Carbonation Methods

[cal4589]

Gday

Very new to brewin, only done 6 brews so far, but I have started adding hops to the kits and using dry malt, etc. I have brewed kits such as brewcraft dutch lager with brewcraft sugar #10 , coopers canadian blonde with brew enhancer etc. At the moment I have a brewcraft little creatures kit in the tub, tastes very promising.

Up until now I have been using coopers carbonation drops to carbonate, simply because it is easy. However - if it will make a difference to the taste of the brew I will consider measuring out dextrose a bottle at a time or even bulk priming.

Any opinions on this? I am not really concerned about the cost at this stage or the time periods for carbonation, only taste. Not really ready/keen at this stage to use kegs. And for bulk priming, I understand I will need to transfer to another tub, not sure if I can be bothered doing that either... (lazy)...

Cheers

Cal.

 

[4bc]

Gday Cal

I vote for bulk priming all the way with dextrose. Flavour neutral and easy. Just chuck in 170g (in 300ml of boiling water) or so for 23 litres and u get a nice consistant carb over all bottles. Just get a bit of hose and rack off into a cube or 2ndary fermentor then bottle. Heaps easier and quicker than bottle priming, and im lazy too, but not at the expense of quality. You only get what you put in!!

 

[jakub76]

I bulk prime with dextrose boiled in about 600ml of the beer I'm bottling. I have my process down so it's not too labour intensive, the benefit is consistent carbonation in any sized bottles you like. The other benefit of bulk priming is that you have control over how much carbonation you'd like, you can adjust it for style. I use BrewPal on the iphone and it has a great tool for determining how much priming sugar to use to achieve a particular level of carbonation.

Previously I also used the carbonation drops as they really are so easy.

 

[kierent]

Never tried carb drops, I used sugar at first but once i started bulk priming I never looked back. although now I keg so i don't prime that at all

 

[michael_aussie]

Hi Cal,
Welcome.
You have come to the right place.
The people here are so open with advice.

Up until now I have been using coopers carbonation drops to carbonate, simply because it is easy. However - if it will make a difference to the taste of the brew I will consider measuring out dextrose a bottle at a time or even bulk priming.

Any opinions on this? I am not really concerned about the cost at this stage or the time periods for carbonation, only taste. Not really ready/keen at this stage to use kegs. And for bulk priming, I understand I will need to transfer to another tub, not sure if I can be bothered doing that either... (lazy)...

I started with sugar measured into each bottle. It was becoming harder as I started using more different sized bottles.

I have done two runs (6 drums) of bulk priming. I used around 200gm of cane sugar for 23 litres and have enjoyed the time saving, but .... as I haven't racked into another container I now have much more mud in my bottles. It stays in the bottle if I single pour the bottles into a jug.

There is a link to calculate how much you should use.

The more experienced brewers here suggested I should transfer to another tub prior to bulk priming.
More work, more cleaning, and more risk of contamination. I'm not completely sold on the idea.

I've only used cane suger for priming. I figure it works out to be such a small quantity per bottle that hardly matters if you use cane suger or dextrose, but I'd be interested to hear others opinions.

Once again, welcome to the club. You will find the people here to be a fantastic resource.

By far the best forum I have been a member of.

 

[Fireman Sam]

My 2 cents...

I've never used carb drops or sugar into bottles, thought it too messy and I use Grolsch 450ml bottles so couldn't be ar$ed figuring how much of the drop to put into each bottle. I have a second fermenter that I use for bulk priming. I sit the primary on the benchtop, attach a sterilised hose and curl that into the secondary sitting on the floor below. Warm about 200ml of water to dissolve the sugar, could be table sugar or dex depending on what I want.

Pour the dissolved sugar solution into the secondary, turn the tap on the primary and the swirling motion stirs the sugar in just nice. Put the secondary on the benthtop, insert the little bottler and away we go !!

My beers have gotten so much clearer, no stirred up yeast etc, I'm even surprised at how clear my blonde + clover honey came out ! Small price to pay for clearer beer if I have to clean one extra fermenter and a siphon tube IMHO.

 

[petesbrew]

My 2 cents...

I've never used carb drops or sugar into bottles, thought it too messy and I use Grolsch 450ml bottles so couldn't be ar$ed figuring how much of the drop to put into each bottle. I have a second fermenter that I use for bulk priming. I sit the primary on the benchtop, attach a sterilised hose and curl that into the secondary sitting on the floor below. Warm about 200ml of water to dissolve the sugar, could be table sugar or dex depending on what I want.

Pour the dissolved sugar solution into the secondary, turn the tap on the primary and the swirling motion stirs the sugar in just nice. Put the secondary on the benthtop, insert the little bottler and away we go !!

My beers have gotten so much clearer, no stirred up yeast etc, I'm even surprised at how clear my blonde + clover honey came out ! Small price to pay for clearer beer if I have to clean one extra fermenter and a siphon tube IMHO.

+1.
Explained brilliantly.
I also have a one of those scoops with stubby measure at one end/ longneck at the other. It comes in handy for smaller batches, and when I couldn't be bothered cleaning a fermenter... but in the long run, bulk priming is the easiest.

 

[Raptor6L]

Hi all

Not to hijack or anything, but does anyone use DME or even LME instead of dex or sugar when bulk priming?

