OK, we've been doing 10 gallon batches each time, and splitting the wort into two carboys for fermenting. Well, with all the variables involved, the two carboys invariably have tiny differences in FG, sediment, etc. So what we've been doing is combining the two when we racked into kegs, to kind of 'even' things out. The past two batches, we decided for aging and sampling purposed we wanted to keg half the batch and bottle the other.
But we still wanted to do our 'evening' out process and combine the two halves. We just racked the beer into our mash tun to combine them, added the priming sugar, then kegged half and bottled the rest. We've been basically using the same amount of priming sugar for each 10 gallon batch since the beginning, and the kegs have been perfect. The first batch of half kegs, half bottles resulted in perfect kegs and pretty much perfectly carbed bottles. Our last batch, however, resulted in bottles that after three weeks have very little carbonation. Of course, I'll relax and have a homebrew, and let them age longer to see if that improves. All batches have been ales, OG of about 1.056 if that matters. (not really big beers)
So I guess my question is ... are we doing things too simply? Do we need to prime the two halves separately? Or do the kegs first, then add additional priming sugar before bottling? Since we didn't have problems with the first half/half batch I figured we could get away with not doing fancy maths. Are we wrong?
Or more simply ... are we just wasting effort going to the trouble to combine the two halves in the first place? We hope sometime soon to move up to ~15 gallon fermenters to avoid this part of the issue altogether, but for now, are we benefiting at all?
But we still wanted to do our 'evening' out process and combine the two halves. We just racked the beer into our mash tun to combine them, added the priming sugar, then kegged half and bottled the rest. We've been basically using the same amount of priming sugar for each 10 gallon batch since the beginning, and the kegs have been perfect. The first batch of half kegs, half bottles resulted in perfect kegs and pretty much perfectly carbed bottles. Our last batch, however, resulted in bottles that after three weeks have very little carbonation. Of course, I'll relax and have a homebrew, and let them age longer to see if that improves. All batches have been ales, OG of about 1.056 if that matters. (not really big beers)
So I guess my question is ... are we doing things too simply? Do we need to prime the two halves separately? Or do the kegs first, then add additional priming sugar before bottling? Since we didn't have problems with the first half/half batch I figured we could get away with not doing fancy maths. Are we wrong?
Or more simply ... are we just wasting effort going to the trouble to combine the two halves in the first place? We hope sometime soon to move up to ~15 gallon fermenters to avoid this part of the issue altogether, but for now, are we benefiting at all?
