General bottling and priming enquiry

[rixta2]

Hey guys!

It's my first post here (hopefully many more to come) so let me know if I'm doing anything wrong.

I just recently picked up homebrewing and as per usual I get in way too deep way too quick, whether it be researching, reading or just flat out buying more gear and making more brews.

I have a few 30 litre fermenters set up at the moment and I have just transitioned from 750ml pet bottles to 330ml glass bottles. I am using a spare fermenter as my bottling bucket, and a few 10 litre carboys as secondaries.

My current system is to let my wort ferment until I get a constant gravity reading over 48 hours, empty the wort into my smaller carboys using the tap on the fermenter, let sit for about a week and then syphon into my bottling bucket. This, however, is where I'm having trouble. I don't know how to correctly approach the next step. I am planning on using a bottling wand attached to the tap to fill my bottles, however I want to use dextrose as my carbonation source because the cost of carb drops add up.

I am looking for quite a decent carbonation so my questions are as follows

1. Am I able to put some dextrose in the bottom of all the bottles, fill them all with wort and then bottle them, in that order, or would the CO2 that would exist in the beer escape the bottles while I'm filling up the rest of them?

2. If I am placing the wort in secondary, theoretically it should clear up and the yeast remains at the bottom of the vessel, rather than in the beer, if that is the case then how does the fermentation reaction continue without the yeast being present to catalyses the reaction?

3. How much headspace should I be leaving? It is my understanding that if you fill the bottles too little there isn't enough pressure built up to force the CO2 into the beer.

4. Is there a downside/consequence to having too little headspace?

I understand these questions are vague and the answers change depending on the type of beer being made, however I am just looking to get a rough idea and will adjust the finer details of the process to make them brew specific.

Thanks in advance for all your help guys. It's majorly appreciated.

Ricki.

 

[goatchop41]

I'll start by saying that unless you are going for a special priming sugar (eg. golden syrup in an ANZAC biscuit beer), then just use good old white sugar...heaps cheaper.

1. If using a bottling bucket, then you can just bulk prime the batch - use an online priming calculator (websites like Brewer's Friend or Homebrewdad) to determine how much sugar you need, then dissolve it in a small amount of water and boil for a few mins, then pour into the bottling bucket (straight into the beer, the larger volume of beer will cool it immediately) then give it a good stir with a sanitised spoon (don't slosh or you'll risk oxidisation, just stir to evenly distribute the priming sugar).

2.There will still be plenty of yeast left to carbonate the beer (FYI. using a secondary does not equal clear beer. You can get perfectly clear beer while keeping it in the primary fermenter. Using a secondary if you're not bulk aging just increases your infection risk!!).

3. If you're using a spring loaded bottling wand, fill right up to the rim, then it will leave the perfect amount of headspace once you remove the wand from the bottle.

4. No - less is better, because there is less room for oxygen to remain in the neck bottle when you cap it, thereby reducing een the small amount at the surface that would become oxidised.

 

[rixta2]

Thanks heaps Goatchop. I was thinking that I might just be able to use regular sugar. I'll have a look at some priming guides online, but bulk priming definitely sounds like the way to go.

Are there any other benefits to short term secondary storage (besides the potential for clearer beer)??

Thanks again.

 

[goatchop41]

Are there any other benefits to short term secondary storage (besides the potential for clearer beer)??

Not really....unless you desperately need to free up a bigger fermenter. I wouldn't worry about secondary at all in your situation, to be honest.

You can get perfectly clear beer with a combination of any of these three things in the primary fermenter: cold crashing; gelatin; time.

 

[Lowlyf]

Sorry to Hijack the thread but I am about to bulk prime for my first time also.

Can I clarify that its okay to prime the entire batch in the same fermenter as the yeast cake is in (on the bottom) and just stir gently as not to stir up any yeast and then bottle that day? Or should you wait 24 or hours if in the same fermenter as the yeast?

Also does it make any difference what so ever to the flavour if I used a raw or brown sugar? Just curious.

Thanks

 

[Rocker1986]

I'm not a fan of priming in the same FV as the yeast cake, but that doesn't mean other people don't do it successfully.

I wouldn't think the sugar choice would make much difference to the flavour, if any.

 

[bookers]

I have just started doing bulk priming in FV, i just add it straight in and stir with a sterlised spoon, let it sit for about 10 minutes then bottle. No need to transfer to secondary or bottling bucket. It seems to carbonate just as good, if not better than using carb drops.
Give it a go and see how it goes. I was warned off bulk priming in to primary FV, but has worked great

 

[bookers]

i have been adding 160g of dex, boiled up in 500ml of water and boil for 5 minutes

 

[Lowlyf]

While this FAQ is only for beginners, there is a website that is fairly well know in the brewing community. For information on more advanced techniques, please have a look at www.howtobrew.com. It is an excellent resource!

How bigs the batch? 23L?

 

[Danscraftbeer]

Always remember the more handling, decanting processes expose the beer to oxygen and possible infections. Inviting off flavors. I've tried bulk priming and then looking into it more to calculate correct carb volumes at different temperatures etc. Stuffed half of an excellent beer kegged half was supperb. Bottled half was under carbonated.
The best simple system imo is carb drops, cant go wrong. Bottled straight from the primary with a bottling tube plunger thingy. No secondaries or buckets. Minimized exposure, correct sugar amount (or good enough for variable standard bottles) the plunger sets the correct head space.
$0.02

 

[Rocker1986]

My main reason for transferring to a bottling bucket is because I don't like the constant tilting of the FV to get the last few bottles stirring up the trub. Yes, it's anal I know, but it's what I do.

Bulk priming is far better than carb drops if done properly. It's a bit like the argument of grain vs extract giving complete control over recipes. Bulk priming gives complete control over carb levels. And it's not that difficult. Headspace makes **** all difference to carbonation levels. Especially if you're only talking a few mm difference.

I've looked into the compensating for temperature thing myself and personally I just go by whatever the highest temp the beer got to post fermentation was, which is what is advised pretty well everywhere that I've read. Or I simply go by taste - I've been gradually increasing the amount of dex I'm priming with to try to get my carbonation levels up to where I want them. I don't agree with the theory that CO2 is re-absorbed by cold crashing because there is not enough pressure, or even a seal on the FV to force the gas back in, like there is in bottles. There is also no CO2 being produced at this time either, so even if some did get back in, it might be a litre or two worth of gas going back into 23 odd litres of beer... it's not gonna make much of a difference. A 500mL bottle with 2.5 vols of CO2 will contain about 1.25 litres of CO2 dissolved in it. 1.25 litres of CO2 in 23 litres is nothing by comparison. Given I've bulk primed batches both cold and warm with the same amount of sugar and noticed no difference at all in the carbonation levels, it seems to back this up.

 

[Kingy]

Carb drops are inconsistent and a pain when bottling a whole batch and seem to take longer to ferment out. It's OK if your only bottling a couple tallies.
when bulk priming you can also have all your bottles sanitized, attach your bottling tube to a bit of plastic tubing/silicone hose/whatever and just move the bottling tube from bottle to bottle.

 

[Matplat]

Check out "goat herder pseudo bulk priming" people.....it is the way.