Bulk Priming

[paullys brew]

I recently put down my 2nd brew, a Coopers Pale Ale, using Kit, 1kg BE2 & Safale USo5( or US56) rehydrated, (Please see my post on Carbonation drops)..

Fermenting nicely at 18 deg..Ill leave in primary for 2 weeks or so(or untill I get a stable reading) & was planning 2 prime using carb drops in glass tallies, but found them a bit gassy ( or coke like feel in the mouth) on my last batch using Pet Bottles.

After a bit of reading, a few late nites studying & replies to my last post, I found that bulk priming is the way to go & thought Id give it my 1st crack!!!.. Ive never done it b4 & dont have a 2nd fermenter or bottling bucket to transfer too, but a couple of replies on my last post suggest that I can bulk prime in the fermenter( once fermented out), by boiling up some Dextrose in boiling water, cooling, stirring in gently, letting sit or settle for half hr. or so, & then bottling... does this affect beer by opening fermenter???

I followed the link on this site to the Essential Guide 2 Bulk Priming, & found a table 2 use as a guide, It suggests to boil between 90-140g of dex into 200ml of water, cool then add 2 wort...


Is there much difference in the outcome between 90g-140g of Dex??? as I dont want bottle bombs & would like 2 know how much to use..Ive filled fermenter to about 21 or so litres( or just under the 23ltrs) roughly),if this helps...


Any advice welcome!!! :chug:

 

[buttersd70]

Is there much difference in the outcome between 90g-140g of Dex??? as I dont want bottle bombs & would like 2 know how much to use..Ive filled fermenter to about 21 or so litres( or just under the 23ltrs) roughly),if this helps...

There will be a world of difference between 90 and 140g. Coopers PA style beer should be around 2.5vol CO2, and from what your saying you have, 140g would be pretty close. 90g would give 2vol CO2, or thereabouts. Which is close to what an English Best Bitter would be.

There is a usefull priming calculator here

Just set everything to metric, pick dex as the priming ingredient, for the temperature, you put the max temp that was reached during ferment. Et voila.
A guide to the carbonation levels for styles is in a dropdown box on there. Just remember it is a guide. As long as your primary ferment is fully complete, 2.5 vol will be absolutely fine in glass, and up to 3 should be fine. The problem many people have with bombs in glass is that they bottle before the SG is stable at the end of fermentation. 2 (or 3) days in a row of steady readings and it should be fine. (unless the readings are ridiculously higher than expected.)

Opening the fermenter should be OK as long as you're gentle with it and avoid aeration. Take lid off, sugar mix in, gentle stir avoiding splashing, replace lid. The headspace of the fermenter is going to be pretty chokka with CO2 anyway, its not going to suck in great gulps of oxygen. Treat it with respect, and it will be fine.

 

[matti]

I can foresee problems with stirring up the yeast cake.
Not the mama in my book but good luck

A difference in 90-140g is immense.
I generaly carb up Brittish ales 6g/L
thats 120g for 20 L

I did a Cooper pale ale with same yeast long time ago and carbed to std. su butter70 is spot on.

 

[Bribie G]

Another option - which I haven't tried myself but it jogged my memory when I was waiting at the chemist the other day and see they have syringes for sale behind the counter (no needles just the syringes).

I've seen posts about virtual bulk priming, where you weigh the sugar or dex and mix up to a certain volume.

In the case of say 30 longnecks you would be looking at a final volume of 30 x whatever your syringe is (say ten ml syringe you'll need 300 mls) and just squirt a full syringe into each bottle.

Does away with the extra vessel and you have perfect measured control. If you want finer control, make up to 600 mls and put two squirts in.

I bottle in 2L PETS so it would work out rather tedious for me but sounds great for stubbies or longnecks.

 

[Screwtop]

Beg, borrow, steal, or maybe even buy yourself another vessel. You want to make good beer? You're prepared to bulk prime but not prepared to do it properly! forget it, go back to bottle lollies.






Disclaimer: Do not steal, it is wrong and against the law to steal others property. Just borrow it and forget to return it, at least that's just wrong.

 

[Bribie G]

You can get a perfectly good 25L 'fermenter' from Bunnings for fifteen bucks plus two dollars for a tap. It won't have an airlock hole but you won't be doing any primary fermenting in it, so that's not a problem.

I use mine for:

Bulk Priming
Chilling a brew in the fridge and doing a Polyclar session
Cold Conditioning for lagers
'warm' conditioning ales for diacetyl rest / short secondary and gelatine fining prior to bottling

The poor little bugger gets run off its feet, I'm going to get another one as well. For the price you used to pay for a six pack it will earn its keep in no time.

 

[KGB]

I'm sure you can bulk prime in the primary and bottle from there, but you will get additional sediment in the bottles etc.

You can get a 25-30L 'water container' and a tap to suit from bunnings for less than $20. Thats what I'd be doing. Then you can start kegging and brew twice as fast.


Edit: beaten, I really should refresh my page before replying

 

[drtomc]

You can get a perfectly good 25L 'fermenter' from Bunnings for fifteen bucks plus two dollars for a tap. It won't have an airlock hole but you won't be doing any primary fermenting in it, so that's not a problem.

I use exactly this for bulk priming. In fact, I don't use this vessel for anything else.

cheers,
T.