Bulk Priming Question

Lars

Hi, my first homebrew kit ( http://www.homebrew.ie/edme-superbrew-gold-lager-1-814kg-makes-40-pints.html ) is fermenting for nearly a week. I hope to be bottling in the next week or so. The sales guy told me to throw 100grams of household sugar into the second vessel that I'm using for bottling before I siphon the beer into it and that would bulk prime it for me. I've been reading some stuff on this and I've read that I shoudl be using up to 160grams of household sugar and that I should be boiling this in up to 600ml fo water before adding to container. My questions are:
1. How much household sugar exactly should I be using for this kit(please dont tell me it depends how carbonated I like it as I dont know how to quantify that)
2. How much water should I use since I made the kit as per instruction will the addition of more water make it watery beer?
3. Will the siphoning action really be enough to mix the syrup into the beer or should i give it a light stir?

I'm getting excited at the prospect of bottling but I want to do everything I can to get the best I can out of this kit so please advise!!

Thanks

L

oblivious

100-110g of sugar per 20 litre in around 15oml of water will do fine

mrtickel

Hello

I made that same kit and i used 110g of sugar and 300ml of boiling water,You should mix the sugar till it is desolved then let it cool to around 25c and add to bottling bucket and then siphon beer in on top of the priming solution, the swirling of the beer going into bottling bucket is enough to mix altogether.

Lars

Thanks guys, hey mrtickle how did you rate that kit? I'm trying to pick a second kit to get started on when I've this done. I've heard the 3kg kits are best. Any recommendations?

mrtickel

It wasnt a bad kit it was easy drank . I have started to do partial mashes the beer turns out more tastier little more work involved but worth it in the end.

Lars

I have a 3kg coopers heritage lager kit fermenting and it came with carbonation drops.Thing is, I have a mixture of 500ml and 330ml bottles so I'd rather bulk prime. Is it OK to boil these up like I would sugar and add the syrup to the bottling bucket? Is there any reason why that wouldn't work?

BeerNut

Sounds fine. It's the same amount of sugar in an even concentration.

Lars

Drinking this first homebrew that I bulk primed before bottling with 110g table sugar in about 200ml water. I'm quite impressed with the beer but the priming is incosistent. I'm suspecting that the inconsistency is because the priming solution was quite viscous and it may not have mixed well throughout the beer. I put the cooled syrup in the bottom of the bottling bucket and siphoned in on top of it. Does this sound like a likely cause or could it be something else?
I was thinking for my next brew to leave the wort about 600 or 700ml short and make up my priming solution to that volume. It would be more watery and should mix better. Is that a good idea or is there any better way?

Thanks
L

mrtickel

How long have you left the beer to carbonate for in the bottles.
From my experience it takes 3 ta 4 weeks for some beers to carbonate right my be even longer.
The way you bulked primed the beer is correct but you could have use a little more water when diluating the sugar but it still should be ok.
Another thing some people do when bulk priming is but half the mixed syrup in then syphon half of your beer then add the other half of syrup and syphon the rest of the beer. In my opinion its the same thing adding it all in at once at the start but some prefer this method and some dont.
Remember TIME is what it takes to make good beer.;)

Lars

I left them for 2 weeks initially(or maybe 12~13 days) so I let them prime for another week.. Mayebe thats it because I cant actually say for sure if some of the longer primed ones have this problem. I'll have to drink a few more tonight and check this out.
Thanks
L

rubadub

You can get your priming syrup and pour it into a 2L coke bottle, then syphon in beer on top until it is nearly full and give it a good shake. Then slowly pour this into the bulk of the beer stirring all the time.

Lars

rubadub wrote: »

You can get your priming syrup and pour it into a 2L coke bottle, then syphon in beer on top until it is nearly full and give it a good shake. Then slowly pour this into the bulk of the beer stirring all the time.

Will that not cause oxidisation problems?

rubadub

Lars wrote: »

Will that not cause oxidisation problems?

I never had any but I only did it once or twice, probably no need to shake it really hard, if it was just swirled gently a few times it should do the same trick.

BeerNut

You'd be oxygenating 2L of beer and spreading it through a 20L batch. It's not very much oxygen and the yeast would probably consume it during the conditioning process.

mrtickel

Id agree with beernut on this i think it would be oxidising the 20l batch and the yeast would probably eat it up but you are leaving yourself open for infection.
Give the bottles another week or 2 and then you will no if the process you done with the bulk priming worked correctly.

Lars

mrtickel wrote: »

From my experience it takes 3 ta 4 weeks for some beers to carbonate right my be even longer.
Remember TIME is what it takes to make good beer.;)

genius! Cracked open 2 bottles today and they're very well carbonated. Just took an extra few weeks. Thanks!

mrtickel

Glad it worked out ok for ya now sit and enjoy