Racking And Bubbles

[kfarrell]

Hi all,

I have a Tooheys Draught (yeah yeah I know) that was sitting in the primary for 5 days at about 21C. I've moved it across to another fermenter to get it off the trub (is this called the secondary? :unsure: ), added some finnings and it's sitting around doing not much. Hydrometer Reading is 1010 and it's clearing up nicely.

So here's the crux of my question. I'm going to bulk prime (yes another rack) and I'm worried about carbonation, obviously this is like an Aussie beer, so I want carbonation, and lots of it. But being that I racked it, I'm worried that I might loose some, in fact, a taste test now tells me it's less bubbly then it was in the primary. :unsure:

It's made 20Litres, does 200gms of fermantables for bulk priming sound ok? What would be the best to use LME? I want to have it for XMas so it's not going to mature at all. (It is a Tooheys after all)

Anyway, thanks in advance.

Kieran

Oh it doesn't taste too bad atm either, a little rough but I intend on drinking a lot, very fast so taste doesn't matter too much. :super:

 

[Fingerlickin_B]

It's not really carbonated now, that comes with priming, so don't worry about whether it "tastes fizzy" now or not.

I'd say more like 150g priming sugar.

PZ.

 

[Wardhog]

I rack (secondary) all my brews now, and one thing I've noticed is that where you used to wait two weeks for carbonation to occur when you didn't rack, it's now more like 4 weeks before peak carbonation is achieved. Does racking remove most of the viable yeast as well as other undesirables?

 

[Voosher]

I rack (secondary) all my brews now, and one thing I've noticed is that where you used to wait two weeks for carbonation to occur when you didn't rack, it's now more like 4 weeks before peak carbonation is achieved. Does racking remove most of the viable yeast as well as other undesirables?

There should be plenty of viable yeast in a clear (unfiltered) beer.
Having just come out of winter it could well be the colder weather which slowed your carbonation time.
See how it goes over summer. In anything over 20C most beers should be well carb'ed in a fortnight.

 

[AUHEAMIC]

I intend on drinking a lot, very fast so taste doesn't matter too much. :super:

Like your style Kieran Farrell

Go with Fingerlickin_Bs suggestion of 150 grams.

I use 170-180 grams in 23 litres for Aussies so 150 would be right for 20 litres.

 

[Trough Lolly]

Hi all,

I have a Tooheys Draught (yeah yeah I know) that was sitting in the primary for 5 days at about 21C. I've moved it across to another fermenter to get it off the trub (is this called the secondary? :unsure: ), added some finnings and it's sitting around doing not much. Hydrometer Reading is 1010 and it's clearing up nicely.

So here's the crux of my question. I'm going to bulk prime (yes another rack) and I'm worried about carbonation, obviously this is like an Aussie beer, so I want carbonation, and lots of it. But being that I racked it, I'm worried that I might loose some, in fact, a taste test now tells me it's less bubbly then it was in the primary. :unsure:

It's made 20Litres, does 200gms of fermantables for bulk priming sound ok? What would be the best to use LME? I want to have it for XMas so it's not going to mature at all. (It is a Tooheys after all)

Anyway, thanks in advance.

Kieran

Oh it doesn't taste too bad atm either, a little rough but I intend on drinking a lot, very fast so taste doesn't matter too much. :super:

G'day Kieran, welcome to the forum!
Yes, you racked the fermented wort / beer out of primary after 7 days and let it go through further bulk conditioning in a secondary fermenter. I rarely secondary my brews nowadays, just rack them to the keg and that's that. Bulk priming is a good idea, and 150 - 160g of dextrose would do the job. I tend to avoid using sugar since I prefer dextrose in terms of its relative fermentability, but if time is on your side, I always recommend using dry malt extract to prime with, but then again, we are talking about natural carbonation and not beer flavour improvements, aren't we!!

FWIW, if you bulk primed with 160g of dry malt extract and bottled it, you'd be very unlucky not to have a well carbonated beer by Xmas...Apologies if I'm teaching you to suck eggs, but make sure you dissolve the DME in a small volume of hot water before you toss it into the empty bulk priming vessel and transfer using a hose that's long enough to coil part way around the base of the destination vessel so you get a nice whirlpool without having to stir and accidentally add oxygen to the beer. You want minimal oxygen bubbles during the racking and bottling process...

Cheers,
TL

 

[Steve Lacey]

It's not really carbonated now, that comes with priming, so don't worry about whether it "tastes fizzy" now or not.

I'd say more like 150g priming sugar.

PZ.

I do agree with the priming rate, well, maybe 160g of dextrose-equivalent. Note that you will have to increase that for liquid malt extract by 40%, so 225 g of liquid malt would be about right.

I'd like to make a small clarification about the "it's not really carbonated now" comment. I wrote up some stuff on bulk priming with Petr Otahal for Craftbrewers a couple of years ago, and we looked into this question of carbonation at the end of fermentation quite carefully because the equations to calculate priming rate require you to consider the amount of dissolved CO2. The amount of dissolved CO2 is mainly considered to be a function of temperature during fermentation.

But it also transpires that there is another phenomenon called "super-saturation" of CO2. In other words, more CO2 accumulates in the fermented beer than you would expect from the temperature gas dissolution curve. This is probably possible because of the energy of the yeast...not sure really.

The practical consideration is that if you agitate or provide nucleation sites, the super-saturated CO2 will escape. So, the short answer is, yes, when you rack a fermented young beer, you do knock out some of the carbonation. However, if you want to come back to a close to known value of how much dissolved CO2 there is in the beer, this is actually a good thing, because then you can use the priming tables safely.

Steve