Priming With Sugar!

[Gerryman3]

Hi,

My first visit to the college of knowledge,

I have noted that one can mix the sugar with boiling water when racking, but can the sugar be inserted into the fermenter direct and "paddled in" prior to bottling IF only using the one fermenter.

Advocate

 

[Pennywise]

I think to mix it well enough so you get even carbonation you'd have to stir fairly vigorously and then you'll run into probles with oxidised beer. I would stick to priming each bottle or get another fermenter pronto.

 

[Jamz]

Hi,

My first visit to the college of knowledge,

I have noted that one can mix the sugar with boiling water when racking, but can the sugar be inserted into the fermenter direct and "paddled in" prior to bottling IF only using the one fermenter.

Advocate

It can, however it will stir up all the trub at the bottom of the fermenter and you'd end up with a lot of that stuff in your bottles. And if you left it to settle out after stirring it up, there's a good chance that the yeast would have already gotten to work on the sugar you added and you'd be back where you started from!

Have you got a Bunnings near where you are? You can pick up a 25L drum (ideal for bulk priming, and could even be used as a spare fermenter) from Bunnings for around 15 bucks, and pay another $1.50 for a plastic tap.

 

[raven19]

+1 for bulk priming.
This also gives you the chance to use a variety of bottle sizes also (depending on how extensive your bottle collection is...)

 

[Bribie G]

There are all sorts of priming methods, from carbonation drops which are dear as poison, to bulk priming. I have bulk primed a few times but have gone back to putting three sugar cubes in each of my 2L PET bottles. Or two for an English style bitter. Takes about three minutes to prime a batch and I get totally consistent results. It's a quarter of the cost of priming lollies. Other members would throw up their hands in horror but works for me. However if I was using stubbies or traditional 750ml glass bottles it wouldn't work.

The idea is to decide what bottle types and sizes you are going to use and then get your beer consistently fizzy to your own satisfaction.

+1 for the Bunnings 'fermenter' system if you decide to go bulk priming. The other advantage of bulk priming is that you can use sugars other than cane sugar, for example dextrose or even light dried malt extract, and can vary the priming rate to suit different beer styles.

As mentioned, a spare 25 litre container is also handy for other things like secondary ferm. and for lagering so it will pay for itself over and over again.

Useful tip : get a hose that fits outside the tap spigot, not inside, and the brew will flow twice as quickly from one vessel to the other when racking.

 

[br33zy]

...have gone back to putting three sugar cubes in each of my 2L PET bottles. Or two for an English style bitter. Takes about three minutes to prime a batch and I get totally consistent results...

Do you think there are sanitisation (sanity?) issues with using sugar cubes (or carbo drops for that matter)?

One of the reasons we bulk prime is that we (supposedly) remove some infection vectors by boiling the sugar solution before adding it to the priming bucket.

Cheers

Breezy

 

[Bribie G]

Do you think there are sanitisation (sanity?) issues with using sugar cubes (or carbo drops for that matter)?

One of the reasons we bulk prime is that we (supposedly) remove some infection vectors by boiling the sugar solution before adding it to the priming bucket.

Cheers

Breezy

Haven't had a bad bottle yet, the cubes come packed and shrink wrapped from the supermaket, my hands are super clean (usually still reeking of chlorine after the bottle sanitising session) and after using about half the pack of cubes I put the remainder in a freezer bag for next time and store in a drawer away from dust, ants etc. It has crossed my mind to get a dedicated 'tupperware' container, sterilize it and keep all the cubes in it as it's less frig'n around than using the freezer bags. I've primed over 15 brews this way and no probs so far. I actually have a bag of carb drops that I use now and again, they are great for bringing a yeast bottle back to life after its holiday in the fridge, and I occasionally do a 2cubes and 1 drop priming where 3 is overkill - like my Xmas stout for example.

 

[wambesi]

Do you think there are sanitisation (sanity?) issues with using sugar cubes (or carbo drops for that matter)?

One of the reasons we bulk prime is that we (supposedly) remove some infection vectors by boiling the sugar solution before adding it to the priming bucket.

Cheers

Breezy

Yeah I don't think this is too much of an issue, at this stage there is a big alcohol count also which helps to kill anything that may try to get in - although not 100% effective.

I dont boil the solution either, I use the kettle to boil some water then at some point (usually immediately) I then pour some off into a (non sanitised) measuring cup with some sugar.

Sanitisation is very important but after a while you do (or rather I have) cut back on some areas...
Havn't had any fizzers yet.

 

[raven19]

Useful tip : get a hose that fits outside the tap spigot, not inside, and the brew will flow twice as quickly from one vessel to the other when racking.

+1 for this also - great point BribieG.

I also like bulk priming to allow me to use 375, 750, and 500 ish grolsh bottles. plus if i am running low some other sizes usually get used also 330 mls, etc...