Bulk Priming

[eggar]

I've been talking to some fellow brewers and the subject of bulk priming came up. Are there any schools of thought out there?
Cheers
Eggar

[Tyberious Funk]

I've been talking to some fellow brewers and the subject of bulk priming came up. Are there any schools of thought out there?
Cheers
Eggar

To be honest... I don't know how people can be bothered doing anything other than bulk priming. While I like to try and keep all the bottles in a batch the same, it isn't always possible. I bottled a small batch the other day with 330ml. 375ml and 500ml bottles. Doesn't make a squat of difference when you are bulk priming though.

[eggar]

Even though I have been brewing for a couple of years, I'd never thought to bulk prime. I'm nearly ready to bottle a brew so hopefully I won't stuff it up the first time. Thanks for the reply TF.
Eggar

[gregb]

I mostly bulk prime, given that I often seem to be bottling a batch to a variety of different sized bottles.

If you are not bulk priming try this:
http://www.homebrewandbeer.com/forum/vi ... ght=#15024
as an alternative to carbo drops & scoops etc.

Cheers,
Greg

[two headed brewer]

Cheers Greg,
still a couple of places in the trial, what do you reckon eggar? By no means am I trying to put you off Bulk Priming, I do this myself for the same reason as Tyberious Funk. But using the Posi Pour is very simple and if you're only doing a couple of bottle sizes the a single shot for the small bottle and two for the larger is possible, eg 375 and 750.
Drop me a line if your interested.
Bally

[Jeff]

I bulk prime because it is heaps quicker. It also allows me to rack into a secondary and leave the crap behind, thus minimising wastage

[Stangas]

how do i know how much sugar is required for bulk priming.

what info is needed?

[grabman]

Stangas,

amount of sugar depends on type of brew you're doing and how carbonated you want it.

I usually go for around 5-6gms/L and find that works fine. If doing a stout you may drop that down vice versa for a high carbed lager.

Hope that helps

Grabman

[Goatee]

for amounts of sugar, do it based on a grams per litre.

For stouts i do about 5g/L. which is fairly low (probably fizzier than comercial though).

Ales around 5-6g/L and lagers around 6-7. Ginger beer being the highest at 9g/L.

That's how i like them, and as we know everyone is different, so just a bit of trial and seeing if you like how it turns out.

Someone posted this link a long time ago and it's what i used as a rough guide when i first bulked:
http://oz.craftbrewer.org/Library/Metho ... uide.shtml
So cheers to who ever posted that

[Stangas]

cheers guys

[sleonard]

Stang,

Generally, as a newbie, I use measure out 180g of dextrose, dilute in enough boiled water to disolve (~200ml) and then top up to 500 ml to aid the cooling.

never had a prob with this method.

Cheers

Simon

ps. an after thought, I should use some ice to 'aid the cooling'!!!

[kurtz]

A very helpfull device is a 10ml disposable syringe from the local chemist at about 30cents !
When I used to bulk prime (an excellent idea) I found that I would some times intoduce oxygen during the transfer process which led short term to diacetyl problems and long term, had I kept the beer, would have led to oxidation problems (darkening, cardboard, sherry in the extreme).
So a better idea is to say take, if 6 gms a litre for 20 litres 120gms of sugar dissolved in say 400ml of water, almost fill your 40 x 500ml swing tops and add 10ml of syrup to yop up each.
Easy, accurate and repeatable.

Kurtz

[recharge]

I bulk prime, because i like to naturally carb my kegs i dont mind wasting a little gas and purge my seconary and keg before racking.

[Dogger Dan]

Kurtz is right though,

you need to be careful when racking not to introduce Oxygen it can lead to detrimental effects.

My system is pretty tight so I may be a bit casual about this stage, I have a self priming cane and all joints are sealed. As an aside, I used to filter my beer with a plate filter. I have since stopped to avoid aeration and possible oxidation, not that I saw any real bad affects, I just didn't like playing with fire.


Just to give you an idea about how serious some people are about oxidation, they buy bottle caps with liners that absorb oxygen, I am assuming this from the head space in the bottle rather than the dissolved oxygen in the beer resulting from a poor transfer. I don't really support this product as I don't think you will see to many ill affects from the O2 in the headspace over say three months. I would say something different if you were getting serious about aging a Barleywine for 18 months or so

Further, the nastiest time for oxidation is when the wort is hot, slopping it around when hot can really lead to some stale brew.

Dogger

[yardglass]

just a quick one about the O2 in the headspace,

i think it was Oliver that posted a thought that when priming and bottling, before capping you should let the bottle sit with the cap on for awhile.

the theory being that the reaction between the brew and the dex/sugar forces out the oxygen.

i tried this with a couple of clear bottles, there certainly is a lot of activity in there when it hits the dex.

would there be enough CO2 in there to do this ?

cheers
yardy

[db]

would there be enough CO2 in there to do this ?

cheers
yardy

in my experience there is. i let my bottles sit with the caps sit on the bottles for 20mins or so before capping.. & you can hear the caps "popping" with the gas escaping

[yardglass]

db,
things get a bit lively in there hey.

eggar,
sorry about the hi-jack,
re:bulk priming, if you don't mind a little extra work in sanitising another pail, fermenter, bucket etc then bp is good imo.

having said that, most of the time i can't be arsed to muck about and end up throwing the dex in a dozen botts at a time.

cheers
yardy

[kurtz]

the theory being that the reaction between the brew and the dex/sugar forces out the oxygen

Perhaps..but any oxygen hanging around will be scavenged by the yeast during conditioning. The activity that you get when you add the sugar is most likely disolved gases coming out of solution rather than new CO2 production..add a teaspoon of sugar to a bottle of coke...you will get the idea!!

Kurtz

[Stangas]

I go with kegs, so i threw the sugar syrup into the keg, then gently tapped the beer into the keg also.. when full i give the keg some CO2 and burped it. And then straight into the fridge.

That sounds about right i think

[grabman]

Stangas

If naturally carbing the keg it will still need to sit for 3-4 weeks at least just like bottles do at around 20C to allow carbonation to occur. So maybe not straight into the fridge.

Grabman