Bottle Priming/Carbonation - We need your numbers!

Post #1 made 8 years ago
We've had several threads over the years on priming bottles to get the right carbonation. One thing those threads have shown is that there is a massive variance in recommendations*.

We've nailed tricky stuff like this before so we might as well do it again.

Can you please click on the link below that applies to you or that you have experience in, and then follow the instructions there to give us your "numbers" on what works or has not worked for you?

[center]If you are a bottler and prime your bottles individually

If you are a bottler and bulk-prime

If you keg[/center]
* This thread is probably the best for showing the extent of these variations.

** Use the file below to help you determine the correct carbonation level for your beer style. (We received kind permission from the AABC to use the numbers from the attached sheet several years ago.
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
Last edited by Pat on 20 Apr 2016, 20:25, edited 1 time in total.
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Post #2 made 8 years ago
If you are a bottler who primes each bottle individually, please select and copy the Code below, paste it into the Quick Reply box and complete the details. An example follows the code.

Code: Select all

[center][b]Bottles - Individually Primed[/b][/center]
[b]Overview[/b]

Beer Style:
Original Gravity:
Final Gravity:
Desired Vols CO2:
Metric or US Measurements Supplied:

[b]Yeast/s, Times and Temperatures[/b]

Main Yeast:
Type and Amount of Yeast Used when Priming (if any):
Wort Temp 72 hours before Priming:
Wort Temp at Priming:
Days Allowed for Carbonation:
Avg Temp during Carbonation Period:

[b]Volumes[/b]

Volume in Fermenter at Pitching:
Did you use a Secondary Fermenter or Bottling Bucket (Y/N):
Volume at Bottling:

Bottle Size:
No. of Bottles Filled:

[b]Priming Information[/b]

Weight of Priming Sugar per Bottle:
Type of Priming Sugar Used:

[b]Results[/b]

On a scale from 0 to 10, if 5 meant the beer was perfectly carbonated for the style and 0 meant the beer was completely flat and 10 meant the beer gushed or exploded, how would you rate the carbonation of this beer?:

Can you describe the humidity (cold and hot climates can both be humid or dry) in your area? In other words, do you think your priming sugar is really dry, can it get a little damp or something in between?: 

[b]Notes and Personal Preferences[/b]

Notes:
Personal Preferences:
[center]FAKE EXAMPLE Bottles - Individually Primed[/center]

Overview

Beer Style: American Pale Ale
Original Gravity: 1.055
Final Gravity: 1.014
Desired Vols CO2: 2.5
Metric or US Measurements Supplied: Both

Yeast/s, Times and Temperatures

Main Yeast: US-05
Type and Amount of Yeast Used when Priming (if any):
Wort Temp 72 hours before Priming: 18 C (64.4F)
Wort Temp at Priming: 18 C (64.4F)
Days Allowed for Carbonation: 14
Avg Temp during Carbonation Period: 18C (64.4F)

Volumes

Volume in Fermenter at Pitching: Can't remember.
Did you use a Secondary Fermenter or Bottling Bucket (Y/N): Y
Volume at Bottling: 19.3 L (5.1 Gal)

Bottle Size: 740ml (25.02 oz)
No. of Bottles Filled: 25

Priming Information


Weight of Priming Sugar per Bottle: 7 grams (0.25 oz)
Type of Priming Sugar Used: 2 Coopers Carbonation Drops

Results

On a scale from 0 to 10, if 5 meant the beer was perfectly carbonated for the style and 0 meant the beer was completely flat and 10 meant the beer gushed or exploded, how would you rate the carbonation of this beer?: 5

Can you describe the humidity (cold and hot climates can both be humid or dry) in your area? In other words, do you think your priming sugar is really dry, can it get a little damp or something in between?: The climate here is dry most of the year. I haven't noticed a difference though in my bottling results.

