What would you recommend...after the beer is ready for bottling out of the secondary carboy, do I need to then move to a bottling bucket or can I bottle straight from the secondary carboy? Also is it better to put the priming sugar in each bottle or in all of the beer at once?
Bottling and priming question
- Thread starter tdionne
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Definitely use a carefully sanitized bottling bucket.
Briefly boil a pint of water on your stovetop, along with your priming sugar. Cover and allow to cool until it can be handled. Toss it into your bottling bucket, than rack from your secondary into the bucket. Place the siphon tube in the bottom of the bucket so it doesn't splash, and the swirling action of the beer will help evenly distribute the sugar solution.
Briefly boil a pint of water on your stovetop, along with your priming sugar. Cover and allow to cool until it can be handled. Toss it into your bottling bucket, than rack from your secondary into the bucket. Place the siphon tube in the bottom of the bucket so it doesn't splash, and the swirling action of the beer will help evenly distribute the sugar solution.
It's best to use a priming solution (your priming sugar dissolved in some boiling water) and then rack the beer into the bottling bucket with the tip of the tubing in a circle on the bottling bucket bottom, so the beer swirls to mix with the priming sugar.
A couple of reasons why I wouldn't bottle from the carboy:
1. The point of the secondary is to clear the beer. If you add the priming solution to it, you'll stir it all up and defeat the purpose of the secondary.
2. Bottling with a siphon is a PITA. The bottling bucket with a bottling wand is super easy and simply gravity at work. It would be hard to keep the tip of the siphon above the trub as you tried to siphon and fill bottles.
3. More even carbonation occurs when the priming solution is dissolved and racked into the bottling bucket, especially with different sized bottles.
4. Bulk priming in the carboy would cause uneven carbonation and probably some aeration of the beer unless you primed each bottle individually.
5. Priming each bottle individually is a PITA also.
A couple of reasons why I wouldn't bottle from the carboy:
1. The point of the secondary is to clear the beer. If you add the priming solution to it, you'll stir it all up and defeat the purpose of the secondary.
2. Bottling with a siphon is a PITA. The bottling bucket with a bottling wand is super easy and simply gravity at work. It would be hard to keep the tip of the siphon above the trub as you tried to siphon and fill bottles.
3. More even carbonation occurs when the priming solution is dissolved and racked into the bottling bucket, especially with different sized bottles.
4. Bulk priming in the carboy would cause uneven carbonation and probably some aeration of the beer unless you primed each bottle individually.
5. Priming each bottle individually is a PITA also.
