Batch Priming

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Hi Dave

Bulk priming a high carbonation beer like your wheat beer can be a scary business. I use the calculator Here. I've just bottled 24 L of weissbier and used about 225g sugar. The calculator suggested 240g but I chickened out I was aiming for 3.3 volumes of CO2 the reduced amount will give 3.15 volumes so not a big difference. (255/24 X 10 = 94g for 10L at 22c)

Here's a few pointers:

Use good quality bottles, ones that have held beer/cider at similiar pressures to your desired carbonation. Some "Ale" bottles are thin walled as ales are relatively low in carbonation, as glass costs money breweries these days use these lighter bottles to save money.

Inspect evey bottle for flaws, if its got anything suspect bin it.

If you have any worries lower the priming sugar amount slightly to err on the safe side.

Make sure your beer has fermented out fully. Give it a couple of extra days in the FV, if you have temp control knock the temp up a degree.

When using the calculator remember that the beer temperature is the max fermenting temperature you use. Again if your not sure err on the side of caution.

Once primed and bottled ensure that the place you chose to secondary ferment is out of the way of the rest of the family, especially pets and kids. Pick a place that won't be damaged by spilt beer. Under the stairs or in a cupboard are good options.

Use beer crates if you can get them or strong carboard boxs to store the bottles in, think "containment"

Never and I mean NEVER NEVER NEVER hold a bottle up to your face to "see" how its doing. If one gives way whilst doing this your pretty little face and importantly your eyes are going to get the full force of flying glass !! safety spec's should really be worn. OTT you may think but for a couple of quid mmmmm need I say more.

With a wheat beer and any other high carbonated beers, give it a good week to secondary then get it into cold storage and down to serving temps. The beer will then absorb the co2 as it chills reducing the risk of breakage. Just be carefull when moving bottles, wear gloves and specs and try not to bang the bottles around.

Hope this hasn't scared you too much be careful and you will be fine.

Yeasty

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Good topic ,

This was one of the messy areas we had to sort out for the BIABacus. You can see some of the problems and solutions in this thread. The good news is that the powers that be have just given me an okay to post the following which is the result of the above thread and a lot more .

BIABrewer Temporary Priming Calculator.xlsx

Note that this file should only be posted on BIABrewer for now.

The file is a cut and paste of some bits of the BIABAcus. (Note: The first two input cells will appear in the 'Fermentation and Conditioning' section of the BIABacus so don't get too used to this layout ).


[center]How to Use[/center]
To determine the amount of priming sugar you should use, three questions require answering...

1. What temperature did you actively ferment the wort at?

One of the many things Yeasty mentioned in his excellent post above was temperature. Basically, the warmer the temperature, the less CO2 can be held in solution in the 'fermented wort'. Just keep your answer here simple. If the last few days of active fermentation were around 18C then type that in. If you did a diacetyl rest on a lager at 15 C for a few days, then type that in.

2. What Volumes of CO2 are Required for your beer style?

Please do not distribute this style spreadsheet publicly. It is not finished so just use it as a temporary measure.

Temporary BIABrewer BJCP Guidelines.xlsx

Use the above temporary spreadsheet to determine what level of CO2 you should be priming at. (Far right of spreadsheet.)

3. Individual Bottling, Bulk Priming or Natural Keg Carbonation?

If you are priming bottles individually, type in your bottle capacity.

If you are bulk priming, type in the volume you transferred to your secondary fermentation vessel or bulk priming vessel.

If you are naturally carbonating a keg, type in the volume you were able to transfer to your keg.

[center]The Logic[/center]

The formulas used here are the most advanced we could find and line up nicely with advanced, dedicated priming calculators. (Don't use primitive ones that don't take into account active fermentation temp!).

One thing I can't remember whether we ended up with a logical answer to in the other thread was why a naturally carbonated keg would require less 'sugar' than a bottle. Lots of things were discussed and I can't remember any one of them being a great answer. It's probably a combination of variables such as more surface area, continual pressure, etc. The formula adjustment we have used matches 'accepted' keg priming levels recommended by brewers here so whilst we don't fully understand the logic, all's good .

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Talking of bottle washing, I did 55 bottles a couple of weeks ago and soaked them as per Lamberts post. I rinsed them with my pressure washer I've got one with a lance that is good for cleaning the patio. It has a nozzle that rotates/whizz's around in a tight circle. The business end of this fits in the neck of a bottle so... With a bottle on the floor and by putting the nozzle into the neck and giving it a quick blast I gave them all a power rinse. You have to watch for back pressure and don't expect to stay dry but you do get nice and clean bottles.

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