Bottling from primary

[Polluted]

In an effort to save cash I am considering bottling from my primary fermenting bucket . ...what's the downside to this . It says it's possible in my brew book....just says to mix priming sugar in fermenting bucket and to let sit for 30 min so the yeast and all resettles down.

Do I just have my girl syphon while I fill bottles and to have her watch out for the bottom crud?

 

[Gavin C]

If you don't mind having cloudy trub filled oxygenated beer then this is the approach to use.

 

[jtratcliff]

yeah... It's doable, just not preferable. In order to mix your priming sugar well enough, you're really gonna be disturbing that yeast cake. You'll have lots of crud in your bottles.

Go to a bakery or chinese food place, or some other business that gets stuff in food grade 5 gal buckets and see if they'll give you one. I get my buckets for free from a soap making shop. They just toss them anyway and were happy to give me several. Then you only have spring a buck or two for the spigot. Easy to drill a 1/2" hole with a spade bit.

You can also bottle prime, where you put a measured amount of sugar in each bottle. Pain in the ass but perhaps preferable to getting a bunch of trub in your bottles.

 

[Calder]

I would recommend you spring for a bottling bucket. You can use a siphon to bottle if you don't want a spigot. I don't have spigots on my buckets.

If you really want to bottle from primary, I would recommend putting the sugar in the bottles rather than mixing it in the bucket and disturbing the trub.

 

[ba-brewer]

There are things called carbonation drops you can put in your bottles then siphon into the bottles. More expensive than plain corn or cane sugar but a lot easier then measuring out doses. I have used both approaches for 1 gallon batches, but I feel better when I boil up the priming sugar and bottle from a second bucket. Also there are some carbonation drops with DME in them that leave a krausen ring.

 

[Scriv]

Can you? Yes

Should you? No

 

[Polluted]

Thank you for the advice. I will not go this route and just buy another bucket. I got a $15 one today with a bubbler at a brew shop. I'll probably just buy another one. Do I need to get a lid for it?

 

[Gnomebrewer]

I'm going to disagree with all of the above. The less times you transfer your beer the better - less chance of oxidation. I bottle directly from the primary (except for lagers), adding 10mL of sugar solution to each bottle with a syringe (the sugar concentration varies depending on the carbonation level I want). I have spigots on my fermenters. The only downside is that you get a bit more yeast in the bottles so there is more sediment in the bottom (the beer will be just as clear though) so you need to be careful when you pour.

 

[Gnomebrewer]

Here's a picture of the beer I'm drinking right now, a red ale bottled from primary.

 

[cannman]

I'd consider adding priming sugar to each individual bottle as to not agitate the beer trub...

 

[Gavin C]

I'm going to disagree with all of the above. The less times you transfer your beer the better - less chance of oxidation. I bottle directly from the primary (except for lagers), adding 10mL of sugar solution to each bottle with a syringe (the sugar concentration varies depending on the carbonation level I want). I have spigots on my fermenters. The only downside is that you get a bit more yeast in the bottles so there is more sediment in the bottom (the beer will be just as clear though) so you need to be careful when you pour.

Big difference with your process though is that unlike the OP you are not considering stirring in your priming solution and are no doubt, very careful in placement of the spigot's pick-up. Nice looking beer.

For me the extra work needed to prime each bottle and the extra trub in the bottle would be a deal breaker although I do see the rationale to your different approach.

 

[CUrchin]

I've done it dozens of times. Boil priming sugar in water, cool. Gently stir into primary (I think there is as much risk of oxygenation going to a bottling bucket.) Then sanitize bottles, caps equipment. The sugar and trub has time to settle before the bottle process. Don't knock it until you try it.

 

[rupert130]

I've done it many times. No real issues, just a couple of pointers if you'd like to go this route.
1. Use a bucket with a spigot for primary. This also helps when taking gravity readings as you don't have to pry the lid off.
2. Place a book or water bottle under the spigot side about 24 hrs before bottling to help the trub collect away from the spigot. Only remove it if you want to try to squeeze out that last bottle or two of beer.
3. Add the priming sugar solution directly to the bucket and stir gently with a sanitized spoon. Then I usually wait about 15 min to ensure diffusion and settling.

 

[SeraW]

I tried it this way for my first two. They were really gunky even though I used carb drops (one bad move with an auto siphon and your trub is swirled, and even waiting may not help for a long while depending on yeast strain), and it was an epic pain to start a siphon with a bottle filler on the other end. I went to my LHBS and got a bottling bucket and calculate my priming sugar now. Very glad with that decision. I had saved enough cash by drinking only homebrew for my first few batches that I could afford the bucket.

 

[Polluted]

Ok....so in an effort to safe cash, I am going to bottle straight from the primary. Its gonna be a pain because I dont have a spigot. I plan to use my fiance to simply sypon the liquid out while I bottle. Sound like a fair plan? Think this beer will be tolerable? Its gonna be a pale ale by the way, with cascade hops. I have not decided if I should put the sugar directly in the bottle or be a risk taker and stir it in. I mean, the book I bought says string in the primary then waiting for the sediment to mellow out is a perfectly legit operation! Right????

