Better Stir Than Sorry

[dickTed]

I've been bulk priming my brews for about 6 months, and until now it's been fine.

My racking hose is 2 metres long, and coils around in the bottom of the bottling bucket.

First I pour in the boiled sugar, then turn the tap on. I also have a look to see the liquid swirling around as it goes in. Always thought this would be enough to thoroughly mix the sugar in, so I haven't bothered to stir it.

Well the batch currently being consumed is mostly a little bit flat, and I first assumed that since it's over 7% alcohol it was just taking longer to carbonate. With only a dozen stubbies left, I have had 4 that were so gassy that I couldn't pour them - except down the sink, and these tasted like cider.

Obviously the priming sugar didn't get mixed properly.

Better drink them fast. I can see the anti-terrorist squad arriving at my door saying an explosion was reported.

 

[Dunkel_Boy]

Argh, that sucks.
I use plastic fermenters (with very good seals) and bottle straight from the fermenter.
This topic came up on Brewboard in the last day or two.

I just add right amount of sugar to a bit of boiling water, stir that in thoroughly, try not to splash (or breathe on it) and let that settle for about an hour while I clean bottles. Then straight from the fermenter into bottles... very easy.

If you use a bottling bucket, just stir thoroughly I guess. Make sure you didn't undercarb, and your last few bottles got infected... that's always possible and would describe a cidery taste. I don't know. Moral of the story, stir.

Make sure it's warm enough to carbonate as well...

 

[Weizguy]

G'day,

Couldn't leave this thread alone. I am a bulk primer, and it usually goes fine.

The trick is to rack on to the priming sugar solution, and gently stir the beer all the way to the bottom (long spoon required), about 3 times. Any more than this invites a beer/oxygen disaster (yuck!)

Sometimes I leave the beer for, say, 15 min before bottling and at other times I don't have enough time to wait.

Has anyone got any comments/ affirmation/ negation/ alliteration?

Seth

 

[Dunkel_Boy]

Well, into a bottling bucket, you don't have to wait as long because you haven't got hops/trub in there like you do with a fermenter. I just stir up the fermenter to make sure there's yeast in suspension. I often cold condition though, where there's a lot of yeast on the bottom.
Admittedly, you probably only need a tiny bit of yeast to prime, and it probably drops out of suspension after an hour, but these little things are important for our egos. Like Chiller's mashing schedule, I guess.

 

[THE DRUNK ARAB]

From my experience when I do bottle I rack onto the priming solution and that creates a whirlpool due to the hose coiled on the bottom of the fermenter.
This allows the beer and priming solution to mix together, no need to stir, and I have always had even carbonation throughout the batch.

C&B
TDA

 

[Gough]

Yep, my experience is the same TDA. I always bulk prime, and I never stir - I just rely on the gentle swirling from the racking hose. I've had no probs with uneven carbonation so far.

Shawn.

 

[Borret]

I am also of the bulk prime / rack onto the prime fraternity and generally have no probs. I don't stir.
One point that I don't know if anyone has ever tested is the question of the prime in the first filled bottle. Like when you take your first gravity reading on a kit you have mixed in the ferm, the first bit in the tap is more concentrated casue it entered there when the level was low and very concentrated. The same could potentially happen with the prime as there would be a higher prime concentration into the tap as you rack your brew in the BB. For this reason I do tilt the BB with tap at the highest point when filling and also to give a depth of fluid for the end o the hose to sit in.

....Just a thought.

Borret

 

[Jim - Perth]

Dunkel Boy
Do you not find that your method stirs up the trub therefore sacrificing clarity in your beers?
Jim.

 

[RobW]

G'day,

Couldn't leave this thread alone. I am a bulk primer, and it usually goes fine.

The trick is to rack on to the priming sugar solution, and gently stir the beer all the way to the bottom (long spoon required), about 3 times. Any more than this invites a beer/oxygen disaster (yuck!)

Sometimes I leave the beer for, say, 15 min before bottling and at other times I don't have enough time to wait.

Has anyone got any comments/ affirmation/ negation/ alliteration?

Seth

[post="67466"][/post]​

Affirmative - it's worth a gentle stir just for the peace of mind I reckon

 

[shmick]

I've been bulk priming my brews for about 6 months, and until now it's been fine.

My racking hose is 2 metres long, and coils around in the bottom of the bottling bucket.

First I pour in the boiled sugar, then turn the tap on. I also have a look to see the liquid swirling around as it goes in. Always thought this would be enough to thoroughly mix the sugar in, so I haven't bothered to stir it.

Well the batch currently being consumed is mostly a little bit flat, and I first assumed that since it's over 7% alcohol it was just taking longer to carbonate. With only a dozen stubbies left, I have had 4 that were so gassy that I couldn't pour them - except down the sink, and these tasted like cider.

Obviously the priming sugar didn't get mixed properly.

Better drink them fast. I can see the anti-terrorist squad arriving at my door saying an explosion was reported.

[post="67456"][/post]​

What temp's are you storing them at dT?

I had a Belgian Wit that did the same thing one winter. 5 wks and they were still dead flat. Then we had a few unseasonally warm days (20degC+) and 2 exploded.
BTW the 2 explosions were Crown Lager stubby bottles. The glass in those things are very thin. Threw them all away after that.

If I've got room in my ferm freezer I'll throw all the bottles in there for 2 days at the primary fermentation temp. Never had a problem since.