will ferment to give 1 volume of CO2.
Therefore 1.4 grams of sucrose (4 times .35) per 350ml bottle will ferment to give 1 volume of CO2.

you get the point now and can calculate to your hearts content....




Next up fermented beer will already have CO2 in solution from the fermentation process.

If its 10 degrees C its about 1.2 volumes of CO2 in solution.
If its 14C to 15C then its about 1.0 volumes of CO2 in solution.
If its 18C to 20C then its about 0.85 volumes of CO2 in solution.


German wheat beers and lambics are high volumes of CO2 in solution for bottled product anywhere from 2.2 to 4.4
All your ales will fall in the normal 2.0 to 2.7 volumes of CO2 in solution range.
Porters and Stouts are in the 1.7 to 2.3 volumes of CO2 in solution range.
British Ales are the least carbonated with 1.5 to 2.0 volumes of CO2 in solution.


I have a bog standard Pale Ale to bottle, temperature is about 14C average.

My beer already has 1.0 volumes of CO2 and I want to hit 2.2 volumes of CO2 in the bottle for a nice light carbonation. Yum!
I have 750ml bottles so 3 grams of sugar will give me another 1 volume but 2.2 minus the original 1.0 in solution equals 1.2 additional volumes of CO2

So 3 times 1.2 = 3.6 grams of sugar per bottle to get 1.2 volumes of CO2 to add to the 1.0 volumes in the beer to finally reach 2.2 volumes of CO2 in the bottle.

And thats what I'll do.


With the advent of cheap (see my posts on cheap digital scales from china) $16 or less digital scales with resolution down to 0.1 grams its easy to hit your 3.6 grams of sugar per bottle. Bottle on the scale, small funnel in the top, tar the scale to 0.0 grams and let in sugar slowly from a spoon and you'll hit 3.6 in no time. This is what I've settled on but not the only way.

If you want to bulk prime all at once in your bottling bucket or fermenter, no worries I won't say pro or con on anyone else's techniques as it all works in the end but I have tried them all and the way that gets me the best results after using all the methods is of course the one I use.

4 grams per litre is 1.0 volumes of CO2 we want 1.2 so
4 times 1.2 equals 4.8 grams of sugar per litre to get an additional 1.2 volumes of CO2 into the beer.
I have 20 usable litres of clean beer in the fermenter above the yeast cake.
20 times 4.8 is 96 grams of sugar to put into a saucepan and boil up in 500ml of water and boil to make the syrup to use in bulk priming.


Again this post is to teach you the math and methods I got through in my head, not priming techniques so refer to other posts to learn about those. Hopefully it is enough to teach you that 150-170 grams of sugar is way to much for Ales and well into Lambic territory and if you understand that then thats a good start on your way to making good carbonation levels and less bottle bombs.

This will work for 98% of the beer out there, the other 2% is the caveat, very high malty beers left in the bottle for months on end break down their larger volumes of dexrins and can push the carbonation in the bottle up to another 1.0 volumes over time. Too bad I don't have beer that can last that long in the bottle before being drunk 


Cheers,
Brewer Pete


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## clean brewer (26/7/09)

Thats good info in my opinion, I bottled a few Stouts a few weeks ago(1st in a while) and used the Bundaberg Sugar Sachets(4gr each) and worked a treat..... :icon_cheers: 

No wonder my earlier bottled beers were so gassy, they were all way overcarbed..  There should be something concrete out there that says dont use 2 carb drops for a tallie or the big measure on those measuring scoops....


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## mwd (26/7/09)

Using Dex and a Brigalow measuring scoop here with 750ml PET and no problems so far nice carb levels and never a foamer yet. Touch Wood.

Cannot be bothered to go and buy the extra bucket and bits for bulk priming.

BTW Aren't sugar cubes much cheaper than buying the sachets. ?

edit : spelling


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## clean brewer (26/7/09)

Tropical_Brews said:


> Using Dex and a Brigalow measuring scoop here with 750ml PET and no problems so far nice carb levels and never a foamer yet. Touch Wood.
> 
> Cannot be bothered to go and buy the extra bucket and bits for bulk priming.
> 
> ...