 

[verysupple]

I'm going to disagree with all of the above. The less times you transfer your beer the better - less chance of oxidation. I bottle directly from the primary (except for lagers), adding 10mL of sugar solution to each bottle with a syringe (the sugar concentration varies depending on the carbonation level I want). I have spigots on my fermenters. The only downside is that you get a bit more yeast in the bottles so there is more sediment in the bottom (the beer will be just as clear though) so you need to be careful when you pour.

I use a syringe to prime the bottles but siphon and use a bottling wand rather than using the spigot. It works brilliantly. No worrying about not mixing the priming sugar properly and getting uneven carbonation. No worrying about oxidising your beer too much while transferring. No cleaning and sanitising another vessel. Only have to sanitise the siphoning equipment instead of a whole other vessel so reduced risk of introducing infection.

I cold crash and fine my beers with gelatin a few days before bottling and my beers pour crystal clear - so no issue with excess yeast and trub.

 

[verysupple]

Ok....so in an effort to safe cash, I am going to bottle straight from the primary. Its gonna be a pain because I dont have a spigot. I plan to use my fiance to simply sypon the liquid out while I bottle. Sound like a fair plan? Think this beer will be tolerable? Its gonna be a pale ale by the way, with cascade hops. I have not decided if I should put the sugar directly in the bottle or be a risk taker and stir it in. I mean, the book I bought says string in the primary then waiting for the sediment to mellow out is a perfectly legit operation! Right????

If you use a bottling wand on the end of your tubing then you will only need to start the siphon once. As above, I prefer to syringe the priming into each bottle, but if you don't want to do that then your proposed technique is probably best as trying to accurately measure dry sugar into bottles is very difficult.

 

[Polluted]

If you use a bottling wand on the end of your tubing then you will only need to start the siphon once. As above, I prefer to syringe the priming into each bottle, but if you don't want to do that then your proposed technique is probably best as trying to accurately measure dry sugar into bottles is very difficult.

My girl works at a vets office. The doctor will give her a cheapy syringe I can use.....hopefully a new one. Thanks yall, you just saved me $14

 

[Polluted]

I use a syringe to prime the bottles but siphon and use a bottling wand rather than using the spigot. It works brilliantly. No worrying about not mixing the priming sugar properly and getting uneven carbonation. No worrying about oxidising your beer too much while transferring. No cleaning and sanitising another vessel. Only have to sanitise the siphoning equipment instead of a whole other vessel so reduced risk of introducing infection.

I cold crash and fine my beers with gelatin a few days before bottling and my beers pour crystal clear - so no issue with excess yeast and trub.

How many ml exactly?

 

[MadHomebrewer]

If you are bottling out of your primary fermentor, I would put either sugar or carb drops directly in each bottle prior to bottling your beer. I thinks it's like 3/4 tsp of table sugar per bottle.

 

[Gnomebrewer]

How many ml exactly?

Go with 10ml per 750ml bottle (or 5ml for a 330-375ml bottle).

Using normal sugar (not dextrose) your solution should be:
2.0 volumes CO2: 170g made up to 500ml
2.5 volumes CO2: 245g made up to 500ml
3.0 volumes CO2: 320g made up to 500ml

(or keep the ratio the same for more/less solution).

You need about 10% more for corn sugar/dextrose.

note: based on brewersfriend.com assuming fermentation at 20C.

 

[Gnomebrewer]

To calculate the solution for any temperature/volume of CO2/sugar type

Go to http://www.brewersfriend.com/beer-priming-calculator/

Put '37.5litres' as the amount of beer being packaged (or 10 gallons) (this volume is correct for 500mL of solution.....50 bottles)

Select the volume of CO2 that you want and temperature the beer fermented at

The priming sugar amount given needs to be made up to 500mL with boiling water. It doesn't if it's all used....sugar is cheap! I make up this amount even if I only have half this amount to bottle.

 

[verysupple]

How many ml exactly?

You have to calculate how much sugar you need in each bottle, then make a solution with a given concentration so that you know how many mL you need in each bottle.

Example:

My priming calculator says that I need 4.65 g/bottle to get ~2.6 vols.

I will need ~32 bottles, so round it up to 34 to be safe.

So I need 158 g of dextrose total.

If I make a 250 mL solution with 158 g the concentration will be 0.623 g/mL.

Then I know that I need 4.65 g/bottle so I will need 4.65 / 0.623 = 7.4 mL/bottle.


However, I make my like easy by using a spreadsheet I made that rounds solution volumes to the nearest 25 mL and fiddles with the numbers to round the volume needed per bottle to the nearest mL (it keeps it at exactly the right weight of sugar per bottle though - 4.65 g in the example).