Best way to bottle beer?

[klowneyy]

I'm 8 days in on my first all grain beer (porter) i wondering what is the best way to coordinate/bottle condition. What is better dextrose or sugar or is it pretty much the same?

 

[Revvy]

Bottling Tips for the Homebrewer

 

[beergolf]

+1 to the link Revvy posted. Tons of good info there.

 

[unionrdr]

I've used either/or...even done combos of both. All worked fine. I prefer dextrose though. Clean,fine bubbled carbonation.

 

[JLem]

I've used either/or...even done combos of both. All worked fine. I prefer dextrose though. Clean,fine bubbled carbonation.

It's not the priming sugar that determines the bubble size or foam structure of the beer. Carbonation is carbonation - there's no difference in the CO2 produced from yeast metabolizing dextrose or sucrose or maltose or [insert fermentable sugar]. However, the types and amounts of proteins, hop compounds, dextrines, and fatty acids in the beer do influence the type/amount/stability of the foam.

 

[OHIOSTEVE]

Bottling Tips for the Homebrewer

amen and amen.. best thing I read when I ws bottling.

 

[klowneyy]

What's the best way to add the sugar to my bottles of beer?

 

[Revvy]

What's the best way to add the sugar to my bottles of beer?

Did you read the Bottling sticky that I posted and others suggested you read? The information is there. The best way is to bulk prime by boiling the proper amount in a volume of water and adding to to a bottling bucket at the same time you transfer the beer over to the bucket, and then fill your bottles. All that is in detail in the STICKY that a lot of us put together, to answer questions such as that.

 

[unionrdr]

It's not the priming sugar that determines the bubble size or foam structure of the beer. Carbonation is carbonation - there's no difference in the CO2 produced from yeast metabolizing dextrose or sucrose or maltose or [insert fermentable sugar]. However, the types and amounts of proteins, hop compounds, dextrines, and fatty acids in the beer do influence the type/amount/stability of the foam.

I wasn't refering to the head,that's formed by dissolved protiens. The carbonation drives it in the glass. What I illuded to was that the corn sugar,in my experience,gives a bit finer carbonation than table sugar sometimes. The difference is in how well it's able to be metabolized by the yeast. Carbonation & head ARE NOT the same thing.

 

[tdexterc]

+1 on Revvy's link. For what it's worth, my personal bottling method is as follows:

-Determine the right amount of priming sugar. I use Palmer's directions and Nomogram to determine the amount of sugar I will use. I typicality use dextrose, but I've used cane sugar and gotten equally tasty results. Just remember the amount of cane sugar you use will not be the same amount as dextrose.
-Bring 1 cup of water to a boil. Measure out the priming sugar (by weight) while the water is heating up, then add that to the water and bring it to a boil. Remove from heat after boiling and place (covered with tin foil) in the refrigerator to cool down.
-While that is cooling down, I like to sanitize my equipment. I make a 1-2 gallon batch of star-san in my bottling bucket and use that to sanitize all my bottles. As soon as I pour a homebrew, I rinse the bottles thoroughly to remove all the yeast at the bottom, and then store them upside down in a box. Come bottling day, all I have to do is give each bottle a 3 second squirt of star-san using my bottling wand attached to the bottling bucket, then shake the bottle quick and dump it out. I sanitize my whole batch of bottles in this manner before moving on. Once everything is sanitized, I use the excess star-san to sanitize my auto-siphon/racking cane and dump the last little bit of star-san into a small container where I submerge my bottle caps.
-Next I dump the priming solution from the fridge into the now empty bottling bucket BEFORE racking my beer into the bottling bucket. Doing this will mix the priming solution thoroughly throughout the beer. After that, I'll rack my beer from my carboy into the bottling bucket, making sure I have a nice whirlpool effect going on to mix it all together.
-Once all the beer is in the bottling bucket, I just give each bottle one more quick shake to get any excess star-san out, I fill and cap the bottles one at a time, and label them all at the end.

Sorry for the novel but I hope it helps. It took me a lot of trial and error to develop my routine, but It works well for me.

