Carbonation - Where did all go wrong!

Mister Burns

So I tried to batch prime for the first time two weeks ago (23L Woodforde's Wherry from a kit).

I boiled 125g of Dextrose Brewing Sugar in 100ml water for ten minutes, added this to the second bucket, racked the Wherry to this, left for 15mins to settle and then bottled. Two weeks in and while I can feel some carbonation in the PET bottles it is nothing like what I would have felt two weeks in on any of the kits I did previously when I just used carbonation drops - any pointers on what I did wrong or do i just need to give it more time?

I've just done my first two extract brews which are now fermenting away and I'd hate to ruin them through batch priming incorrectly. Help!

Viper_JB

Mister Burns wrote: »

So I tried to batch prime for the first time two weeks ago (23L Woodforde's Wherry from a kit).

I boiled 125g of Dextrose Brewing Sugar in 100ml water for ten minutes, added this to the second bucket, racked the Wherry to this, left for 15mins to settle and then bottled. Two weeks in and while I can feel some carbonation in the PET bottles it is nothing like what I would have felt two weeks in on any of the kits I did previously when I just used carbonation drops - any pointers on what I did wrong or do i just need to give it more time?

I've just done my first two extract brews which are now fermenting away and I'd hate to ruin them through batch priming incorrectly. Help!

I'd say there could be a chance that where you were keeping the bottles during conditioning might been too cold, you'd want it to be between 18-20 degrees. The should get there eventually, will just take longer in a slightly colder environment.

Mister Burns

Thanks Viper should have said it's been at a constant 16-18 degrees but that is around normal for my last batches

Devi

Mister Burns wrote: »

So I tried to batch prime for the first time two weeks ago (23L Woodforde's Wherry from a kit).

I boiled 125g of Dextrose Brewing Sugar in 100ml water for ten minutes, added this to the second bucket, racked the Wherry to this, left for 15mins to settle and then bottled. Two weeks in and while I can feel some carbonation in the PET bottles it is nothing like what I would have felt two weeks in on any of the kits I did previously when I just used carbonation drops - any pointers on what I did wrong or do i just need to give it more time?

I've just done my first two extract brews which are now fermenting away and I'd hate to ruin them through batch priming incorrectly. Help!

How many carb drops did you use in the past though? As far as I remember drops are 4g each, so if you used one per 500ml bottle in total it would to equate to about 180g, but when you primed you only used 125g, so it’s going to be a lot less gassy.

Carawaystick

How warm was your beer when you racked it onto the sugar? A warmer beer will be saturated with less CO2, so you'll need more sugar
I use kotmf website to calculate sugar priming, and it varies a lot from 3-20 degrees

Did you use a different yeast? Might have cleared and dropped out of the beer, so only a little left in the bottled beer, slowing the carbonation reaction down

Mister Burns

Devi think your maths solve my problem I used one and a half drops per bottle so my 125g is way off what I should have done with.

Carawaystick thanks for the website will be very useful from now on

Devi

The only problem with my maths is I’m assuming that the carb drops are as fermentable as dextrose, they might not be, in fact I suspect there not because if you use used 1.5 drops per bottle, that would equate to 276g of dextrose which would be far too much. I like mine fizzy too and I prime at 150g for 21lt so for 23lt id go for about 160g-180g, I wouldn’t go as high as 270g though.

Lovely Bloke

They are pure glucose though, right?

Devi

Baldy Conscience wrote: »

They are pure glucose though, right?

I don’t know, I used to think they were but the maths doesn’t add up so I just assumed that whatever they are made of they are not as fermentable as dextrose. If anybody has a pack handy maybe they can let us know.

Mister Burns

Found an old pack and it just lists the ingredients as Sugar, Glucose. Also it says there are approximately 80 drops in a 250g bag so it's more like 3g per drop so I was using circa 4.5g per 500ml previously which would be 207g for 23ltrs. Considering when I racked to the second fermenter I probably left a couple of litres behind I should have used around 190g to achieve the same carbonation ..... right??

Devi

Mister Burns wrote: »

Found an old pack and it just lists the ingredients as Sugar, Glucose. Also it says there are approximately 80 drops in a 250g bag so it's more like 3g per drop so I was using circa 4.5g per 500ml previously which would be 207g for 23ltrs. Considering when I racked to the second fermenter I probably left a couple of litres behind I should have used around 190g to achieve the same carbonation ..... right??

Ah right I thought it was 60 in a bag. Yea that makes sense now.

Anyone

Right, so I bottled my first batch of beer, and then realised I made a mistake. I only put one drop per bottle as I assumed I had 500ml bottles when in fact I have 740ml(which needs 2). So, should I open them up and drop another in there, or just leave it and hope for the best?

Lovely Bloke

how long ago was it?

Anyone

Baldy Conscience wrote: »

how long ago was it?

Bottled them on Sunday.