Newby in Tucson, AZ

[cyclefiend1123]

I have my first batch of extract brew bubbling away in the fomenter, er, fermenter, 6 gal of Munton's Nut Brown Ale, used DME instead of sugar, otherwise no other augmentation. I plan to bottle directly, and not go the secondary route. Any suggestions regarding the amount of priming sugar to use, and what sugar that should be? I plan to add the priming sugar directly to the primary fermenter, but I am concerned regarding the time it will take to resettle the trub vs losing carbonation before I can get the brew in the bottles. Any advice?

Here in Tucson when its 105 F outside I'm having to blast the A/C to keep the temperature down in my brew room (my wife calls it a "kitchen").

Andy
Tucson, AZ

 

[bergy]

Welcome fellow Tucsonan! After my first batch the first thing I did was build a fermentation chamber (look up "son of fermentation chamber" on the net) and it has been a real God-send.

The general rule of thumb for priming sugar is 5oz per 5 gallon batch. Brew Your Own Brew has perfectly measured packets that you can pick up, dump into some water and boil for 15 minutes before adding it to your beer. Also, if you're so worried about kicking up trub then get yourself a second bucket and racking cane especially for bottling.

 

[RuffRider]

I plan to bottle directly, and not go the secondary route. Any suggestions regarding the amount of priming sugar to use, and what sugar that should be? I plan to add the priming sugar directly to the primary fermenter, but I am concerned regarding the time it will take to resettle the trub vs losing carbonation before I can get the brew in the bottles. Any advice?

Welcome to the forum and the obsession, Andy!

The amount of priming sugar you add depends on the type of sugar you are using. For a 5gallon batch, add 3/4 cups of corn sugar (4oz by weight) or 2/3 cups of table sugar, or 1 and 1/4 cup of DME. Check this out:
www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter11-4.html

Also, I would not recommend adding your priming sugar directly to primary. It brings up all those concerns you have with stirring up the trub. If you don't have a bottling bucket, do you have a large pot or something you could sanitize and rack to? Then you could boil your 2 cups of water, add your priming sugar to the boiled water, let it cool, add it to your beer, then bottle.

Otherwise, I hate to say it cause it's a lot of work, but you could individually prime each bottle with a small amount of sugar and bottle. Check out this thread:
www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/how-much-priming-sugar-per-bottle-56261/
Or, get some priming tabs! :rockin:

Good luck! Cheers

 

[cyclefiend1123]

Welcome fellow Tucsonan! After my first batch the first thing I did was build a fermentation chamber (look up "son of fermentation chamber" on the net) and it has been a real God-send.

The general rule of thumb for priming sugar is 5oz per 5 gallon batch. Brew Your Own Brew has perfectly measured packets that you can pick up, dump into some water and boil for 15 minutes before adding it to your beer. Also, if you're so worried about kicking up trub then get yourself a second bucket and racking cane especially for bottling.

Yeah, I think I'll get a bottling bucket and prime into it. Also, my primary fermenter is equipped with a spigot. Can I use that to rack to the bottling bucket or should I use a cane?
Thanks for your response, and continued advise.
Andy
Tucson

 

[cyclefiend1123]

Welcome to the forum and the obsession, Andy!

The amount of priming sugar you add depends on the type of sugar you are using. For a 5gallon batch, add 3/4 cups of corn sugar (4oz by weight) or 2/3 cups of table sugar, or 1 and 1/4 cup of DME. Check this out:
www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter11-4.html

Also, I would not recommend adding your priming sugar directly to primary. It brings up all those concerns you have with stirring up the trub. If you don't have a bottling bucket, do you have a large pot or something you could sanitize and rack to? Then you could boil your 2 cups of water, add your priming sugar to the boiled water, let it cool, add it to your beer, then bottle.

Otherwise, I hate to say it cause it's a lot of work, but you could individually prime each bottle with a small amount of sugar and bottle. Check out this thread:
www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/how-much-priming-sugar-per-bottle-56261/
Or, get some priming tabs! :rockin:

Good luck! Cheers

Yeah, I think I'll get a bottling bucket and prime into it. Also, my primary fermenter is equipped with a spigot. Can I use that to rack to the bottling bucket or should I use a cane?

Thanks for your response, and continued advise.
Andy
Tucson

 

[RuffRider]

Yeah, I think I'll get a bottling bucket and prime into it. Also, my primary fermenter is equipped with a spigot. Can I use that to rack to the bottling bucket or should I use a cane?

I speak from experience when I say that you can definately use the spigot to rack to a bottling bucket. In fact, it's easier (no siphon). Most spigots are positioned higher than any trub you will have accumulated unless you did an excessive amount of dry hopping in primary with pellet hops.

Just make sure you attach a siphon hose from the spigot down to the bottom of your bottling bucket for racking. You don't want your beer splashing down into the bottling bucket and aerating it.

Enjoy your brew! :rockin:

 

[cyclefiend1123]

Great, that's good news about being able to rack through the spigot. I'm a little over two days into primary fermentation and the initial bubbling has slowed. I also read that if the fermenter is tilted a bit so that the spigot is high, the trub will collect more on the side away from the spigot - unfortunately I didn't get that detail until about a day-and-a-half into the process. I'll see how it goes.