Bottling from fermenter

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Joeymacca

Active Member
Joined
Jan 3, 2019
Messages
30
Reaction score
9
Hi all. I’m considering investing in a stainless steel fermenter. I do BIAB. My current setup is to ferment in a plastic bucket, then transfer to a bottling bucket that is primed with some dextrose, then use a bottling wand to fill my bottles.

Many of the reviews I’ve watched of stainless steel fermenters say that you can bottle straight from the fermenter using some tubing and a bottling wand. This would be ideal as I love brewing NEIPAs and have been having lots of oxidation issues lately, possibly to open air transfer from fermentation bucket to bottling bucket, then bottling bucket to bottles.

So when someone bottles straight from their fermenter, how are they priming the beer? Pour some sugar water in to the fermenter, stir, let the yeast settle back out, then bottle?
 
You can dose each bottle with dextrose solution from a medicine dropper. About 3/4 to 1 teaspoon for each bottle. Then fill. I do this for hefeweizen sometimes. I use a foot or so of siphon tubing between a barb fitting on the Anvil brew bucket spigot and the springloaded bottle filler
 
Last edited:
When I used to bottle I used a wand directly from the fermenter and put a carbonation drop in each bottle. Nowadays. I still occasionally bottle a batch, but I use 1-L bottles, and since I don't need many of those, I just weigh out dextrose and add to each bottle. (BTW, a stainless steel bottling wand -- there are plenty on Amazon -- is totally worth it.)
 
If you choose the dextrose solution route, Brewers Friend has a bottle conditioning/carbonation calculator which allows you to adjust for beer volume and desired carbonation level. Then just divide the total volume roughly evenly between all your bottles. Off the top of my head, I seem to recall it was about 1tsp per bottle. A children’s medicine dropper works well
 
Call me old-fashioned, but I still prefer to add the sugar-water solution to the (primary) bucket and stir like Joeymacca suggested. I boil the water before I add the sugar, then cool with an ice-cube bath to keep it sterilized. Works like a charm.

Well, works like a charm except for that first-every batch where I used powdered sugar and forgot to stir...
 
Call me old-fashioned, but I still prefer to add the sugar-water solution to the (primary) bucket and stir like Joeymacca suggested. I boil the water before I add the sugar, then cool with an ice-cube bath to keep it sterilized. Works like a charm.

Well, works like a charm except for that first-every batch where I used powdered sugar and forgot to stir...
Lol. So are you saying you add the sugar prior to fermentation/prior to cooling the wort/prior to pitching your yeast? I’m just confused about the comment you made about adding sugar and then cooling.
 
I add 5g dextrose to each 0.5L bottle individually using a measuring spoon and funnel. It doesn’t add much time overall to the bottling process and bottle direct from fermenter with a wand and 0.5m silicon tubing
 
I use 1/2 tsp of white table sugar per bottle for 330ml or 12 oz bottles, 3/4 tsp for 500ml bottles, 1 tsp for 22 oz bombers, a slightly heaping tsp for 750's, and 1.5 tsp for 1 liter bottles. I use kitchen measuring spoons, and I add the sugar to the empty bottle with a little stainless steel funnel. Then add the beer, and cap it. I prime maybe a dozen or so bottles at once, then fill and cap them, then do another batch of bottles. For the very last bottle, I don't add the sugar until after filling with beer because depending how full that one is I might drink it instead of capping it.
 
Last edited:
Lol. So are you saying you add the sugar prior to fermentation/prior to cooling the wort/prior to pitching your yeast? I’m just confused about the comment you made about adding sugar and then cooling.

No, I added it after it was done fermenting (I knew that much). Because I didn't stir it in, though, the sugar fell to the bottom. Half the bottles were flat, the other half were gushers.

Now that I know better, I just cool the water on bottling day to avoid shocking the yeast.
 
Until recently, I always transferred my finished beer on top of a priming solution in a bottling bucket, then filled each bottle using a bottling wand. Using this method resulted in lots of exposure to air. I still use this method with dry hopped beers, as I find it necessary to filter out the hops during transfer.

Lately, I have been bottling directly from my fermenters. As before, I make a priming solution with a prescribed amount of table sugar (using the Brewer’s Friend priming calculator) boiled in RO water. To each bottle, a measured amount of priming solution is dosed using an oral syringe. I cap and crimp each bottle right after filling, thus limiting air exposure. Just this week, I bottled a dry hopped pale ale (hops were bagged for containment) directly from the fermenter. Both of my fermenters are ported with spigots. This method is still a work in progress, but it has produced good results for me. HMMV
 
I always did it with a syringe and inverted sugar.