Notes and Personal Preferences

Notes: Each carbonation drop is 7 grams of glucose.
Personal Preferences: I think I prefer moderate to high carbonation in my beers. For example, I don't really enjoy flat beers from a hand-pump.
Last edited by Pat on 20 Apr 2016, 20:28, edited 1 time in total.
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Post #3 made 8 years ago
If you are a bottler who bulk primes, please select and copy the Code below, paste it into the Quick Reply box and complete the details. An example follows the code.

Code: Select all

[center][b]Bottles - Bulk Primed[/b][/center]
[b]Overview[/b]

Beer Style:
Original Gravity:
Final Gravity:
Desired Vols CO2:
Metric or US Measurements Supplied:

[b]Yeast/s, Times and Temperatures[/b]

Main Yeast:
Type and Amount of Yeast Used when Priming (if any):
Wort Temp 72 hours before Priming:
Wort Temp at Priming:
Days Allowed for Carbonation:
Avg Temp during Carbonation Period:

[b]Volumes[/b]

Volume in Fermenter at Pitching:
Volume into Secondary or Bottling Bucket:

Bottle Size:
No. of Bottles Filled:

[b]Priming Information[/b]

Weight of Priming Sugar Used:
Type of Priming Sugar Used:
Process Used:

[b]Results[/b]

On a scale from 0 to 10, if 5 meant the beer was perfectly carbonated for the style and 0 meant the beer was completely flat and 10 meant the beer gushed or exploded, how would you rate the carbonation of this beer?:

Can you describe the humidity (cold and hot climates can both be humid or dry) in your area? In other words, do you think your priming sugar is really dry, can it get a little damp or something in between?:

[b]Notes and Personal Preferences[/b]

Notes:
Personal Preferences:
[center]FAKE EXAMPLE Bottles - Bulk Primed[/center]

Overview

Beer Style: American Pale Ale
Original Gravity: 1.055
Final Gravity: 1.014
Desired Vols CO2: 2.5
Metric or US Measurements Supplied: Both

Yeast/s, Times and Temperatures

Main Yeast: US-05
Type and Amount of Yeast Used when Priming (if any):
Wort Temp 72 hours before Priming: 18 C (64.4F)
Wort Temp at Priming: 18 C (64.4F)
Days Allowed for Carbonation: 14
Avg Temp during Carbonation Period: 18C (64.4F)

Volumes

Volume in Fermenter at Pitching: 21.1 L
Volume into Secondary or Bottling Bucket: 19.0 L

Bottle Size: 740ml (25.02 oz)
No. of Bottles Filled: 24

Priming Information

Weight of Priming Sugar Used: 116 grams (4.1 oz)
Type of Priming Sugar Used: Sucrose (white table sugar)
Process Used: Mixed the sugar in 250 ml (1.01 cups/18.45 ozs) of hot water. I then added this to the bottling bucket and stirred it in with a sanitised spoon.

Results

On a scale from 0 to 10, if 5 meant the beer was perfectly carbonated for the style and 0 meant the beer was completely flat and 10 meant the beer gushed or exploded, how would you rate the carbonation of this beer?: 4

Can you describe the humidity (cold and hot climates can both be humid or dry) in your area? In other words, do you think your priming sugar is really dry, can it get a little damp or something in between?: A lot of the time of year, it is really hot and humid here. I keep my main lot of sugar in an air-tight container but, in my everyday container, it often clumps. I always prime using sugar from my air-tight container though.

Notes and Personal Preferences

Notes:
Personal Preferences: I think I prefer moderate to high carbonation in my beers. For example, I don't really enjoy flat beers from a hand-pump.
Last edited by Pat on 20 Apr 2016, 20:31, edited 1 time in total.
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Post #5 made 8 years ago
Will look forward to it MS.

Forgot to add a link to the thread for those who keg whether that be forced or natural carbonation, in the first post. Fixed now.

Also have received some numbers via PM. Am thinking on ways in which figures can be more easily contributed but it's not very easy to cover all the different scenarios.

