Brew UK Forum | Beer Kits
Priming/ Bottling Question
Hi,
Just started my first kit and I have a question about priming and bottling it.
I only have the one fermentation tank, and was planning to bottle from that, but all instructions say to add priming sugar to a secondary one and transfer.
Is this for ease and simplicity, or can I add the sugar to my primary FV and bottle straight from it?
I still have a few days to bottling, so should be enough time to grab another if needed!
Thanks,
Responses
Posted 1 year ago by Member
in my opinion it's much easier to bottle with another fermentation vessel fitted with a Little Bottler.
Syphon from the primary FV into the the bottling FV into which you can add the priming sugar.
This way you remove the beer from the yeasty deposit on the bottom of the FV before you bottle and you can bulk prime your sugar.
Fermenting:
Condtioning: Twibute Clone
Drinking: 100% wheat, Fixby Gold
Posted 1 year ago by Moderator
Like Si says the little bottler and a second fv is great, I'd grab them as you have a few days to spare. Its the easiest way to do things by far.
Conditionin' - LEB Pale
Conditionin' - Thwaits Nutty Black
Plannin' - A user upper!
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Good advice above! I siphon mine into a secondary and leave it in there for a week ... allows me to be sure fermentation is complete and most particles to drop out.
(with grateful thanks to the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers and slightly adapted)
Posted 1 year ago by Member
interesting question.
i'm onto my second brew, the first being a wherry kit i bottled straight from the primary vessel and used normal sugar to condition. it tasted ok, not bad at all although a bit fruity/leffe like.
this time i'm doing a muntons old english bitter kit and have a secondary FV, a little bottler and some spraymalt. so my question is should i add the spray malt when i move the brew to the secondary FV or a couple of days before i bottle it?
cheers,
nick
Posted 1 year ago by Member
The priming sugar goes in to the Bottling FV not the secondary.
To be honest, for your second kit, I would skip secondary fermenting. Just ferment in the primary until all fermentation has ceased. Move it to the bottling FV add the priming sugar and bottle.
Secondary fermenting is not something that's needed for a kit.
Fermenting:
Condtioning: Twibute Clone
Drinking: 100% wheat, Fixby Gold
Posted 1 year ago by Member
I rack from primary to secondary, leave it in there for at least a week and the add priming sugar to the secondary. A week in the secondary is usually long enough for particles to be fairly well settled and they don't stir up
(with grateful thanks to the Fabulous Furry Freak Brothers and slightly adapted)
Posted 1 year ago by Admin
I do the same as Tony as I like the beer to be as clear as possible before kegging but with kits you won't get as much shite in the fermenter so its fine to just ferment in one vessel then transfer when ready to bottle. Either way your beer will turn out fine.
Fermenting:
Conditioning:Pale with Styrians
Drinking:Cascade Pale Ale, Summer Lightning
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Can i hijack this thread with a question of my own please?
Like Delvey i am looking to bottle my beer soon. Order coming in soon Greg
I've made up the Amarillo kit and wow! I digress....
I moved the ale into my barrel and adding the priming sugar too. Obviously the co2 will have built up as it should do. However, have i peaked too soon by adding the priming sugar early? Or if i use the little bottler will it still be ok to bottle and negate the need to add priming sugar to the bottles?
Sorry again Delvey for hijacking this thread....
Neil
Posted 1 year ago by Member
hmm, so i didn't check to see if there were any replies before i went ahead :/
i boiled up the spraymalt, added it to the secondary FV then transferred the brew over (it had stopped fermenting). i have a little bottler attached to the secondary so should i leave it for a couple of days and then bottle? or bottle pretty much straight away?
Posted 1 year ago by Admin
Bottle straight away otherwise all the Co2 from the fermentation will escape and you're beer will be flat.
The whole point of priming the bottles/keg is to get another fermentation happening but this time in a sealed environment to the Co2 produces cannot escape the will be absorbed into the beer and give it carbonation.
Fermenting:
Conditioning:Pale with Styrians
Drinking:Cascade Pale Ale, Summer Lightning
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Thanks Greg,
I will be ordering the little bottler and all other stuff tomorrow. Hopefully, by Friday the beer will be in the bottles. Does it matter that it's been in the barrel for a week?
