Secondaey Fermentation

[Cape_Town]

Hey guys

I want to bottle my coopers IPA today but I think its time i move away from the carbonation drops. What are my options as far as doing this now.

My understanding is I can boil up some sugar with water and add that to my tank, stir it a little then bottle, otherwise I can insert some sugar into each bottle.

My question is which is better, and how much sugar should I be adding.

Thanks in advance

 

[CastleHollow]

You can add sugar directly to bottles--which is the same as adding carb tabs--but it's not recommended.

Boil about 2 cups of water with the appropriate amount of sugar for the quantity of beer that you are bottling. To determine how much sugar, I use a carbonation calculator like this one:

http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator/carbonation.html

Put that sugar water in your bottling bucket, rack your beer on top, stir it up gently, and then bottle as normal.

 

[Cape_Town]

Thanks very much, I will actually be bottling straight out of my Coopers mini brewery, so can i just add the sugar water to the main tank? And I had a look at that calculator, thats a bit too complicated for me honestly as I dont know what to put in for desired level of Co2.

How do I know how much sugar to add to the mix?

 

[lovebrewin]

Thanks very much, I will actually be bottling straight out of my Coopers mini brewery, so can i just add the sugar water to the main tank? And I had a look at that calculator, thats a bit too complicated for me honestly as I dont know what to put in for desired level of Co2.

How do I know how much sugar to add to the mix?

If ya add the sugar to ya main tank you will stir up all the sediment!
If you want to move away from carb drops and go for bulk priming (sugar in water added to brew before bottling) you will need a bottling bucket with a spigot and bottling wand like what the coopers kit came with...

 

[CastleHollow]

And I had a look at that calculator, thats a bit too complicated for me honestly as I dont know what to put in for desired level of Co2. How do I know how much sugar to add to the mix?

The drop down list gives you carbonation levels for various styles. Pick a number within your range (for your IPA, it lists 1.5-2.3) Plug in the volume of beer you are bottling and it will tell you how much sugar to use.

As lovebrewin posted, you'll need to siphon your beer off the yeast sediment before adding the sugar water.

 

[Cape_Town]

Ok seeing as I dont have a bottling bucket, the next option would be to put sugar into each bottle, how much sugar should go into a 440ml bottle for IPA?

Thanks for all the help!

 

[brewguyver]

Ok seeing as I dont have a bottling bucket, the next option would be to put sugar into each bottle, how much sugar should go into a 440ml bottle for IPA?

Thanks for all the help!

You'll need to look up carb level recommended for the style, use that much sugar in water to make syrup for total batch size, and then divide equally among bottles. Don't put sugar directly in bottles - it may not carb right, and you could result in incorrect amounts.

Example - a 5 gallon batch in 12oz bottles would use about 4oz of corn sugar in 2 cups of water. That means I'm adding roughly 9ml of sugar solution per bottle (probably done best with a measuring syringe).

This is roughly the same as doing the drops though ... You probably should invest in a bottling bucket long term.

 

[durbo]

You can add sugar directly to bottles--which is the same as adding carb tabs--but it's not recommended.

Boil about 2 cups of water with the appropriate amount of sugar for the quantity of beer that you are bottling. To determine how much sugar, I use a carbonation calculator like this one:

http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator/carbonation.html

stir it up gently

Very gently. At this stage you want to aerate the wort as little as possible.

 

[CastleHollow]

Ok seeing as I dont have a bottling bucket, the next option would be to put sugar into each bottle, how much sugar should go into a 440ml bottle for IPA?

Thanks for all the help!

About 2g. I'd probably just stick with the carb tabs, at about 0.5g each they will be more accurate.