If you have multiple records I'll add some spreadsheets later so you can add your numbers into that rather than filling out a template for each brew.

From the numbers I have so far, this problem is going to need as much data as possible to solve so please jump in as much as you can.

Thanks,
Pat
Last edited by Pat on 27 Apr 2016, 20:36, edited 1 time in total.
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Post #6 made 8 years ago
[center]Bottles - Bulk Primed[/center]
Overview

Beer Style: American Wheat Ale
Original Gravity: 1.058
Final Gravity: 1.01
Desired Vols CO2: 2.4
Metric or US Measurements Supplied:

Yeast/s, Times and Temperatures

Main Yeast: WYeast 1099 Whitbread Ale
Type and Amount of Yeast Used when Priming (if any): None
Wort Temp 72 hours before Priming: 20C (68f)
Wort Temp at Priming: 20C (68f)
Days Allowed for Carbonation: 14
Avg Temp during Carbonation Period: 20C (68f)

Volumes

Volume in Fermenter at Pitching: 24 L
Volume into Secondary or Bottling Bucket: 21.5 L

Bottle Size: 500mL
No. of Bottles Filled: 42

Priming Information

Weight of Priming Sugar Used: 130 g
Type of Priming Sugar Used: Dextrose
Process Used: Dextrose boiled in 200mL of water, cooled, added to bottling bucket, beer racked on top

Results

On a scale from 0 to 10, if 5 meant the beer was perfectly carbonated for the style and 0 meant the beer was completely flat and 10 meant the beer gushed or exploded, how would you rate the carbonation of this beer?: 6

Can you describe the humidity (cold and hot climates can both be humid or dry) in your area? In other words, do you think your priming sugar is really dry, can it get a little damp or something in between?: Average relative humidity for April here was 68%, march was 74%, February was 78%... I have had that Dextrose since at least February, but I do have it sealed and stored quite well.

Notes and Personal Preferences

Notes: I'm not sure how accurate my carbonation palette is
Personal Preferences:
Last edited by goulaigan on 27 Apr 2016, 21:49, edited 1 time in total.
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Post #7 made 8 years ago
That's fantastic thanks goulaigan and thanks very much for your PM as well :salute:.

Yeast Strain

In his PM, goulaigan said,
Something I have really wondered about is yeast strain having an effect... I think maybe the particular yeasts ability to eat them [sugars] may also come into play... Not all yeast strains produce the same amount of C02 and alcohol from the same amount of sugar.
Whilst we do have yeast strain in the template (main yeast and that used for bottling, if any), it wasn't until goulaigan's PM, and the way it was worded, that it really hit me as to how important a factor yeast strain could be. This could be a big 'culprit' in this problem, and, it is not just a problem experienced by home brewers.

ShorePoints sent me numbers from nine of his brews and only two of those brews used the same yeast. One thing for sure was that his results were very wide. There was certainly no obvious pattern on a 'prima facie' examination. Before reading goulaigan's PM, one other factor I was starting to ponder was...

Humidity

Relative humidity can vary greatly in both cold and hot climates. As a generalisation, we might think of England as being a cold, humid climate and 'the tropics' as being a hot, humid environment.

Two things come into play. Priming sugar, of any sort, can 'gain weight' in a humid environment rendering it less effective by weight. Secondly, some sugars can actually change in their chemical make-up, especially at a relative humidity above 75%. I've tried to research this but don't have much info.

Conclusion

I think we are on the right track asking for lots of information. If yeast strains are a major culprit, then the only way we'll find out is through lots of data. I'll also change the templates above to include comments on humidity just in case.

What would be ideal though, and, I'll add it to the new site, is if we had a mechanism where members could add their data easily instead of the current clumsy method. If anyone has time to do this, let me know and I will give you access to the part of the new site I have reserved for this.

Thanks again goulaigan :peace:,
Pat

P.S. Have just changed templates and added your humidity notes.
Last edited by Pat on 28 Apr 2016, 23:10, edited 1 time in total.
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