Carbonation (for bottling)

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monty1
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Carbonation (for bottling)

Post by monty1 »

I'm intending to bottle my first batch, originally I was going to add a little solution of sugar syrup and yeast from the bottom of the first fermenter to each bottle. I've now realised this is a massive effort and am going to carbonate the whole batch prior to bottling. Should I just do this with a sugar solution or this any value in using a little of the trub as well?
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steve crawshaw
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Re: Carbonation (for bottling)

Post by steve crawshaw »

monty1 wrote:I'm intending to bottle my first batch, originally I was going to add a little solution of sugar syrup and yeast from the bottom of the first fermenter to each bottle. I've now realised this is a massive effort and am going to carbonate the whole batch prior to bottling. Should I just do this with a sugar solution or this any value in using a little of the trub as well?
If it's a normal strength beer ~5% then no need to add yeast. I only add yeast if it's a big beast as the original yeast is weakened by exposure to alcohol. You could just rack to corny, add sugar syrup and bottle from the corny. I tend to bottle from the primary after adding a "glug" of golden syrup to each bottle. It seems to work well.
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monty1
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Re: Carbonation (for bottling)

Post by monty1 »

Thanks for that - beer will be around 5% (or at least it's supposed to be!) so just sugar solution should be good. I'd like a corny keg, but i'm going to get a few brews done before i start to invest in any kit like that.

can i just use regular cane or caster sugar or should i really buy brewer's sugar - which as far as i understand is sucrose? If I over sugar , am i going to have exploding bottles?
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I_used_to_brew
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Re: Carbonation (for bottling)

Post by I_used_to_brew »

monty1 wrote:Thanks for that - beer will be around 5% (or at least it's supposed to be!) so just sugar solution should be good. I'd like a corny keg, but i'm going to get a few brews done before i start to invest in any kit like that
There's nothing wrong with bottles. Cleaning and sanitising enough to bottle a brew is the biggest issue. A Cornelius keg set-up is expensive (£60 keg, £40 CO2 cylinder, £35 regulator, £20keg connectors, £20 tap approx.)Not something to jump into really.
monty1 wrote:can i just use regular cane or caster sugar?
Yes you can
monty1 wrote:should i really buy brewer's sugar - which as far as i understand is sucrose?
No need, brewers sugar usually refers to some form of invert sugar, which golden syrup is a type of too.
monty1 wrote: If I over sugar , am i going to have exploding bottles?
Yes. It's dangerous and, if you can still see after picking shards of glass out of your eyes, very messy.
Capn Ahab
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Re: Carbonation (for bottling)

Post by Capn Ahab »

No need to overcomplicate this.

Take 4 g of sugar (granulated or caster) per litre of beer to be bottled dissolved in a bit of water, add to bottling bucket then rack beer on top, then bottle from there. As long as fermentation has finished (so there are no fermentable sugars left in the wort), you won't get any bottle bombs (barring infections) and this will give you a nice level of carbonation generally. I know nothing about calculating volumes of CO2, but I'll add more sugar for Belgians and other highly carbonated styles, and sometimes a bit less for an oatmeal stout say.
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monty1
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Re: Carbonation (for bottling)

Post by monty1 »

Think i'll go for the simple approach of dissolved caster sugar on my first brew, like the idea of trying golden syrup on a batch though to see if it changes the flavour in any way. Think i'll keep by bottles covered though, just in case any go pop. Only three weeks to go!
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Glo-ro_Bob
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Re: Carbonation (for bottling)

Post by Glo-ro_Bob »

Hey dude, if you haven't got How To Brew, by John Palmer, then check out this page:
http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter11-4.html

Should answer a lot of your questions. I bottle the same way. Boil sugar in solution to sterilise (this is mostly to sterilise the water you dissolve the sugar in), put into a bottling bucket (I use a plastic pressure barrel because it's got a tap), then syphon the beer in to mix with the sugar. Stick a tube on the tap and fill some bottles!

Good luck, and bring some along to the club!
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mrlard
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Re: Carbonation (for bottling)

Post by mrlard »

i Haven't done it for a while but i always used to freeze a litre of unfermented wort per 20 litre batch assuming under 5%

i then used to boil this up and throw it into the feremented 20 litres. works out enought for 2vols of CO2 per bottle..

however it might be an idea to check my math its been a while
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SandyM
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Re: Carbonation (for bottling)

Post by SandyM »

If you have an android phone there is a free app called brewzor pro which has loads of brewing calculators included, one is a CO2 volume calculator, easy to use and works reliably in my experience. Oh and volumes are simply the equivalent amount of co2 dissolved in beer as there is beer so one volume would be one pint of co2 in one pint of beer. Most beers are around 1 - 2 volumes, I never go below 1.3 now as I ruined a very hoppy imperial IPA by under priming and the oxidisation killed all the hop flavour, I now have lots of bottles of very strong and very sweet beer.
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monty1
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Re: Carbonation (for bottling)

Post by monty1 »

I'll take a look at that and try it out on next brew. Similarly - take a look at BrewR. Nice android app for recipe creation.
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