One Lump Or Two? Or Three.....

[Bribie G]

I've come back to brewing after a 15 year lapse and delighted to see all the brilliant new tech like thermometer strips, bottling pipes with the valve at the bottom, etc. Carbonation drops are also an excellent idea and I've used them for my first five brews. However It struck me the other day that the cost, compared to a bag of sugar is a bit rude. Sure they are very convenient but I'd rather be spending the three bucks on some extra ingredients like finishing hops, LDME whatever where I can see the value.

I bottle in 2L PET as I'm just doing kit+additive 'quaffing' brews for the time being. I had the blinding idea to see if sugar lumps are still available (haven't seen them for years) and whether they would fit through the top of a PET.

Sure are. Woolies, a 450g box of 100 cubes for $2.60 and they fit through the PET top perfectly.

Arithmetic for a 12 PET brew of 24L

Carb drops (around 80 for $3.65) around 5 cents each. 5 per 2L PET.
$3.00 per brew.

Cubes (100 for $2.65) 2.6 cents each. 3 per 2L PET (see comments below)
$0.93 per brew.

Same convenience as drops.

Coopers recommend 8 grams per litre priming rate, or 16 for a 2L bottle. 3 sugar cubes will only give 13.5 but I prefer my beer to be carbonated at 'draught' levels rather than 'stubby' levels so that will do me fine.

I realise that many brewers would sneer at sucrose priming and PET bottles. Sure I wouldn't go that route for an all grain Czech Pilsener labour of love :lol: , but for my quaffing ale I'm more than happy. Bottling a Morgans Ironbark Dark Ale today and will report later.
Cheers.

 

[wambesi]

Nothing wrong with sucrose priming or PET bottles!
I use PET myself for ginger beer and 2 PET for every brew so I can "test" carb levels, as for priming I have only used dex and honey as it's been around but when my supplies have gone down (as now doing AG) I will probably go to normal sugar for my bulk priming.

Mind you the advice on priming amounts from coopers is an "average" and different tpes of beer styles require different levels of carbonation.
On the other hand it is what you like which is more important, hence why my beers never match the proper styles.....

 

[Kleiny]

Vote 1 bulk priming easiest and cheapest after setup for either suger or malt priming

 

[Bribie G]

Vote 1 bulk priming easiest and cheapest after setup for either suger or malt priming

I take it you would need a 'dedicated' vessel like one of those large 'bucket' type fermenters to rack the beer into and add sugar in bulk then bottle? Any oxidisation problems?
Would you syphon the beer or run it out of the fermenter tap via a hose that reaches the bottom of the 'bottling' vessel?

 

[wambesi]

I take it you would need a 'dedicated' vessel like one of those large 'bucket' type fermenters to rack the beer into and add sugar in bulk then bottle? Any oxidisation problems?
Would you syphon the beer or run it out of the fermenter tap via a hose that reaches the bottom of the 'bottling' vessel?

I just use one of my spare fermenters lying around (usually one is empty at a given time).
You add the sugar solution (dissolved in water) into the spare empty fermenter and then hook up a hose from the full one into the empty, making sure it ends in a circle and on the bottom in the empty so when it fills up it will "whirlpool" and mix in with the sugar solution.

Then simply open the tap and let it go!, once done then bottle from this fermenter as usual.

I haven't had any problems at all using this method, it allows very even carb levels across the bottles, and also you can then use a mixture of bottle sizes and not have to worry about different priming amounts as it is taken care of already.

Very good method IMHO.

 

[Kleiny]

I just use one of my spare fermenters lying around (usually one is empty at a given time).
You add the sugar solution (dissolved in water) into the spare empty fermenter and then hook up a hose from the full one into the empty, making sure it ends in a circle and on the bottom in the empty so when it fills up it will "whirlpool" and mix in with the sugar solution.

Then simply open the tap and let it go!, once done then bottle from this fermenter as usual.

I haven't had any problems at all using this method, it allows very even carb levels across the bottles, and also you can then use a mixture of bottle sizes and not have to worry about different priming amounts as it is taken care of already.

Very good method IMHO.

Thats it wambesi has said it all :icon_cheers:
If you want more info use the search for bulk priming