 

[unionrdr]

I used to fill the bottles with starsan & a funnel to sanitize a few at a time. Then I got the bottle tree & vinator,both by Ferrari. Fill the vinator about half full of starsan & give each bottle three pumps or so. Then onto the bottle tree. It holds 45 bottles,which on average is three bottles off from the total needed for the average 5 gallon batch. Saves time & is def easier. Not to mention,the bottle tree only takes about 2 square feet of space. Better to me than bottles all over the place like before. I also finally got Ferrari's super agata bench capper. Def makes those different bottle sizes easier to deal with. It has a spring loaded handle that you use on the fly to adjust it for bottle height. It'll safely cap those odd bottles my wing capper always got hung up on.

 

[Varmintman]

You can read many posts on how much some folks hate to bottle and have gone to kegging. While kegging is faster and easier I enjoy bottling because I found a method that works for me. And that is the crux of the whole deal read tons and experiment and find what works for you and then enjoy it.

My set up is way different than most because I have a bad back. But it works for me and I can bust through a 6 gallon batch in under 2 hours including cleanup and set up.

 

[unionrdr]

You & me both. I have a bad L2 disc & both hip joints. So I did a video on my youtube channel that shows my sit down set up for bottling day. I think I might've reposted it on here,so y'all will have to look for it with the new site set up. Anyway,everything's within arms reach,& the only lifting I have to do is to put the full bottling bucket on top of the fermenter stand to get a good gravity feed for the bottling wand/tube.
After getting things set up to my liking,bottling day is a cool lil bit of the process that sort of brings me closer to my beer. Like the final bit of brewing to get good beer kinda thing. Idk...sort fo a zen thing I guess.

 

[tdexterc]

I used to fill the bottles with starsan & a funnel to sanitize a few at a time. Then I got the bottle tree & vinator,both by Ferrari. Fill the vinator about half full of starsan & give each bottle three pumps or so. Then onto the bottle tree.

I've looked into this before. It seems like a really nice setup. It might just have to be my next new brew toy

 

[unionrdr]

I've looked into this before. It seems like a really nice setup. It might just have to be my next new brew toy

Buy it! It's one of those single best invesments in your brewing arsenal. Makes bottling day go faster & easier. Keeps all the bottles in a smaller space too,like 2 square feet. I got the 45 bottle tree,since the average 5 gallon batch uses 48 bottles.

 

[JLem]

I wasn't refering to the head,that's formed by dissolved protiens. The carbonation drives it in the glass. What I illuded to was that the corn sugar,in my experience,gives a bit finer carbonation than table sugar sometimes. The difference is in how well it's able to be metabolized by the yeast. Carbonation & head ARE NOT the same thing.

I understand that, but I do not understand what you mean by "finer carbonation" - I took it to mean the size of the bubbles. Carbonation is carbonation, no one sugar will produce "finer carbonation" (at least in how I take you to mean) compared to another sugar. Corn sugar and table sugar will yield the same quality of carbonation.

 

[unionrdr]

Well,idk if it's the particular batch of table sugar sometimes or what. but the dextrose seemed to be more consistent to me lately. So I've been sticking with that. It is interesting to note that,when beers go in the fridge,if I pull one out after 1-3 days,it'll sometimes have large bubbles. A week or more later,their so fine as to be hard to see. Which is process related of course. But even that was different sometimes with different sugar used. I guess some are a bit different chemically,since they come fro different sources.

 

[Beergazzi]

I've found that giving the bottles a really good rinsing / shaking / rinsing after drinking the beer pays off when it comes time to sterilize and bottle. Basically I just take my cleaned bottles (which I store in a lidded rubbermaid container that I spritz with star san) and submerge them about 15 at a time in starsan, then with one hand I am filling a bottle, while the other hand is 'bobbing' for bottles and draining them.

I lay a cap on loosely for the 15 bottles, and then crimp them in one go.

If i have a large number of bottles to clean / delabel I soak, rinse and dry them in the oven at 220, that way I know everything is dry and dead.

So far, no problems.