Priming for bottles

[Brett3rThanU]

What's the best practice for bottling? I've got beer sitting in the secondary right now, so when the time comes is it better that I add the priming sugar directly to the secondary, mix, then bottle? Or should I rack the beer back into the primary while mixing in the priming sugar, then rack the beer into the bottles?

 

[Soulive]

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/wiki/index.php/Packaging_and_Carbonation

 

[Revvy]

What's the best practice for bottling? I've got beer sitting in the secondary right now, so when the time comes is it better that I add the priming sugar directly to the secondary, mix, then bottle? Or should I rack the beer back into the primary while mixing in the priming sugar, then rack the beer into the bottles?

You don't want to add it to the secondary, the point of secondary is to clear the beer by letting things settle, so mixing your priming sugar solution into the carboy and mixing would kick all the stuff you patiently waited to settle back into the beer.

Your best bet is to Dissolve the priming sugar into 1 quart of water and boil, then let cool to 70 degrees F. Sanitize your bottling bucket, tubing, racking cane or auto-siphon, bottle filler, bottles, and caps.
Add the now cooled priming solution to the bottling bucket
Rack the beer into the bottling bucket (this should ensure a good mix of the priming solution into the beer). Then fill and cap each bottle.

 

[bigjohnmilford]

Your best bet is to Dissolve the priming sugar into 1 quart of water and boil, then let cool to 70 degrees F. Sanitize your bottling bucket, tubing, racking cane or auto-siphon, bottle filler, bottles, and caps.
Add the now cooled priming solution to the bottling bucket
Rack the beer into the bottling bucket (this should ensure a good mix of the priming solution into the beer). Then fill and cap each bottle.

+1 that's the way it goes.

 

[Dextersmom]

You don't want to add it to the secondary, the point of secondary is to clear the beer by letting things settle, so mixing your priming sugar solution into the carboy and mixing would kick all the stuff you patiently waited to settle back into the beer.

Your best bet is to Dissolve the priming sugar into 1 quart of water and boil, then let cool to 70 degrees F. Sanitize your bottling bucket, tubing, racking cane or auto-siphon, bottle filler, bottles, and caps.
Add the now cooled priming solution to the bottling bucket
Rack the beer into the bottling bucket (this should ensure a good mix of the priming solution into the beer). Then fill and cap each bottle.

this is probably because I still don't understand and am quite the noob. but why a quart of water? wouldn't that dilute the beer as opposed to putting the priming sugar directly into the bottles and not mixing with any water?

 

[Yooper]

I mix it with about 2 cups water. I boil the water and then add the sugar and still until dissolved and boiling. Then, I take it off the stove, cool it and add it to the bottling bucket. I think a quart is fine, but it's a matter of preference. 2 cups of priming solution is not going to dilute 5 gallons of beer, so don't worry about that!

you can just add the sugar to the bottles, but that's kind of a pain and it's much easier to just dissolve it and mix it into the beer. You can even carbonation, and it's easy to do.

 

[Revvy]

You also have less risk of making 12 ounce hand grenades by adding the diluted priming sugar into the bottling bucket then you are trying to hand sugar each bottle. Like yooper said hand bottling is a pain. Although I hear they make a special measuring spoon for doing it. But doing it in the bucket insures that all the beer gets the priming sugar.

One neat trick is to have a long enough siphon hose to curve into the bottling bucket, then add the sugar solution, that way when the beer enters the bucket it swirls around as it fills up, mixing with the primer.

 

[Dextersmom]

cool thx for the info. Yeah i guess you have a point when you say a quart isn't going to dilute 5 gallons. I saw it done on a youtube video, but didn't understand where the measurement came from.

My first batch of from a mr beer kit (i know i know i'm geting a 5gal setup next month) is almost ready to prime, and i'll be using pre-measured dextrose tablets for that.

 

[Revvy]

cool thx for the info. Yeah i guess you have a point when you say a quart isn't going to dilute 5 gallons. I saw it done on a youtube video, but didn't understand where the measurement came from.

My first batch of from a mr beer kit (i know i know i'm geting a 5gal setup next month) is almost ready to prime, and i'll be using pre-measured dextrose tablets for that.

If you're mr beering get a cheap 2 gallon cooler like this;

I got mine at k-marts for less than 10 bucks.

Use that as you would a bottling bucket, and get a piece of foodgrade vinyl tubing that can fit over the spigot (I think 1/2 I.D.) to bottle with.

But you can also use the 2 gall cooler as a mini mash tun if you decide to get into partial mashes- 1.5 gallons water with 4 pounds of Grains, then sparged with another 1.5 gallons (for 5 gal batches).

There's a great article in BYO http://byo.com/feature/1536.html

You can either use a braided hose like the "big guys" use, rig up a minifold or do what Chris Colby mentions someplace put a Martha Stewart brand folding steamer inside to set the grainbag above the spigot.

I live in a loft with a small kitchen and no outdoor area, so I can't do 5 gal all grain boils. This little cooler works great, and since I sometimes still use my mr beer fermentor to make small batches I can use the cooler as a bottling bucket.

 

[john from dc]

so nobody gently stirs their beer in the bottling bucket?

i used the method above for my most recent batch and at two weeks the bottle i opened was still pretty much completely flat.

i chalked it up to a lack of stirring, but maybe my problem was a lack of patience...

 

[Revvy]

so nobody gently stirs their beer in the bottling bucket?

i used the method above for my most recent batch and at two weeks the bottle i opened was still pretty much completely flat.

i chalked it up to a lack of stirring, but maybe my problem was a lack of patience...

I vote for lack of patience.... 3 weeks minimum for bottling.