What's Your Priming Method?

[scottmd06]

I primed 2 gallons of a brew with 1/3 cup of dry dextrose and stirred it in.. I did not like this method and I think it caused a loss in head formation and carbonation amount..

Should I be boiling the dextrose in water, and then stirring it in?

Or should I carefully measure out dry dextrose for each bottle and simply fill the bottles with the brew?

Also, when racking from my primary to a bottling bucket, am I supposed to be avoiding any sloshing or splashing and keeping the liquid as calm as possible?

 

[Revvy]

I outline my process here; https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/revvys-tips-bottler-first-time-otherwise-94812/

Yes you want to be gentle when racking into your bottling bucket.

 

[Dos_Locos_Brewery]

Batch priming by boiling the dextrose in water is the wat to go - much easier to get even bottle-to-bottle carbonation. And yes, rack without splashing.

 

[beach]

I boil 2 cups of water to sanitize and add the sugar at flame out. Stir and it disolves very quickly. Add to bottling tank and rack beer gently onto sugar. Bottle, wait..........DRINK

 

[riverfrontbrewer]

I have been using light DME or a DME/corn sugar mixture in 1.5 cups of boiled water.

 

[DRoyLenz]

For example, for my Belgian Wit, I did 1 1/4 cups DME, and just enough water to dissolve it (I think about a quart or two), boiled for 15 minutes. I poured this at the bottom of my bottling bucket (after cooling for a few minutes) and gently racked my beer on top. By letting the siphon hose take the shape of the inside of the bucket near the end, you get a very gentle flow, and the natural swirling that occurs does a great job of mixing the priming solution. There is no need to stir it up after racking. Doing this, I've never had any inconsistency in the carbonation of my brews.

 

[pericles]

I cool the boiled water/dextrose solution to room temperature or below in order to avoid killing the bacteria - others haven't mentioned that on this thread, but I think it's worth mentioning.

EDIT: This got mentioned. I retract my previous comment, but can't find a delete button.

 

[ibbones]

I boil 2 cups of water to sanitize and add the sugar at flame out. Stir and it disolves very quickly. Add to bottling tank and rack beer gently onto sugar. Bottle, wait..........DRINK

Same here. My bottles are consistant with each other.

 

[Gremlyn]

I cool the boiled water/dextrose solution to room temperature or below in order to avoid killing the YEAST - others haven't mentioned that on this thread, but I think it's worth mentioning.

EDIT: This got mentioned. I retract my previous comment, but can't find a delete button.

Not sure what got mentioned...?

Anyway, the amount of boiled water you are adding to your beer will significantly raise the temp of the first little bit of beer transferred, but it'll have very little effect on the yeast or anything else if you don't wait for it to cool. You're talking about adding ~400 mL of hot water to 19,000 mL of beer, overall you'll see a temp change of around 2F degrees if you were to rack pretty much instantly after having put the sugar water in the bottling bucket. And unless you store it under sterile conditions after cooling, it allows a greater opportunity to introduce unwanted nasties.

 

[Soulrebel]

I also follow the above procedure, add soln, then rack. I tried reducing the amount of water I dissolve my priming sugar(cane,corn,DME) in and ended up with inconsistant carbonation in one batch. Now I stick with the 2 cups. YMMV.

 

[scottmd06]

So how much sugar? lol Everyone has said something different. I was also wondering how far up should I fill the bottles? I filled up to about 1.5 away from the top. Very little carbonation.. =(

 

[GOOCHY]

I just finished bottling a Northern Brewer Nut Brown Ale kit and it told me to use two cups of water and 2/3 cup of the dextrose included in the kit. I did so and now the bottles are priming - so we'll see how it goes.

 

[pericles]

2/3 of a cup of dextrose is a very standard measurement. The amount of water you add won't affect carbonation, really. It's just a vector in which to dissolve the sugar.

 

[BBKing]

I boil 2 cups of water to sanitize and add the sugar at flame out. Stir and it disolves very quickly. Add to bottling tank and rack beer gently onto sugar. Bottle, wait..........DRINK

Excatly what I do, I've never noticed any differences in my bottles

 

[phishfood]

I always fill right up the the lip of the bottle, with the occasional overflow. Then, when I remove the bottling wand, the level drops a little, but I don't worry too much about that.

Leaving the level down quite a ways leaves much more air/oxygen, in contact with the beer, which is a bad thing.

 

[scottmd06]

Okay cool. Because I've seen elsewhere to fill up to an inch below the top of the bottle and my carbonation sucked! lol Good thing I only bottled 2 gallons of my first batch as a test.. I have yet to bottle the rest. I started that kit Nov. 3rd. I haven't bottled my second batch yet either, which I started Nov. 8th I believe..

 

[MattHollingsworth]

I use table sugar, the calculator linked below and something very similar to Revvy's method.

http://www.collectionsoft.com/mybrewcollection/bp0.html

 

[scottmd06]

Table sugar? Crazy!!!!! lol

 

[Ichthy]

I use table sugar all the time. It's cheap and works fine. I don't understand why people spend more money on DME and corn sugar. You just need something for the yeast to ferment and release gas.

 

[beach]

Table sugar? Crazy!!!!! lol

Not really crazy, table sugar works. I've used DME in the past but swiched to corn sugar because I was getting break material in the bottles from the DME. You could use brown sugar, honey, rice solids, or maple syrup as well. Amouts will vary with these other sugars, but you just need some food for the yeasties to work on.


Beach

 

[FiddleTilDeath]

Has anyone tried those crazy carb drops or bottled things that you just drop in a few?

 

[scottmd06]

I saw those in my local shop but have not tried them yet. I pretty much heat up some water and add 1 cup of dextrose and then rack into the bottling bucket and rack the brew on top of the sugar water. Been working okay for now.