Also, there's some sugar tablets ready for use, but in this case you can't change the carbonation level.
 
Thought I’d post an update. Thanks everyone for your input. I went to my LHBS and chatted with them about this too. They didn’t really recommend the carb tablets for the same reason some folks mentioned here…you can’t really dial in the amount of carbonation you want. They did say the syringe method can work, but I use lots of different sized bottles so it seemed like allot of work to figure out how concentrated to make it and many drops to put in each. Anyhoo, I decided to experiment with this a bit. The day prior to bottling I tilted the plastic bucket (propped up by a trusty role of packing tape). I left it overnight to allow the trub to settle to the back of the bucket (away from the spigot). I then boiled some dextrose, added it to the bucket, stirred gently, then let any trub I kicked up settle for a few hours. I then bottled using some tubing and a bottling wand. Beer was clear going in to the bottles.

Once I start cracking these open in a couple weeks I’ll post an update to let everyone know if it worked or if it was a disaster!
 
Bit late, but I add sugar to each bottle. Plain table sugar.
I use the smallest spoon (1/8 teaspoon) from a spoon measuring set. Just easier that way to get the sugar inside the bottle.
3 spoons for a 330 ml bottle works right for me
4 spoons for my grolsch swingtop bottles (450 ml)
 
Last edited:
Bit late, but I add sugar to each bottle. Plain table sugar.
I use the smallest spoon (1/8 teaspoon) from a spoon measuring set. Just easier that way to get the sugar inside the bottle.
3 spoons for a 330 ml bottle works right for me
4 spoons for my grolsch swingtop bottles (450 ml)
I'm trying to post a link to a small stainless steel funnel on Amazon but the forum software keeps changing the link and breaking it. Go to Amazon.com and search for B0044EGTGC
 
After I fill my keg I usually have 1-2L left in my stainless fermenter. I fill bottles right off the fermenter spigot after sanitizing. Then drop in 5 (500ml bottles) tablets in the bottle. Carbonation is little inconsistent but good enough for how easy it is.
 
I use my conical to bottle direct. I use 75 cl swing tops each primed with one level teaspoon of table sugar and I do not use a bottling wand... pain in the arse these things... I use a very short piece of tube on the spigot and just shut the tap off manually every bottle and it works perfectly.
 
On bottle conditioned beers, I bottle directly from a keg. Starting with kegged (flat) beer, I’ll put maybe 1 PSI on the keg using a CO2 botttle.

The bottles I use are 500ml size (16.9 oz).

I run a line off the keg to a small black plastic picnic tap with about 7” of racking cane pressed into the tube. I use Brewers best carbonation pills, 5 per bottle. I then shoot a little CO2 under the cap prior to capping. Works great, even IPA’s stay fresh and don’t oxidize brown!
 

Attachments

  • 3FC61EBC-C0CA-44F8-8F27-6D680A670A49.jpeg
    3FC61EBC-C0CA-44F8-8F27-6D680A670A49.jpeg
    2.3 MB · Views: 0
On bottle conditioned beers, I bottle directly from a keg. Starting with kegged (flat) beer, I’ll put maybe 1 PSI on the keg using a CO2 botttle.

The bottles I use are 500ml size (16.9 oz).

I run a line off the keg to a small black plastic picnic tap with about 7” of racking cane pressed into the tube. I use Brewers best carbonation pills, 5 per bottle. I then shoot a little CO2 under the cap prior to capping. Works great, even IPA’s stay fresh and don’t oxidize brown!

This is going to sound weird, but here goes: I've seen this picture of Barney the Welder with Pliny the Elder many times. Great name, great label, and you even nailed the bottle shape. But you know what takes it from a good picture to a great picture? The nuts. Seriously. I wouldn't have thought to do that. What a great touch. Very well done sir.
 
So I’ve started cracking these bottles open as it’s been a few weeks. Unfortunately my experiment was a bust. Some bottles have barely any carbonation while others are very over carbed. So clearly my idea of putting dextrose into the fermenter and then stirring it a bit and then bottling from the fermenter has created uneven amounts of carbonation from bottle to bottle. Because of this I’ve decided to cut my losses and buy a kegerator. So I’m hoping to start kegging my beer from this point forward. Thanks again to everyone for your suggestions.
 
Back
Top