Sorry, we get like 1000 Sugar Sachets free with every Order of Merlot Coffee, we have a shitload now.. And the sachets can still be weighed up without crumbling them apart.. I have only bottled a couple tallies since I got kegs, but 1 sachet works much better....


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## NickB (26/7/09)

Pfft, bloody chefs and their "free sugaz"........





h34r:


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## bum (26/7/09)

Tropical_Brews said:


> Cannot be bothered to go and buy the extra bucket and bits for bulk priming.



Did my first bulk prime on my last batch and it is definitely worth the $20 worth of bits. Heaps faster and easier.


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## Screwtop (26/7/09)

bum said:


> Did my first bulk prime on my last batch and it is definitely worth the $20 worth of bits. Heaps faster and easier.




So you're not a slack-arse anymore bum :lol:

Tis a piece a piss eh!!!!!!!!


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## pdilley (12/9/09)

bum said:


> Did my first bulk prime on my last batch and it is definitely worth the $20 worth of bits. Heaps faster and easier.



I'll have to video my method. I can usually prime each bottle to the exact 10th of a gram of sugar in less time than it takes to boil and cool down sugar on the stove for bulk priming 

No sachets for me, just bulk bought sugar.

But then I'm only 26 or so bottles to do for a standard batch. If we start using 60Litre fermenters or tripple batches then I could potentially see the time savings in bulk priming option.

But again if a method works keep on doing it! Nothing is better than the other so long as it all done accurately and correctly on a per bottle basis as the primary driver and saving the brewer time as the secondary driver.


Just had to reread this post as I lost my old hand written paper from many brew sessions spills onto the paper 


Cheers,
Brewer Pete


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## Hitman (12/9/09)

My LHBS recommended 10g Dex per litre. This was for a straight up Cooper's lager. Is this high?

+1 on the bulk priming, one of the first steps i have taken towards homebrew stardom and thoroughly recommend it.


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## manticle (12/9/09)

I bulk prime but have had slightly inconsistent carbonation dues to bottling with a hand capper in the dark outside. Borrowed a bench capper from a fellow brewer and despite my stubborn adherence to DIY (read self induced pain in the arse) the difference was amazing. Every bottle capped perfectly and easily.

As for extra equipment - with bulk priming it's not a must - you can prime into the primary vessel so money and equipment should not be an issue.

Nice guide there Pete.


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## manticle (12/9/09)

Hitman said:


> My LHBS recommended 10g Dex per litre. This was for a straight up Cooper's lager. Is this high?



Unless I'm stupid that = 230 g for a 23 litre brew which sounds way higher than I would be carbonating. Admittedly I hate overly fizzy beer but most 23 litre brews would see about 120 - 150g from me.


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## Hitman (12/9/09)

Cheers mate.

The more i use this site, the less confidence i have in the advice i am given at the LHBS.


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## Bribie G (13/9/09)

Tropical_Brews said:


> Using Dex and a Brigalow measuring scoop here with 750ml PET and no problems so far nice carb levels and never a foamer yet. Touch Wood.
> 
> Cannot be bothered to go and buy the extra bucket and bits for bulk priming.
> 
> ...



I use sugar cubes in PETs all the time, they fit perfectly through the top of any PET. Now that I'm kegging I only bottle five or six anyway and if using glass just use a rounded teasp of sugar and have a really practical funnel with a tiny spout and a big round 'bowl' to it and a side handle to grasp. Perfect. When using sugar lumps (say if I'm doing a full bottled batch of a stout that I don't wish to keg) using the lumps takes a couple of minutes to prime the bottles, if that. If the beer is a bit overcarbed in some styles I always serve in a jug anyway to get it off the sediment so just let it steam a while, and pouring it into the glasses does the rest of the decarbonation. 
IMHO it's fairly useless to accurately control the carb to the Nth degree then go and blow it all out of the window by pouring into a big jug before serving to glass.


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