Cheers
Chris

 

[Shed101]

yes DME for me.

I think the de in dextrose comes from the word devil

 

[the_yobbo]

Hi all

Not to hijack or anything, but does anyone use DME or even LME instead of dex or sugar when bulk priming?

Cheers
Chris

yes DME for me.

I think the de in dextrose comes from the word devil

Interesting, I wouldn't have thought of priming using DME or LME. And even considering it now, I would have thought it'd raise a few complications/adjustments:
1) Adjust the quantity used as Dex, DME and LME are each different in fermentability.
2) LME would be too hard to bottle prime. Herhaps for bulk priming.
3) DME tends to clump when added to water. I would have thought it'd be tough to get the lumps out.

I'm now interested, who else uses DME or LME for priming? Any benefit?

 

[Shed101]

Interesting, I wouldn't have thought of priming using DME or LME. And even considering it now, I would have thought it'd raise a few complications/adjustments:
1) Adjust the quantity used as Dex, DME and LME are each different in fermentability.
2) LME would be too hard to bottle prime. Herhaps for bulk priming.
3) DME tends to clump when added to water. I would have thought it'd be tough to get the lumps out.

I'm now interested, who else uses DME or LME for priming? Any benefit?

As someone somewhere said at some point ... you can make up a solution to stir all the sugar in and then it gets through the beer better.

The only Rheinsgebot way of doing it has to be with malt.

You could LME easy enough I would have thought.

*This* is what I use to calculate priming.

 

[peter2468]

Sorry to thread hijack but what is bulk priming? and how dose it work?

 

[the_yobbo]

Sorry to thread hijack but what is bulk priming? and how dose it work?

Instead of adding x grams of sugar to each bottle, you instead dissolve all the sugar you need for the whole brew before you start bottling. That way you are ensured that each bottle will be equally primed.

There are various techniques in doing this. My preferred method is to rake (transfer) the beer from the fermentor into a second fermenter (bottling bucket or cube) by using a length of hose from the tap of the fermenter and the other end coiled in the base of the second container. Have the appropriate amount of sugar dissolved in boiled water. Start the transfer of beer (turn the tap on) and add the priming sugar water. With the natural swirling action from the coiled hose, the sugar should be well mixed in.

Then it's just a matter of bottling without worring about adding sugar to individual bottles and ensureing the sugar dissolves in each bottle.


*Edit* As per fireman sam's post above. Knew I read someone's posts on this recently, didn't realise it was the same thread.

 

[peter2468]

Instead of adding x grams of sugar to each bottle, you instead dissolve all the sugar you need for the whole brew before you start bottling. That way you are ensured that each bottle will be equally primed.

There are various techniques in doing this. My preferred method is to rake (transfer) the beer from the fermentor into a second fermenter (bottling bucket or cube) by using a length of hose from the tap of the fermenter and the other end coiled in the base of the second container. Have the appropriate amount of sugar dissolved in boiled water. Start the transfer of beer (turn the tap on) and add the priming sugar water. With the natural swirling action from the coiled hose, the sugar should be well mixed in.

Then it's just a matter of bottling without worring about adding sugar to individual bottles and ensureing the sugar dissolves in each bottle.

Ah that sounds much better than doing every bottle on its own. Thank you.

 

[stm]

Bottle primed with white sugar and the special sugar scoop (combined with a funnel) is dead easy, quick and very cheap. No problems with inconsistent carbonation (that I can notice anyway) or with all the sugar being eaten up by the yeast. But have a go at each method and see what you like best.

 

[peter2468]

Bottle primed with white sugar and the special sugar scoop (combined with a funnel) is dead easy, quick and very cheap. No problems with inconsistent carbonation (that I can notice anyway) or with all the sugar being eaten up by the yeast. But have a go at each method and see what you like best.

Will do, I have only done one brew (second is on its way) and I used caster sugar and funnel but I would like to try bulk as well.

 

[Noxious]

Another way to transfer the brew to a 2ndary for bulk priming is to not put the tube into the receiving vessel but to attach the tube to the receivers tap, mixes well that way too.
Just have to attach the tube to each tap
Open the primary tap
Wait till tube fills
Open secondary tap

If your worried about adding oxygen to the brew you can tilt the fermenter slightly so it doesn't get as much aeration, until the beer level goes above the tap level anyway.

 

[Lobby Lobster]

I'll bulk prime one day but for now I'm with the castor sugar and funnel guys.
It's faster than carb drops (mega fast with an extra pair of hands) and I'd rather spend those couple of extra bucks on better ingredients than carb drops.

 

[DU99]

i started bulk priming today..was cleaner and faster than dosing with sugar or drops..

 

[sir_piggy]

Hey All,
I'm currently bottle priming (one brew with drops, two with wheat malt and scoop). I had HUGE problems with the second wheat malt in that with half the bottles, as soon as the malt hit the liquid, VOLCANO!!!

Frothed half the bottle (leaving me with no beer and a big mess). This leads me to believe that all the malt just dropped in mass fermented and the whole exercise was futile. This also concerns me has to how long you have between mixing malt and screwing the lid on, as it seems the mix might ferment out before hitting the bottle.

Any thoughts from experienced minds?

Thanks,

Michael