Priming and Bottling: Big Q, little q, HELP!!

[KellariKalja]

Okay

I started a Coopers Pilsener and its been fermenting for about 3 weeks.
I used the Original recipe and added 500g of Spray malt and about 425g of dextrose. I underfilled to 20L and got the temp down right away to about 18.5-19 C.

I moved it to my basement which is cooler in temp ranging from 10-15 C where it has been for 3 weeks. I checked the Specific Gravity and it appears to be ready for batch priming and bottling today!!

My "Big Question" is about how much sugar to use for the batch priming.

All the calculators I have checked online have told me about 120 grams...
Now I'm a guessing that from 20 L I will lose about 1 liter so I have entered 19 L into the calculator.
But on coopers website's instructions, it says 8 grams
per liter...which comes out to 152 grams...a very big difference....

I emailed the coopers brewing assistants online and got this response:

G'day Sir,

"Yes, our recommended priming rate of 8g per litre means you should use 150g of sugar. As long as the gravity is stable you won’t have over-carbonated beer."

Cheers, Frank.


I'm a little confused now with all these different numbers and diff people and calculators saying diff things...will these turn out to be bottle bombs if I use 150g of sugar, or will I be fine, like Frank has said?




My "little" question, is about the batch priming. It will be my first time batch priming and I only have 1 bucket that has the fermented beer in it. Do I just boil the sugar with water and then add it in to the bucket, mix, let the sediment settle and begin bottling? Or is there a better way to do this? (I tasted the beer and it tastes pretty good so I really don't want to mess with it too much!!)


Thank you for all the replies!

 

[mrduna01]

I typically use 5 oz for every 5 gallons of finished beer which is the standard amount for most beers. I would really suggest going and getting another 5 gallon bucket though. You can get them very cheap. If you stir everything up it will take a fairly long time to clear up again and you want it to be as clear as possible.

 

[Gfei]

As to the amount of sugar, that's not a huge variation. It's only about .3 volumes or so difference between the two. You shouldn't have to worry about bottle bombs either way. It just depends on how much carbonation you want in your beer.

For the little question, I would highly recommend grabbing a second bucket to bottle from if you can. You're going to end up with a LOT of sediment in your bottles if stir all that crap up from the bottom. Should only cost you a couple of bucks for a bottling bucket.

 

[KellariKalja]

Nice!

Thank you for the quick replies.
A couple more quick questions...


So I'm gonna use 140g of sugar...I'd like my beer carbonated but not fizzy...does that seem about right then?

And how will I know how much beer I will have after transferring to the other bucket?
(i.e. how much will I lose in the process of transferring?), since I need to measure the sugar amount and add that to the bucket first....



So I can get another bucket, not a problem.

So I just siphon the beer into the next bucket after adding the sugar water to it?
(leaving the sediment out of course)
And does the amount of water used in making the simple syrup effect the outcome at all?


Thanks again!!

 

[Revvy]

If you long primary for 3-4 weeks or more you will find that you tranfer nearly all your beer. Over those weeks the yeast cake compresses quite tightly, and the beer sits on top. I typically get 54 beers from my batches. That's a full five gallons of beer, with 5 gallons in the fermenter. At the lowest end I get 48 bottles.

The tighter the trub, the more beer you get back.

 

[KellariKalja]

Well, that didn't go so well...
I read all about siphoning, watched the videos, and even tried it several times with water before...maybe I had a bad siphon, it seemed to work sometimes and then not all at other times...or I just had no clue how to do it after trying 400 times.

So, I may have ruined my Brew, let me count the ways...
(feel free to let me know what you think)

1) I was finally able to siphon the beer to the other bucket with 150 grams of diluted, cooled dextrose in it...There were lots of bubbles in the process, way too much oxygen getting in the beer, and it was quite messy...Damn it.

2) While trying to get the siphon to work, the beer was just sitting there, lid off, getting exposed to lots of air. Great.

3) Each time I unsuccessfully tried to siphon, the water that was already in the siphon (cold water from the tap to fill the siphon and create pressure) kept leaking into my beer. Yay.

4) When that process was done, I began to rack the primed beer to the bottles. The pressure was strong and there were lots of bubbles as the siphon sprayed the beer into each bottle and bubbled up. Goodness.

Murphy's Law was in Full Effect last night. Water and Beer everywhere.
Yelled at my lady, cursed in five languages, and formed an ulcer or three...I am definitely investing in a bottling bucket for my next brew, if there is one....Help.


Please tell me that I didn't ruin my beer....it tasted so good when I tested some before starting the whole racking process and I was so optimistic...now I'm worried that I'll have watered down beer with zero carbonation...The only hope I have is that it looked like there were some small bubbles in the brew after racking to the bottles...


Only time will tell?



All help appreciated.

 

[nakeddog]

Hei Kellarikalja-

The first suggestion I would offer is to get a spigot onto that bottling bucket of yours so you are not dependent on a siphon to bottle. You can get one fairly inexpensive at Bauhaus that has an end to go right onto a hose. The second thing I would recommend is getting a bottling wand, it is a hard piece of plastic tube with a push valve on the bottom. You attach this to a short piece of hose that is attached to the spigot on the bottling bucket and bottling will become tremendously easier.

Where in Helsinki are you? If you are interested we could get together for a beer and discuss these types of questions. I don't have much experience in extract brewing, but as far as all grain, bottling, kegging etc I've made just about every mistake possible.

Oh and as far as ruined beer? I wouldn't worry about it. The longer exposure and splashing of the beer is not ideal, but in most cases won't negatively affect your final product. Just give those bottles some time to properly carb and everything should be fine.


The bottling wand you can purchase online at a place like humle.se or you can also go to Viini Maailma in Myyrmaki for these little pieces.

 

[Revvy]

Besides what naked said, about a bottling spigot and wand, and including about relaxing...your beer is hardier than you think it is, I recommend you also order an autospiphon. It works like a pump to quickly and effortlessly start your siphon to rack your beer.

You just give it a couple pumps and let it go.

Also read my bottling thread here, I feel remiss that we didn't recommend it earlier, it may have saved you a lot of heartache bottling can be much more effortless than how it happened to you.