Bottle carbonation

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BobtheBrewer

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I have not bottled for some years because kegging is easier. Also I dry hop in the keg. But now I want to bottle a brew which does not need dry hopping. I am using 500ml bottles and I will be using dextrose. How much of it will I need per bottle? Old age is a bummer. Any advice appreciated,

Bob
 
Depends on the style. Best bet is look at a calculator. There are plenty, I use the one on brewersfriend.com. Ballpark guess would be about 5g per bottle. Or roughly one teaspoon.
 
Do not use 5g per bottle!!! In a 500ml bottle that is a ratio of 10g/litre.This is way too high, if your bottles don't explode they will gush for sure.

I normally work on a 4-5g/litre ratio and thats pretty good. Do you have a spare fermenter? If so dissolve your total amount of sugar/dextrose in water and bulk prime. This will give you consistent carbonation levels across all of the bottles and reduce the risk of overcarbing.
 
Stick around the low 5's per litre. 5.1/5.2 gives a nice lively carb for lagers and pales drop back to 4.9/5.0 for a lighter effect.
 
Coopers call for 2 carb drops in 750ml bottles for all their kit cans. 2 carb drops = 6gms dextrose =8gms dextrose per litre. Cane sugar will be just a little bit fizzier.
 
Thanks for the replies. I had forgotten how much I used to use in a 750ml bottle!
 
Dissolve 130g of table sugar in 450ml of boiling water, then use a syringe to add 10ml of this mixture to each of your 500ml bottles before filling. This will give approx 5g/l....
 
Matplat said:
Dissolve 130g of table sugar in 450ml of boiling water, then use a syringe to add 10ml of this mixture to each of your 500ml bottles before filling. This will give approx 5g/l....
Or even easier, bulk prime by pouring it into the fermenter and give it a gentle stir! No muss no fuss
 
Tahoose said:
Do not use 5g per bottle!!! In a 500ml bottle that is a ratio of 10g/litre.This is way too high, if your bottles don't explode they will gush for sure.
Apologies, you are quite right. The last beer I measured sugar for was a hefe, so that skewed my guess :p
It'd give you a bit over 3 vols CO2, which is too much for most styles but from my experience shouldn't explode your bottles... 5g/L is a much better way to go.
 
Reman said:
Or even easier, bulk prime by pouring it into the fermenter and give it a gentle stir! No muss no fuss
You mean into a secondary fermenter right? Cos into the fermenter and stir means all of the yeast and crap ends up in your bottles
 
Matplat said:
Dissolve 130g of table sugar in 450ml of boiling water, then use a syringe to add 10ml of this mixture to each of your 500ml bottles before filling. This will give approx 5g/l....
^^This. (I use about 140g though - my wife likes her beer fizzy).
 
tavas said:
You mean into a secondary fermenter right? Cos into the fermenter and stir means all of the yeast and crap ends up in your bottles
Well I'm a little naughty and do it all in the primary. After 2 weeks fermenting the yeast cake is pretty sludgy and if you only gently stir making sure not to go too deep and leave for half an hour I find it makes no difference in the bottle. My Dr Smurtos GA is crystal clear using this technique. I also avoid any issues with oxygenation when racking to a secondary.
 
Reman said:
Well I'm a little naughty and do it all in the primary. After 2 weeks fermenting the yeast cake is pretty sludgy and if you only gently stir making sure not to go too deep and leave for half an hour I find it makes no difference in the bottle. My Dr Smurtos GA is crystal clear using this technique. I also avoid any issues with oxygenation when racking to a secondary.
Ditto. Although I rarely bottle these days, I never had an issue with either too much crap being transferred or uneven carbing just bulk priming in primary and leaving it half an hour or so to settle as I cleaned and sterlised the bottles.
 
Home brew stores sell sugar scoops. They're three in one, a 375ml, 500ml and 750ml.

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