Priming/Carbonation

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Shambolic

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Here's the story:

I always prime each of my bottles individually (this way I can bottle straight from the secondary; there are no concerns about mixing in the priming solution properly etc.). For my first handful of brews, I primed with ordinary table sugar. This always gave me an ideal level of carbonation. However, those beers all went a bit funky in the bottles, and were quite unpleasant after a little while.

So I decided to switch to priming with dextrose. I primed with the same scoop as I used previously. This resulted in two quite flat beers, as powdered dextrose is much less dense than crystalline table sugar!! Whoops...
So then I used one and a half times as much in the next two brews. The second of these is particulary flat - even more so than the one with the smaller amount of priming sugar!!

I am still getting some carbonation, so there must be yeast in the bottles. Can anyone suggest anything?

Also, for the stout I bottled yesterday, I primed with DME, as I read this can improve head etc. compared to priming with sugar. I used more again than I had been of the sugar.
Does anyone think I'll have any trouble with this? Does DME result in it taking longer to carbonate or anything?
 
No offense, Sham, but you've forsaken the priming method that almost everyone uses and adores - mixing a BOILED solution of sugar into the batch, in exchange for an unpredictable, unsanitary method, which, by your own account, does not work worth a pinch of, well, sugar. So, why not try the other way, which is almost guaranteed to work perfectly each and every time. Instead of worrying about what type of sugar, just use a process that works better.
 
Syphon you beer out of the fermenter into a priming bucket that already has the sugar in it, then bottle from there. Use any sterilised 5 gal tub, no need to spend anything, the small extra effort will sure improve your beer.

I seriously doubt that there would be any difference in using different sugars to prime with. A typical 5 gallon batch has 8 pounds of sugars in it, 3/4 cup of suar to prime would be only about 3% of the total, that would be nuthin compared to all the body and flavor from the 'grist' sugars.
 
Shambolic said:
Here's the story:

I always prime each of my bottles individually (this way I can bottle straight from the secondary; there are no concerns about mixing in the priming solution properly etc.).?

you are a true old-school spirit, which deservres respect...however, dry-priming like they did back in the day, seems so wrong on so many levels. first of which the result you are getting are inconsintant, and even unpleasent. It also must be time and labor consuming, standing over each bottle with a mini spoon filled w/ a microscopic amount of sugar. The other problem, which deals with consistancey is unless you weigh the sugar on a scale, simply using a scoop will almost certainly be not very accurate.

The simplisity of primary in the 21st century, is that its easier, less time consuming, you get repeatable results, and low risk of infection.

even if you dont have a bottling bucket its still way better to boil the sugar/water, cool it a tad in an ice bath, then dump it in. now with your racking cane slowy stir for 2 minutes and you ready to bottle...and more importantly, enter a new millenium...
 
While not agreeing with all the points made...

Okay, maybe I should try the 'modern' method from now on. I will still bottle straight from the secondary though, as I only have one primary and one secondary fermenter, and nothing else that can hold enough liquid.

If I'm going to do this, I need some advice - how much dextrose or DME should I use for, say, a 20L batch?

And I assume I mix the priming stuff into as little boiled water as possible, to avoid watering down the brew...?
 
5 oz. of corn sugar, or 7.5 oz. of DME is normal, boiled for about 10 minutes in 2 cups of water.
 
I usually dissolve the sugar or DME in just enough water to get it into solution, about a cup or two. As for the amount of sugar, start with what the recipe calls for and see what results you get, then adjust accordingly for your next batch.
For the record, I posted this at the same time as El P. Note: This is for Sasquatch because he's a right ruddy git.
 
I've got better things to do than point out when someone's post is a blatant ripoff of the post above.

For 20 L, I would shoot for about a cup of dextrose for a lager, and a bit less, like maybe 7/8 for an ale. But that's for high altitude too, which seems to take a bit more to get the total diffused gas count up there.
 
Sasquatch said:
For 20 L, I would shoot for about a cup of dextrose for a lager, and a bit less, like maybe 7/8 for an ale. But that's for high altitude too, which seems to take a bit more to get the total diffused gas count up there.

Just to make sure we're on the same horse (or something)...
One cup is 250mL over in the US of A just like it is here, right?
 
Use dextrose (corn sugar). Boil and mix it in with the whole batch. Why not transfer back to your primary and bottle from there?

There are no advantages to using DME for priming.
 
Janx said:
Use dextrose (corn sugar). Boil and mix it in with the whole batch. Why not transfer back to your primary and bottle from there?

Because I only have one primary and one secondary. The primary is in use!
(I'm also getting really sick of sanitising stuff, but that's just laziness...:D)
 
Shambolic said:
I will still bottle straight from the secondary though, as I only have one primary and one secondary fermenter, and nothing else that can hold enough liquid.

While I do have to secondary carboys... (second has not been used yet, I bought it when I didn't know the primary needed to be 6.5 gallons), I use my primary as my mixing bucket. No need to my another bucket.
 
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