Priming Bottles

[SDHBrewing]

Gav,

I'm with you. Give 'em all a whirl and see which you prefer.

I've never tasted any difference between priming methods (dex, sugar, dme, carb drops), but due to absolute laziness I now use the carb drops, and sugar if I have none, because I'm too lazy to go down the street for replenishments. :lol:

Bulk priming requires racking out - oooooohhhhhh, too much work for this lil' black duck at the moment.........

I used to use carb drops, but then tried bulk priming with some spare dextrose and have done that for the last few brews with no dramas. I find it less time consuming than drops and I use John Palmer's how to brew method - add as a solution and give the wort a stir, wait a bit (while I'm finishing off rinsing my bottles) then bottle it. Easy, and you can tailor the amount of carbonation you want to suit the beer style.

Because the priming sugar amount is small in comparison to the fermentables, it doesn't really affect the taste. Lot of yank recipes use corn syrup for bulk priming - easy to pour, sugar content is accurate and your can buy gallons of the stuff in yank supermarkets. Honey can be a bit dodgy because the exact sugar content is a bit unpredictable because it's made by bees, apparently, and they concentrate it by blowing on it with their wings to get rid of excess water.

 

[gsxrmck]

Hi,
I've just been using castor sugar for my last 6 batches with no problems. I did use carbonation drops once and there's no real difference between the both. I use castor sugar as it is very fine, easy to use and also cheap.


Good luck

 

[brettprevans]

if your missus likes beez kneez then kae up a beer kit resembling it. that way you dont have to worry about using honey as a primer. Im sure ive seen a beez kneez recipe floating around. you could always email [email protected] and ask em for a suggestion. they are f*ckn top blokes. real helpful.

 

[brettprevans]

i just tend to use carbination drops its simple. i am anti table sugar. it is the anti-christ as far as im concerned :angry: . but if you have to you can use it for priming but NOT FERMINTING.

like a few of the guys suggested, experiment with a few stubbies in a batch (say 2 or 3 of each type of priming ingrediant). that way you'll get the variation of the same beer and be able to compare them better.

 

[frogman]

In the past when bottling stouts I have used black jelly beans to prime.
1 per stubby, 2 per tallie.
Gives a slight aniseed taste if you like it. <_<

FROGMAN