Siphoning day!: i have a question

[IceMonster]

So it's my first siphoning day today. I have everything i need but I'm just confused with carbonation. i don't have corn sugar so I'm just using regular sugar (I've read its not ideal, but fine). my question is, for a 1 gallon batch, how much sugar and how much water do i use? thanks

 

[OkashiiBrew]

try this

http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator/carbonation.html?15938209#tag

 

[Queequeg]

Use an online priming calculator, there are dozens. Pick one and stick with it. I use

http://kotmf.com/tools/prime.php

Select the style from the drop down and it will tell you the range of carbonation that is typical for that style. As it your first time go for a value in the middle of that range. For most beers this will be around 2 vols.

Addthat value into the desired C02 vols field, add the volume of beer that will end up in the bottle (so fermenter vol-loss to trub) and the maximum temp your beer was at during its time in the fermenter. Change dextrose to cane sugar sucrose on the drop down.

Click calculate and you have the number of oz/grams to need.

Weight out your sugar, add that to 500ml water in a saucepan. Cover it and bring to the boil and boil for 10mins. Move it to the sink and submerse in water to cool.

Once cooled add to your sanitized priming bucket and siphon your beer from the fermenter on to the sugar solution. This will automaticaly mix it.

Then bottle with what ever method you use.

 

[smizak]

I use Northern Brewers successfully. I always use table sugar (sucrose) as dextrose has a tendency to absorb moisture and affect the weight.

I've been burned by bad transfers when adding priming sugar to the bucket, if you care about carbing to style. I bought a large, stamped stainless steel spoon and calculate the amount by what I ended up with in the bottling bucket as opposed to what I plan on transferring. A couple of gentle swirls with the spoon and a couple of minutes wait always yields even carbonation for me.

 

[gregfreemyer]

Use an online priming calculator, there are dozens. Pick one and stick with it.

That's for sure. I've seem really different amounts come out of different calculators. It seems typical is about one ounce of sugar for a gallon of wort. I use about 2 ounces of water per gallon of wort. You just need enough water to let the boil be a boil and candy cooking.

(I did too little water once with corn syrup. It was obviously too little. It was a sticky mess. Did I say I actually asked my wife to do it and I gave her bad directions. She was not happy.)

Once cooled add to your sanitized priming bucket and siphon your beer from the fermenter on to the sugar solution. This will automaticaly mix it.

I tried not stirring only once. I tasted the last few ounces coming out of the bottling bucket. I realized it was way too sweet. I popped all the caps and poured all my unevenly sugared bottles back into the bucket and did it all again after stirring.

I think that was my second batch. Anyway, I always stir it now after racking the wort over.

 

[IceMonster]

.613 for me, thanks for the help guys

 

[Yooper]

I dislike those priming calculators, as they have you carb "to style", and use temperature as one of the parameters. With carbing "to style", some beers like a stout may be 1.5 volumes (flat) and weizens 4 volumes (bottle bombs). My preference has always been to have a reasonable carb level in all beer styles, so I use one ounce of priming sugar per finished gallon of beer, dissolved in a little boiling water. The amount of water doesn't matter, so even 1/4 cup is fine for 1 ounce of sugar.

 

[unionrdr]

Siphoning day? I think you mean bottling day? I've used dextrose,table sugar & demerara sugar for bottle carbing all worked fine. But the amounts used for each type are different.

 

[Queequeg]

I tried not stirring only once. I tasted the last few ounces coming out of the bottling bucket. I realized it was way too sweet. I popped all the caps and poured all my unevenly sugared bottles back into the bucket and did it all again after stirring.

I think that was my second batch. Anyway, I always stir it now after racking the wort over.

If you place the siphon tube around the outer edge of the priming bucket so that the beer flows in from the edge it will naturallu create a vortex and effectively stir under its own gravity.

 

[Queequeg]

I dislike those priming calculators, as they have you carb "to style", and use temperature as one of the parameters. With carbing "to style", some beers like a stout may be 1.5 volumes (flat) and weizens 4 volumes (bottle bombs). My preference has always been to have a reasonable carb level in all beer styles, so I use one ounce of priming sugar per finished gallon of beer, dissolved in a little boiling water. The amount of water doesn't matter, so even 1/4 cup is fine for 1 ounce of sugar.

Personally I like stouts and English beers carbed lower than american beers. So I therefore carbed to style.

When stouts are carbed "too" high they end up tasting a bit cola like to me. I like my IPA's carbed higher so I get the hop burps.

mmmm hop burps