Bottling Day questions

[DSeibel]

Hello All,

I am approaching bottling day. It's been in primary for 5 weeks now (2 weeks longer than anticipated because of work reasons). I do not have an extra food grade bucket to rack to so I am going to add the priming sugar directly to each bottle and then fill. Here are some questions.....

-How much corn sugar do I add to each bottle?
-How much head space do I leave?
-How long aproximately should it be in the bottle before drinking?
-What temp/light condition should it be in when in the bottle.

BTW It was a coopers lager kit. I used SAFLAGER yeast instead of the stuff that came from the kit. I also used 1KG of corn sugar in the initial wort.

Thanks

Dave

 

[bob1852]

Quite honestly, spring for a bottling bucket and hose and bottling wand (it will fill the bottles with a springloaded nozzle and leave the right amount of headspace).

If you absolutely can't get a bottling bucket and bottle wand - I would get the carb tabs that they sell.

trying to divide ~3/4 cup of corn sugar into ~48-52+ bottles of beer just isn't worth the hassle in my opinion.

 

[Donner]

i agree iwth az. Measuring out that much sugar will be a pain, but it can be done. I think one of the videos on youtube about bottling talks about it, but i could easily be wrong.

A bottling bucket and wand are nice things to have and do make things much easier. Revvy has a thread about bottling tips that is worth reading, as well.

 

[JuanKenobi]

Definitely get the bottling gear. I can't imagine filling individual bottles without a bottling wand (never mind the sugar measuring). I paid like $16 for the bucket and wand, and I'm sure you can get a better deal than that as my usual supplier is a bit expensive.

 

[RCCOLA]

I just use a $4 wallyworld 5gal bucket & a $3.50 spigot from LHBS and a $3 bottling wand.Total around $10.50 Surely you can spring for $10.50

 

[Homercidal]

I will never go back to putting sugar into each bottle. I've seen the light!

I highly recommend finding a bucket of some sort. Ask a local bakery if they have any food grade buckets. A bakery in my small town has 5G buckets for $1.50 each (reminds me to go grab a few!).

Boils some sugar water to sanitize it and put it in the bucket. Gently pour your beer on top of that, swirling it to mix well. Then transfer to bottles. You can even drill the bucket and add a cheap spigot to make this even easier!

 

[MikeG]

Agreed, get the proper tools. Bottling sessions are bad enough (IMHO), don't make it worse!