Belgian bottle carbonation

[tims5377]

I bought a brewers best Belgian IPA kit and whipped it up the other day. I am looking to get it into secondary and dry hopping very soon (as per directions) and am contemplating going to tertiary later and hopping again (because why not?).

I plan on bottling this in 750ml Belgian bottles with corks and wires but I am not sure how much sugar to use to batch prime this for these bottles. I would assume I would want higher carbonation because of the style, but dont know how much sugar equates to what carbonation and how bottle size relates. What do you guys think I should use to prime the 5 gal batch?

 

[sheldonsteen]

I've bottled in a 64 oz. (swing top) growlers without any issue. Bottle size didn't seem to make a difference. I would prime with the recommended amount for the style and not worry about the specific bottles you have. Take a look here if you need a calculator.

http://tastybrew.com/calculators/priming.html

 

[reed1911]

I too have not seen any correlation between bottle size and carb. The big thing to watch out for is proper final gravity so you do not bottle before fermentation is complete.

 

[RM-MN]

I bought a brewers best Belgian IPA kit and whipped it up the other day. I am looking to get it into secondary and dry hopping very soon (as per directions) and am contemplating going to tertiary later and hopping again (because why not?).

I plan on bottling this in 750ml Belgian bottles with corks and wires but I am not sure how much sugar to use to batch prime this for these bottles. I would assume I would want higher carbonation because of the style, but dont know how much sugar equates to what carbonation and how bottle size relates. What do you guys think I should use to prime the 5 gal batch?

Since nobody else answered the why not, let me stick my 2 cents worth into this. There is no reason to move this beer to tertiary or even to secondary. The instructions are based on old information that has proven to be wrong, your beer doesn't need to be moved off the yeast cake and doing so may be counterproductive as the yeast cake seems to make the beer cleaner tasting and faster maturing. You can dry hop in the primary just fine.

When you move your beer to another container you lose the CO2 blanket that helped protect your beer from bacteria and you expose it to oxygen, potentially oxidizing your beer to get you the wet cardboard taste after it has been bottled for a while. You have to be anal about sanitation too as any bacteria that likes the alcohol or residual sugars will love to establish themselves in your beer. Each time you move your beer you increase this danger. For the first move your beer should have dissolved CO2 that will slowly cover the top of the beer again but the next move will have less.

 

[flars]

I bought a brewers best Belgian IPA kit and whipped it up the other day. I am looking to get it into secondary and dry hopping very soon (as per directions) and am contemplating going to tertiary later and hopping again (because why not?).

I plan on bottling this in 750ml Belgian bottles with corks and wires but I am not sure how much sugar to use to batch prime this for these bottles. I would assume I would want higher carbonation because of the style, but dont know how much sugar equates to what carbonation and how bottle size relates. What do you guys think I should use to prime the 5 gal batch?

Links to priming sugar calculators;
http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator/carbonation.html?14635422#tag
http://www.northernbrewer.com/priming-sugar-calculator/

The more times you move your brew the more times you will risk infection and oxidation. This is a choice you will need to make after looking at more information. Use Google to look for information in all the forums.

The size of the bottle does not correlate to needing more or less priming sugar.

Do not use a growler for carbonation. Growlers are designed to carry beer poured/dispensed from a tap. They will not withstand some carbonation pressures.

Happy brewing.

 

[kh54s10]

Agreed that the size of the bottle makes no difference. You prime to the batch size and temperature during fermentation per the calculators. I also agree that you need to be sure the bottle cap system will contain the pressure of the carbonation.

 

[sheldonsteen]

Do not use a growler for carbonation. Growlers are designed to carry beer poured/dispensed from a tap. They will not withstand some carbonation pressures.

Happy brewing.

Most, not all. But not worth the risk unless you are absolutely sure the growler can handle it. My point about growlers was simply to point out that bottle size shouldn't make a difference, not that all growlers are ok. Definitely worth clarifying.

 

[Cyclman]

I do find, however, that bigger bottles take longer to carbonate. You wouldn't want to add sugar to compensate for this, however, or you risk bottle bombs.