Corny can't hold a 5 gal brew!?

[BadBeagleBrew]

Virtually no trub with those Festa Brew kits, just a nice compact yeast layer. I had the same problem not knowing the difference between imperial and us gallons. I give a second vote for swing tops. I still do the odd 23 liter batch, I find after keg is filled, depending on sediment I get anywhere from 4 to 10 (450ml) grolsche bottles afterwards. 1/2 Tsp of sugar in each bottle does a decent job of carbing.

 

[jahdub]

Hello everyone, I'm in the same situation - usually end up with extra beer and never sure if I should prime the entire keg or just the extra bottles. If I don't prime the keg, what's the best way in determining how much dextrose to add to the bottles? I would stop the siphoning when the keg is full, then prime what's left in the bucket- probably a gallon or less- I work too hard at it to just toss out. Another idea I read somewhere is to hold onto it and toss it in later when the keg level gets drank down a bit. But then wouldn't you lose all the carbonation in the keg when you take the lid off? Seems it might waste a lot of C02? Thanks!!


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Use a priming sugar calculator. You don't have to put "5 gallons" as the volume. You can use however much you want.

If you're not using priming sugar calculators, then its simple math to extrapolate how much sugar you need.

( y / g ) * s = how much you need

y = how much volume you need to prime
g = how much volume you usually need to prime
s = how much sugar you usually add for 'g' volume.

Ie. You have 1 gallon to prime and usually prime 5 gallons with 112g dextrose

( 1 / 5 ) * 112 = 22.4

22.4 grams of sugar is required to prime 1 gallon, in this case.

 

[Beer0clock]

FYI what I ended up doing was bottling about 2 liters of beer that didnt fit in the keg. I used the sugar formula to figure out how much per bottle, but because of my clumsiness and slippery hands etc, I'm pretty sure I either put in too much or too little to each bottle. I am definitely finished with bottling, ever

Next time I will simply but the extra 2-3 liters into a second keg. Wether that keg is empty, or half full of a different batch of beer, I dont care. I've heard "mongrel kegs" can turn out quite nicely.

**** bottles.

:fro:

 

[whoaru99]

Personally, I wouldn't dirty a keg for 2-3 liters but I guess that's your call.

 

[tdbc2011]

I have purchased two mini keg growlers from my homebrew store for this very reason. They hold 1/2 gallon. So I just prime with 1/10 of the required priming sugar. This is the same growlers sold on deepwoodbrew.com.

I can (and have) used these as regular growlers too.

 

[hockeyandbeer]

Thanks for the replys fellas. I have lots of swing top bottles, so I figured out how much sugar was needed and primed what was left in the bucket to bottle a few litres. The growler keg is a good idea as well, but wouldn't have the room in my kegerator. Overall much easier to keg vs bottling- so much quicker cleaning and sanitizing the keg and beer line instead of all the bottles. Just wondering is it possible to rack from the glass carboy directly to the keg? You could have a small amount of dextrose dissolved into water to add to any bottles after the keg is full.


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[hockeyandbeer]

I've had the same issue. I am kegging these days, and end up with 3 extra litres sometimes. I tried measuring out the sugar and putting it into the individual bottles, but the beer never turns out good. Probably best to mix the sugar into the full bucket, then siphon into the keg and extra bottles.