How to batch prime?

[pk]

Sorry if this is a stupid question guys but how do you batch prime with brewing sugar?
I've been adding a carbonation drop to each bottle but its a bit fiddly and doesn't carbonate the beer very well sometimes.

Do you just dump in brewing sugar into the secondary fermentation bucket and leave it for a while before bottling or do you put the brewing sugar into each empty bottle before filling?

Paul

[St. Fursey]

What I do is calculate the amount of sugar needed and dissolve in a saucepan with a little water. Bring to the boil while stirring and simmer on the hob for a couple of minutes. Allow to cool and carefully tip it into the bucket. Stir very gently with a sanitised implement. Leave an hour to settle before beginning to fill bottles

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[TheSumOfAllBeers]

This is how I do it: http://thesumofallbeers.tumblr.com/post/54015840254/batch-priming-illustrated-guide.

To summarise:

- calculate the amount of sugar you need for priming
- dissolve this in a small amount of boiling water
- add your priming solution to a sanitised second fermenter
- rack off your beer in the primary fermenter onto this priming solution
- ensure your siphon tube is immersed in the solution, and that it jets the beer in a swirl, to minimise oxygen and mix your beer more thoroughly
- leave the primed beer for a bit, covered, for up to 30 minutes to ensure even distribution of the primer
- bottle as usual from the primed secondary

It works really well
- saves you time
- ensures even priming
- cheap
- allows the use of interesting adjuncts at priming time (e.g. aromatic primers like honey, maple syrup, or hop extracts)

[pk]

Hi sumofallbeers,
Thank you, that looks grand! I meant to thank you a few days ago but the site was down. Nice blog by the way.

Do you have an app or website you use for calculating the amount of sugar you use for a 22 litre batch?

Paul

[Garry]

Do you have an app or website you use for calculating the amount of sugar you use for a 22 litre batch?

I use this one.

http://kotmf.com/tools/prime.php 

[sub82]

Is there any reason you wouldn't use a small amount of wort, instead of water, to dissolve the sugar?

[TheSumOfAllBeers]

Hi sumofallbeers,
Thank you, that looks grand! I meant to thank you a few days ago but the site was down. Nice blog by the way.

You're welcome!

Do you have an app or website you use for calculating the amount of sugar you use for a 22 litre batch?

1 level teaspoon of sugar per 500ml. Gut feeling is that is about 80-120g for a 22L batch.

If I was using DME I would bring that up to 160g.

The site that Garry shared is very thorough, but rule of thumb works for me, and batch priming with total weighed priming sugar is very tolerant of silly mistakes. I might increase that by 50% for styles that need a lot of carbonation (say bavarian weisse), but I tend to keep my carbing approximate.

[TheSumOfAllBeers]

Is there any reason you wouldn't use a small amount of wort, instead of water, to dissolve the sugar?

A few reasons:
- you may not have wort
- you may not know the gravity of the wort
- the wort may be hopped
- if you have enough wort at a known gravity level, why use sugar?

If I could reliably collect enough neutral flavoured wort, at a reference gravity, I would not prime with sugar.

For some reason, my sugar primed beers generate big bubbles (think coca cola) and it has an impact on my head retention. DME primed works better for some reason, but can leave krausen rings, or break material in bottle if boiled (to sanitise). Securely harvesting a reference amount of wort, would be the best primer IMO.

[RichC]

Is there any reason you wouldn't use a small amount of wort, instead of water, to dissolve the sugar?

You need to boil the sugar solution to kill any potential infection

[RichC]

I use this to calculate amount of sucrose to use: http://byo.com/resources/carbonation
Add about 400ml to total volume of beer.
boil priming sugar for about 10mins ending up with about 400ml for priming solution.
Start siphoning beer into priming bucket, keeping siphon tip to edge of bucket to create a gentle swirling motion.
When theres about an inch of beer swirling into the bucket pour the priming solution in just where the beer is leaving the siphon, this ensures a good mix. Also, using slightly more water(400ml) rather than a thick syrup for priming ensures better mixing.
bottle straight from little bottler when bottling bucket is filled.

[UpsidedownA (Andrew)]

How much sugar you need depends on how much carbonation you want and how much CO2 is already in the beer (i.e, depends on the temperature of the beer). I would use 1g/l for flat beers like stouts and strong ales. I would use 2g/l for hoppy ales. I've gone as high as 2.8g/l. That's quite a lot less than Sumofallbeers, but I use the same method.

I've used wort to prime before too. Main problem, you don't know where the wort will finish up. If you reserve some wort at pitching and keep it in the fridge, you can add it back in at bottling. Boil it first because it may have been contaminated in the meantime. Take OG-FG, and then aim for about 2 gravity points per litre. So if you want to prime 20 litres with wort, you need about 40 points. If OG-FG is 40, then a litre of that wort is fine. If OG-FG is 30 points, then you need more like 1.3litres.

[RichC]

How much sugar you need depends on how much carbonation you want and how much CO2 is already in the beer (i.e, depends on the temperature of the beer). I would use 1g/l for flat beers like stouts and strong ales. I would use 2g/l for hoppy ales. I've gone as high as 2.8g/l. That's quite a lot less than Sumofallbeers, but I use the same method.

I've used wort to prime before too. Main problem, you don't know where the wort will finish up. If you reserve some wort at pitching and keep it in the fridge, you can add it back in at bottling. Boil it first because it may have been contaminated in the meantime. Take OG-FG, and then aim for about 2 gravity points per litre. So if you want to prime 20 litres with wort, you need about 40 points. If OG-FG is 40, then a litre of that wort is fine. If OG-FG is 30 points, then you need more like 1.3litres.

Is that an old German or Belgian method or something? Im sure I read about it somewhere before??

[sub82]

Is there any reason you wouldn't use a small amount of wort, instead of water, to dissolve the sugar?

You need to boil the sugar solution to kill any potential infection

Sorry - yep I meant that we would use ~500ml wort instead of water and bring it to the boil to dissolve the sugar and avoid infection.

[johnrm]

+1 sub82

[johnrm]

Krausening...
http://www.brewersfriend.com/gyle-and-krausen-priming-calculator/