First Bottling Day Questions

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TBuuck

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Planning to bottle my first brew this week, just thought I'd check in and see if there's anything is should make sure to do or try to avoid...

I have about 60 bottles, all pry off tops, ready to go. I am a little confused on what to use as a priming sugar. I'm brewing a hefeweizen if that makes any difference. Is plain table sugar good enough or do I need a specialty sugar of some kind?

Like I said, ANY advice is much appreciated, no matter how obvious it may seem.
Thanks!
 
The best two choices for priming sugar would be Corn Sugar or Dry Extract. You do need to make sure that you have enough but not too much of priming. 3/4 cup of Corn Sugar is usually adequate but may be too much or too little depending on the style.

I've never used Table Sugar for priming and I've also never made a Hefeweizen.
 
It takes a bit more table sugar compared to dextrose (corn sugar). you'll see this in the provided priming calculator.
 
How about cleaning/sanitizing the bottles? Don't want to get this far and get a contamination...
 
Well,I delabel & clean the bottles initially in PBW overnight. This makes the labels float right off,& the glue dissolve or get very soft. A Dobie brand scrubber & bottle brush make short work of cleaning them. If the bottles are just being reused from HB,then drain,rinse scrub with bottle brush & rinse again. Either way,they go onto the bottle tree to drip dry before storage or using. Sanitize with starsan & onto the bottle tree right before filling. I use a vinator that fits the top of my bottle tree for this step. Quicker & easier.
 
Ooops,you're right. I just checked & I remembered it backwards. All the time I spend reading thinking & typing...& I still mis-remember things now & then. I guess you can't always beat father time at his own game. This aging thing def works...:drunk:
 
Just realized I dumped my priming solution into the bottling bucket, probably oxygenated it pretty good. Will that little amount of solution (2 cups) be enough to skunk the beer?
 
Just realized I dumped my priming solution into the bottling bucket, probably oxygenated it pretty good. Will that little amount of solution (2 cups) be enough to skunk the beer?

My money is on it being just fine.
 
TBuuck said:
Just realized I dumped my priming solution into the bottling bucket, probably oxygenated it pretty good. Will that little amount of solution (2 cups) be enough to skunk the beer?

Skunking is from hops reacting to light. Your concern of oxidation is a cardboard flavor.

I, and I think a large number of others, add the priming solution while racking the beer from the fermenter to the bottling bucket. We usually set the tubing so a gentle whirlpool forms in the bottling bucket, assuring a good mix of the priming solution throughout the beer to be bottled. I like to stuff mine under the spigot until it stays by itself. Just try to avoid splashing, and keep the tubing in the beer.

During any racking operation, get rid of any air pockets in the tubing, just squeeze the bubble a few times and it will go away. Pay particular attention to anywhere a tubing connection is made.
 
Is there a common time after bottling that "bottle bombs" occur? Just curious what I should be looking out for...
 
Thinking about it and realize some of my bottles might be ticking time bombs... I added the priming sugar first, and gently racked my beer into that before bottling... TOTALLY FORGOT TO STIR IT TOGETHER. That seems to me that the first couple bottles will way over carb while the later ones will be totally flat. Thoughts?
 
Thinking about it and realize some of my bottles might be ticking time bombs... I added the priming sugar first, and gently racked my beer into that before bottling... TOTALLY FORGOT TO STIR IT TOGETHER. That seems to me that the first couple bottles will way over carb while the later ones will be totally flat. Thoughts?

I never stir. If you have the tip of the tubing curled up in the bottling bucket, so that the beer fills from the bottom and swirls to mix (and avoid oxidation!), then it'll mix just fine without stirring.
 
The best two choices for priming sugar would be Corn Sugar or Dry Extract.

What makes them better than table sugar exactly? And if you use DME, wouldn't it potentially effect the taste because there are some unfermentables in there? (Correct me if I'm wrong, but I thought that's why you need to use a fair bit more DME than dextrose or sucrose).
 
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