Bottle Conditioned NEIPA

[Architect-Dave]

I want to brew and bottle a NEIPA. I have made over 30 batches of beer, but never one of these. I do not have any kegs, CO2, or taps. So, need to rely on bottle conditioning. I heard that you should add conditioning sugar to the bottle and not use a bottling bucket for them. Use 12 and 20 ounce bottles. I do not know the first thing about adding sugar directly to the bottle for conditioning. I have read 1/2 tsp to 1 tsp per bottle. That seems like a big swing to me. Any help or advice out there?

 

[day_trippr]

How about smack in the middle?
fwiw, when I was bottling in 12 ounce Sam Adams long necks I dry-primed with 3/4 tsp of corn sugar.

Cheers!

 

[mac_1103]

long thread on limiting oxidation in bottle conditioned beers

Tl/dr - minimize the headspace as much as possible; maybe purge that remaining headspace with something like this. Dosing individual bottles is also good; I've never done that with a dry measure so defer to those who have.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

In addition to the long thread, there are some shorter ones. For example (and probably the 'best' of the shorter ones):

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/how-to-bottle-neipa-without-kegging.676121/

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

assuming the beer hasn't already been 'oxidized' in the 'up stream' processes ...

I heard that you should add conditioning sugar to the bottle and not use a bottling bucket for them. Use 12 and 20 ounce bottles. I do not know the first thing about adding sugar directly to the bottle for conditioning.

For larger batches, some people make a sugar solution and use a medicine dropper to dose the bottle. Some brewers also add oxygen scavenging ingredients (e.g. ascorbic acid) and fresh yeast during bottling.

Bottle conditioning warm (65F to 75F) will speed up the carbonation phrase. Once the remaining conditioning has finished, the bottles can be refrigerated (40F?) to prolong shelf life.

 

[redrocker652002]

I have been looking at doing that when I bottle, and from the reading I have done 1/2 teaspoon for a 12 ounce bottle, but I think it depends on the style and the gravity of the final beer. I have been buying carbonation drops from Amazon that have been working really well, but they are about 10 bucks for a bag of 80, which is about 2 batches for me. I might try the sugar idea next time. I think it also depends on what type of sugar you use. Corn sugar and Cane sugar are different, so I think I read here that you have to make a slight adjustment depending. I will let the pro's chime in here because I am not really sure. Post your results when you do this. I am interested.

 

[mac_1103]

Corn sugar and Cane sugar are different, so I think I read here that you have to make a slight adjustment depending.

The difference is roughly 10%. So you need 10% more corn sugar or 10% less cane sugar depending on where you started from. Or put another way, if you were targeting 2.2 volumes of CO2 based on somebody's corn sugar recommendation you would get 2.4 volumes if you used cane sugar instead. But packing density also contributes if you're using dry measure instead of weight, and I think that goes in the other direction. All of this probably amounts to less than the variation you'll get when dosing individual bottles with relatively less precise tools like teaspoons or medicine droppers. It should be close enough as long as you don't make a fairly large error (like maybe using tablespoons instead of teaspoons).

 

[Lampy]

I bottle condition with 1.5-1.7 oz table sugar for 1.5 gal beer. I dissolve the sugar in a small amount of water on the stove, let it cool, then use a 250 syringe with volume markings to suck up the sugar syrup. I read the total volume and then divide it up by the amount of bottles (taking into account various sizes). I can them deliver the proper volume to each bottle using the markings on the syringe.

 

[mac_1103]

Warning - what follows is probably overly technical for the present discussion and also perhaps somewhat pedantic. Please feel free to skip.

Per ISO 7886-1:1993 Sterile hypodermic syringes for single use – Part 1: Syringes for manual use, the tolerance on the graduated capacity of a syringe depends on the nominal capacity of the syringe V and the expelled volume Vex.

For syringes with a nominal capacity of V⩾5 ml, the tolerance amounts to ±4 % of Vex for volumes equal to or greater than half nominal capacity V, and ±(1.5 % of V+1 % of Vex) for volumes less than half nominal capacity V.

That means that when dispensing 25 mL from a 250 mL syringe, the accuracy is only ±16%. IOW, the best you can actually know is that you are delivering somewhere between 21 and 29 mL. Also, a typical 250 mL syringe is marked in 10 mL increments, so dispensing any volume that isn't a multiple of 10 will be even less accurate.

This is not to say that anyone is doing anything wrong. Rather, it is simply to point out that extreme precision and/or accuracy is not required for this task.

 

[Architect-Dave]

Thank you everyone.

 

[Lampy]

This is not to say that anyone is doing anything wrong. Rather, it is simply to point out that extreme precision and/or accuracy is not required for this task.

That is good to know! But it is still much better than my prior technique which revolved more heavily around my "volumetric eye".

 

[pocketmon]

I am too impatient to use syringe, so I made a automatic dosing machine.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/automatic-sugar-solution-dosing-machine.723420/
This is about 6 week old NEIPA. FYI.

 

[Architect-Dave]

I am too impatient to use syringe, so I made a automatic dosing machine.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/automatic-sugar-solution-dosing-machine.723420/
This is about 6 week old NEIPA. FYI.

But, was that NEIPA legged or bottled without using any CO2?

 

[pocketmon]

But, was that NEIPA legged or bottled without using any CO2?

It was bottled directly from the fermenter. Sugar solution was added to bottles for bottle condition. No CO2 was used.

 

[Architect-Dave]

It was bottled directly from the fermenter. Sugar solution was added to bottles for bottle condition. No CO2 was used.

Thanks…that is reassuring. Everything I am reading about NEIPAs are basically eluding to the idea that you MUST keg and CO2 this beer.

 

[BrewnWKopperKat]

Everything I am reading about NEIPAs are basically eluding to the idea that you MUST keg and CO2 this beer.

This is one of a couple of topics from around 2020 that show that it (bottle NEIPAs) can be done.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/how-to-bottle-neipa-without-kegging.676121/

eta: personally, when I've tried this with an occasional NEIPA, I have had moderate successes and failures - which suggests looking at previous steps in the brewing process