Priming tips

[astacey1403]

Hey every one, I had a quick question about priming. The last brew I made was my first all grain beer and for what ever reason I could not get it to prime for me. After a few weeks (4+) it finally got some carb to it but it was not nearly enough. I am going to be bottling a pumpkin ale this weekend and was planning on trying something different. I was either going to cold crash in primary and re pitch a different yeast with priming sugar to carb, or try out the carb tabs. Any tips or advise would be great thanks.

 

[Jhu1321]

How did you calculate the amount of priming sugar?

 

[eadavis80]

http://www.northernbrewer.com/priming-sugar-calculator

 

[GrogNerd]

definitely measure priming sugar by weight, not volume.

that priming calculator eadavis80 linked is a good one. there can be some disagreement over what it means by "current temperature of beer" : some would use the cold crash temp, I use the highest temp the beer attained.

keep bottles at 70-75° F

if you've done everything right, but it's still undercarbed, try this: invert the bottles for 3 days, back right-side-up for 3 days, then chill for 3 days. helps sometimes

I try to aim for a higher carbonation, I've primed up to 3.5 vols with no bottles bombs or gushers

 

[astacey1403]

I us an online calculator and for the batch that did not prim I was shooting for a fairly high carb profile (primed at 68 degrees F). I did not re pitch for that one and I was thinking that's the reason why it did not carb for me but I'm not sure. I want this pumpkin ale to be perfect as far as carb profile goes and I will be giving it 3 weeks for priming and conditioning in the bottle. I haven't used the tabs before and iv heard they work well I just like traditional priming for what ever reason.

 

[petrolSpice]

I use the online calculators, but always go with a little more sugar than suggested, usually 20% more or so.

Giving the bottles a swirl definitively helps to get the settled yeast back into suspension. Warmer temps also help. I bottle condition in the garage which routinely gets into the low 90's.

 

[Floatzel]

I use
¾ cup corn sugar or cane sugar
1 cup malt extract or ½ cup of honey
2 cups of water

 

[Kerrbrewer]

I use the tabs for my lady's cysers/ciders. They work really well for that. Think I will try them in a few bottles of beer next go round.

 

[GrogNerd]

I use
¾ cup corn sugar or cane sugar
1 cup malt extract or ½ cup of honey
2 cups of water

I used to do it this way because Charlie P told me to do it that way 22 years ago

& was the way I did it when I restarted brewing 4 years ago

That resulted in some seriously undercarbed batches until I started weighing my priming sugar