iralosavic
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Wpw, mucho great stuff here.
A few had asked whether I boil up the dex before hand. Yes, but there's plenty of weak spots it seems based on the comments.
Others had recommended putting the sugar into the vessel before siphoning the wort onto it. I haven't been doing that. One of the reasons is because I basically bulk prime in a secondary vessel that the wort has been in for over a week or so. One of the reasons is because I like to have some yeast stirred up into the brew when I bottle. Experience tells me this is useful for S-04 in particular.
That said, this is a better way to add the dex to the solution:
I gave really just a swirl big spoon, rather than stirring repeatedly, because I'm mindful to avoid oxidisation. Then the 20 min rest before I bottle. This obviously isn't enough but it sort of has been with some brews. So I guess I just need to stir it properly.
Other than that lots of good suggestions, like half filling bottles, then there's the crazy ass idea of using a sugar solution with a syringe into each bottle. That's awesome too although I would debate that being actually easier than bulk priming, it might be worth the effort anyway. I'm minded to give it a go.
One of the reasons I like bulk priming is that I can ensure there's a decent bit of yeast in the bottle. If there's one thing I've learned through experience it's that more yeast the better, and not getting enough yeast in the bottle in bottle conditioning has been a real problem which is neatly solved by bulk priming in a secondary that has a stirred up thin yeast cake of it's own.
Thanks fellas, I've got a Belgian Ale to bottle tomorrow so I come up with something better based on this discussion.
I cold crash and condition for a couple of weeks in primary, then siphon off the yeast cake and condition in secondary for a further 4 weeks. Even in secondary there is a large yeast cake left behind when I then transfer back to the coopers fermenter. That is a lot of yeast and sediment that you are putting in your bottles if you bulk prime without dropping yeast out and siphoning to a secondary.
Even after two large yeast cakes being left behind and 6 weeks lagering, I have not encountered an ale yeast that fails to carbonate properly in the bottle - and people always comment on how clear/pro looking my bottled beers are (and in these brews I haven't even used post boil finnings or a filter). Just my 2c