Question about priming sugar?

[HIT_MAN]

I'm brewing a hefeweizen right now and I reached my FG and I'm ready to bottle. My beer has been in the primary fermenter for 3 weeks now. I have to to add 4.1 ounces of dextrose to my beer. Should I rack it into my PET carboy and wash my primary out and then re-rack it into my primary bucket or should I just add the dextrose into the primary bucket with the trub on the sides right now?

On a sad note my primary lid cracked getting it off just now.

 

[Yooper]

Don't just add the sugar to the bucket! You'll cause all the trub and all the stuff to be resuspended, after you just waited three weeks for it to settle out. I take it you don't have a "bottling bucket"? That's ideal. You rack from the fermenter into the priming solution into the bottling bucket. I would hate to sanitize a carboy, rack the beer, clean out the bucket, sanitize, rack into that, and bottle. I don't know of any other way, unless you go buy a bottling bucket.

For your next batch, you may want to use the carboy for a fermenter and your bucket for a, um, bucket.

 

[chefmike]

What about just boiling the priming sugar, putting in the carboy, racking on top of it (and just imagine it is a BOTTLING carboy ).... then rack into your bottles...

Why do you have to bottle out of a bucket?

Maybe a little tricky to get the last bit, but [shrugs]...

 

[Irish1225]

What about just boiling the priming sugar, putting in the carboy, racking on top of it (and just imagine it is a BOTTLING carboy ).... then rack into your bottles...

Why do you have to bottle out of a bucket?

Maybe a little tricky to get the last bit, but [shrugs]...

i agree. and i wouldn't see any problem with myself personally doing that (and have). my auto siphon (and i'm imagining all others) can extend enough to reach the bottom of my carboy.

 

[Glubki]

When I first started brewing I would use my brew pot as a bottling bucket - just bring a gallon and a half of water to a boil first with the lid on to sanitize it.

Never had any problems...

 

[chefmike]

Laughing... that would be a good post in the "You know you are a homebrewer when..." thread

You have used most of the items in the house in your brew process at one time or another subsituting for that piece of equipment that you will buy NEXT time you go to the LHBS, but then you buy ingredients instead, because really that system with the hairdryer, the pasta strainer and the coffee maker worked fine....

 

[Glubki]

Laughing... that would be a good post in the "You know you are a homebrewer when..." thread

You have used most of the items in the house in your brew process at one time or another subsituting for that piece of equipment that you will buy NEXT time you go to the LHBS, but then you buy ingredients instead, because really that system with the hairdryer, the pasta strainer and the coffee maker worked fine....

Yup, If I ever get back to Michigan I'll have to take some pics of my buddy's brew pot. He took a used stainless steel drop sink and welded a plate over the drain hole, some handles on the top and made a lid out of some SS sheeting he got from work. The damn thing fits over all four burners on his stove...

From humble beginnings we have all evolved...

 

[chefmike]

Evolved?

I was just thinking "there is a stainless sink out behind that one building at work... 4 burners, that is brilliant!"

I guess I am too cheap to evolve!

 

[Yooper]

It's true that you don't "need" a bottling bucket. But the spigot sure makes it easier and the beer should be racked off the trub. You don't really need a wort chiller, or even a brewpot either.

My point was simply that the fermenter is the carboy- the bucket with the spigot is the bottling bucket.

 

[chefmike]

Laughing... amazingly I think I see now. My bottling bucket does not have a spigot... I just siphon... so any container I can rack onto the priming sugar seems good in my mind.

And definitely rack OFF the trub unto the sugar.

 

[mrburnsbud]

I have a question about carbonation and found this post while seaching so thought my question, if answered may also be helpful

So I also brewed a befeweizen, thanks to EdWort. Bottled it in 10 days. OG 1.042 FG 1.010. Boiled 5oz of dextrose and water and added to bottling bucket. Its been 4 days since I bottled and decided to pop one open. Heard a great szzz (awesome). But then a foamy head came up to the lip of the bottle and very slightly over. Nothing excessive but definately more than a store bought beer.

So now I am scared of bottle bombs! Do you think im okay to wait abother 14-20 days until chilling. Could I go ahead and chill these to avoid bombs. Not sure what do to and freaking out.

 

[HIT_MAN]

I have a question about carbonation and found this post while seaching so thought my question, if answered may also be helpful

So I also brewed a befeweizen, thanks to EdWort. Bottled it in 10 days. OG 1.042 FG 1.010. Boiled 5oz of dextrose and water and added to bottling bucket. Its been 4 days since I bottled and decided to pop one open. Heard a great szzz (awesome). But then a foamy head came up to the lip of the bottle and very slightly over. Nothing excessive but definately more than a store bought beer.

So now I am scared of bottle bombs! Do you think im okay to wait abother 14-20 days until chilling. Could I go ahead and chill these to avoid bombs. Not sure what do to and freaking out.

Well, my recipe for my hefe asked for 4.1 oz of dextrose. Maybe you had to much sugars for carbonation??

 

[Yooper]

I have a question about carbonation and found this post while seaching so thought my question, if answered may also be helpful

So I also brewed a befeweizen, thanks to EdWort. Bottled it in 10 days. OG 1.042 FG 1.010. Boiled 5oz of dextrose and water and added to bottling bucket. Its been 4 days since I bottled and decided to pop one open. Heard a great szzz (awesome). But then a foamy head came up to the lip of the bottle and very slightly over. Nothing excessive but definately more than a store bought beer.

So now I am scared of bottle bombs! Do you think im okay to wait abother 14-20 days until chilling. Could I go ahead and chill these to avoid bombs. Not sure what do to and freaking out.

Well, my recipe for my hefe asked for 4.1 oz of dextrose. Maybe you had to much sugars for carbonation??

Nope- you're fine. Hefes tend to be more carbed than some other styles, too, so you can actually check a priming chart and carb "to style" if you want.

I'm no scientist, but the way I understand what happened is this: co2 dissolves much more readily into cold solutions. So, the beer does have some carbonation, but if you only chilled it a short time (less than 24 hours), the co2 in the headspace didn't have a chance to fully go into solution. What I'm saying in my rambling way is that believe it or not, your beer is probably still a bit undercarbed and the foaming was from the co2 still present in the headspace instead of the beer. With time, even at room temperature, the co2 will be forced into the beer but at cold temperatures it happens faster. So, in three weeks, all the beers will be nicely carbed and not foamy.

To test this- chill one today for at least 24 hours. Drink it tomorrow night. I would be willing to bet that it turns out to be slightly undercarbed after all, and still needs a couple of weeks at room temperature. I know this sounds crazy, but I've experienced this many times. I think someone around here even coined the term "false carbonation" about this. I mean, it seems way overcarbed- but it's not even really carbed enough.

It just has to do with the dissolution of co2 which is temperature and time dependent.

 

[mrburnsbud]

You wern't rambling at all, I fully understand your explanation. Thanks alot for the description....need pressure and time so that the co2 goes into solution and the foaming I experienced was due to co2 in the headspace.

And yes it makes sense that cooler fluid can hole more co2. Kinda like ponds in the summer, if they get too hot the fish can die off due to less available oxygen.

Ill definately try experiment tonight and see how the carbonation is after work tommorow. But I think we know what will happen. :fro:

 

[SGT-RIEL]

To solve your prob with the bucket, just buy a spigot for a couple bucks. Primary inyour bucket with spigot, rack to carboy for secondary then back into your bucket for bottling.