zakleeright
Well-Known Member
After fermenting nearly 5 weeks, my Helles Boch Lager seemed ready to go.
I decided to bottle 2 six-packs, keg the rest, because keg is convenient for home, bottle is portable to share. Plus I want to compare flavor of forced carbonation in keg to natural carbonation in bottle.
This is only my 7th batch, so feedback to improve my process is greatly appreciated.
Background:
My 5gal. batches have been yeilding ~4.7gall or 600oz of bottled beer. (I've kegged my last two batches, having recently moved to that equipment).
All my batches carbonated well in the bottle w/5oz priming sugar. I boil that w/1 cup water for 5 minutes to sterilized, let cool while I clean, then pour to bottle bucket before siphoning beer in.
Determine amount of Priming sugar:
Bottling: 12 * 12oz bottles = 144oz
been using 5oz sugar for 600oz, so...
144/600 = .24
5oz * .24 = 1.2oz
So, I need 1.2oz sugar for 144oz beer. Damn...No scale,(i gotta buy one of those)
So, try calc by volume:
1 cup = 16 TBLSPNs
5oz should be ~ 12TBLSPNs
I measured 16 loose, unpacked TBLSPNs (LHBS "5oz" package)
16x.24 = 3.84 TBLSPNs
So I put 4 “slightly shy” tablespoons of priming sugar in a bit less than ½ cup water, boiled for 5 minutes, let cool while I clean/sanitize everything (the fun part).
Detemine 144oz line:
Twelve 12oz bottles filled to brim w/starsan, poured in bottling bucket. Marked the fluid level w/sharpie as "144oz line". Since bottles are full to brim, this is more than 144oz, but I figure it may net 2 six's worth of brew after waste from drips and what's left in bottling bucket.
Keg/bottle:
Move carboy from lagering fridge to top of washing machine
Place keg & bottle bucket in utility sink (right next to the wash machine/carboy stand)
Pour cooled priming sugar water to bucket
Start siphon from carboy to bucket, fill to 144 line.
Move running siphon to keg until carboy is emptied.
Seal the keg as usual and set aside.
Cap bottles as usual.
Volume worked out perfect! I had twelve 12oz bottles of beer with a very small amount of waste left in bucket (& some drippage on the floor)
Attached CO hose to keg and pressurize to 20psi while I clean up.
Done.
Let me know if my process could be made better/easier, if there's a better technique, etc. I"m gonna do my 1st 10gal batch today, so will be repeating this "keg some/bottle some" process frequently(hopefully improved by you all)
I'm thinking maybe kegging first would give me the clearest beer in the keg, then bottling the bottom portion (likely more sediment) to bottles. But it'd be more difficult to determine when to stop. The "stop line" would vary depending on how much yeast cake is on bottom of any one batch.
Cheers
I decided to bottle 2 six-packs, keg the rest, because keg is convenient for home, bottle is portable to share. Plus I want to compare flavor of forced carbonation in keg to natural carbonation in bottle.
This is only my 7th batch, so feedback to improve my process is greatly appreciated.
Background:
My 5gal. batches have been yeilding ~4.7gall or 600oz of bottled beer. (I've kegged my last two batches, having recently moved to that equipment).
All my batches carbonated well in the bottle w/5oz priming sugar. I boil that w/1 cup water for 5 minutes to sterilized, let cool while I clean, then pour to bottle bucket before siphoning beer in.
Determine amount of Priming sugar:
Bottling: 12 * 12oz bottles = 144oz
been using 5oz sugar for 600oz, so...
144/600 = .24
5oz * .24 = 1.2oz
So, I need 1.2oz sugar for 144oz beer. Damn...No scale,(i gotta buy one of those)
So, try calc by volume:
1 cup = 16 TBLSPNs
5oz should be ~ 12TBLSPNs
I measured 16 loose, unpacked TBLSPNs (LHBS "5oz" package)
16x.24 = 3.84 TBLSPNs
So I put 4 “slightly shy” tablespoons of priming sugar in a bit less than ½ cup water, boiled for 5 minutes, let cool while I clean/sanitize everything (the fun part).
Detemine 144oz line:
Twelve 12oz bottles filled to brim w/starsan, poured in bottling bucket. Marked the fluid level w/sharpie as "144oz line". Since bottles are full to brim, this is more than 144oz, but I figure it may net 2 six's worth of brew after waste from drips and what's left in bottling bucket.
Keg/bottle:
Move carboy from lagering fridge to top of washing machine
Place keg & bottle bucket in utility sink (right next to the wash machine/carboy stand)
Pour cooled priming sugar water to bucket
Start siphon from carboy to bucket, fill to 144 line.
Move running siphon to keg until carboy is emptied.
Seal the keg as usual and set aside.
Cap bottles as usual.
Volume worked out perfect! I had twelve 12oz bottles of beer with a very small amount of waste left in bucket (& some drippage on the floor)
Attached CO hose to keg and pressurize to 20psi while I clean up.
Done.
Let me know if my process could be made better/easier, if there's a better technique, etc. I"m gonna do my 1st 10gal batch today, so will be repeating this "keg some/bottle some" process frequently(hopefully improved by you all)
I'm thinking maybe kegging first would give me the clearest beer in the keg, then bottling the bottom portion (likely more sediment) to bottles. But it'd be more difficult to determine when to stop. The "stop line" would vary depending on how much yeast cake is on bottom of any one batch.
Cheers