I was bottling a stout so wanted to keep carbonation relatively low.
I decided on a level of 2.0 CO2 so I used 50g of cane sugar.
This is dissolved in two cups of water.
Once the water is cooled, it is then added to your freshly sanitized bottling bucket
Using my auto syphon, I then transfer my wort from the primary fermenter.
The wort then mixes with the priming solution in the bottling bucket.
We then bottle our beer without the need for carb drops or measuring spoons of sugar ensuring an even carbonation throughout our batch of beer. The finished product, I always like to use 1 clear bottle.
From start to finish it took around 90 mins to prep, bottle and clean up. Much quicker then individually priming each bottle. Will be batch priming all my brews from now on.
Obviously there is risk of infection with introducing another bucket prior to bottling but so long as everything is properly cleaned then you should be ok.
WillD’s Top Tip:
Use a Lucozade bottle of the same size (500 ml usually). Fill leaving a small gap, squeeze the air out and tighten the cap. Then not only can you watch the process (like you can in your clear bottle) you can also feel the bottle stiffen up as it carbs!
Parky’s Top Tip:
The first, is to take a small amount of the yeast cake left at the bottom of the fermentation vessel.
Then mix this gently into the beer that has been transferred to the bottling bucket.
I use this method when I’ve added finings to clear the beer, as I want to ensure that there is enough viable yeast in the bottles to carbonate and condition the beer. I’ve read that finings can strip too much of the yeast from suspension, leaving a lovely clear beer, but not much yeast for carbonation. Whether that’s correct or not I’ve found the method above to be successful in creating a consistently good carbonation.
The second option is to add beer heading liquid/powder, which is supposed to assist in head formation and retention.
Again, add gently to the beer and stir to mix thoroughly.
At this point I leave the beer to sit for 30 minutes, allowing any additions to mix and blend evenly throughout the liquid.
As a rule I tend to leave the bottling bucket sit for 30 minutes anyway, as I find this allows any bits of krausen that have inadvertently fallen into the beer, to settle to the bottom of the bottling bucket. I can then leave them sit at the bottom of the bucket and keep them out of the bottles.
Batch priming has some advantages over individually priming bottles.
Carbonation guides can be found here http://www.brewersfriend.com/beer-priming-calculator/
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Author: GrahamR, WillD, Parky