Neil
Posted 1 year ago by Member
thanks for the reply greg, your response meant a late night bottling session swung into action!
so for my benefit could you explain how the c02 would've escaped from the secondary?
Posted 1 year ago by Moderator
The reason to prime is to build up pressure so if you keg and prime the pressure builds in the keg as it cant escape making the beer carbonated (over time) and able to squuirt out of the tap.
If you bottle the its the same thing, its under pressure thus carbonating the beer and giving you a lovely Psssst sound when you open the cap.
If you prime in a secondary and leave for a few days the co2 produced will escape out of the airlock and when you put your beer into a keg or bottles it wont have any pressure build up.
So if you are batch priming in a secondary (best way) then prime with the sugar soloution and then bottle immediatly.
Hope this helps!
Ta,
Nath
Conditionin' - LEB Pale
Conditionin' - Thwaits Nutty Black
Plannin' - A user upper!
Posted 1 year ago by Member
ah i see, that's very helpful. with my first brew i left it in the primary for a couple of weeks then bottled it using a syphon, which turned out to be quite messy.
using the secondary and the little bottler was much more effective and took a lot less time too.
i have a pressure vessel but i haven't used it so far. since i have about 50 bottles, 40 of which are conditioning my last brew, is there anything to stop me starting another brew, using the pressure vessel to bulk prime and then bottling it (by which time i'll have some free bottles)...?
Posted 1 year ago by Moderator
By pressure Vessel I assume you mean keg/barrel?? If so then yes.
You can drink it out of the keg and then if you want to bottle the rest when you have enough bottles then just use the little bottler on a pipe connected to the tap to fill up the bottles. You will have to re-prime the bottles though as the priming you would have done for the keg would have done its stuff by then.
Remember you have to fill those bottles as soon as you have primed your beer.
Conditionin' - LEB Pale
Conditionin' - Thwaits Nutty Black
Plannin' - A user upper!
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Just note that the little bottler doesn't fit on a standard barrel tap. You'll have to butt the tap and bottler together and secure the joint. I used some insulation tape and it worked fine.
Fermenting:
Condtioning: Twibute Clone
Drinking: 100% wheat, Fixby Gold
Posted 1 year ago by Member
> You will have to re-prime the bottles though as the priming you would have done for the keg would have done its stuff by then.
thanks, a key piece of info since i wouldn't have done that.
and yes, i did mean barrel
cheers!
Posted 1 year ago by Moderator
I use the little botller on a tube now. Makes life so much easier as I can line up my bottles in a rectangle on the floor and just move the little bottler to where it needs to go!
No more back ache!
Yippeee!
Conditionin' - LEB Pale
Conditionin' - Thwaits Nutty Black
Plannin' - A user upper!
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Nath,
Like Nicksonic you've answered my questions too. Thank you really appreciated that. Although looks like i may have lost one of barrels of beer....
There was a split that appeared in it over night and it has leaked all over my kitchen work surface. I've still got some left but i suspect it will be too late to save.
Neil
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Actually rather than
more like :'(
I am gutted!
Posted 1 year ago by Moderator
Bummer dude, nothing worse than spilt beer. Save as much as ya can, drink it/bottle it. Ya never know, it may not be a total loss.
Conditionin' - LEB Pale
Conditionin' - Thwaits Nutty Black
Plannin' - A user upper!
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Nath i hope so...
Will hopefully, have some beer left by the time my bottles arrive. I might just have to drink loads of coke and bottle it that way and fast too.
I am still reeling! Grrrrrr! Oh well you learn the hard way.
Neil
Posted 1 year ago by Member
sorry to hear that neil, how incredibly annoying
Posted 1 year ago by Member
nath, a question about your reply saying that i'll need to reprime the bottles once i want to transfer the beer from the barrel - i've been using spraymalt instead of sugar to improve the flavour. if i do this twice (once for the barrel and again for the bottles) won't this affect the taste?
Posted 1 year ago by Moderator
Its such a small amount it wont effect the flavour, so not to worry there then.
Conditionin' - LEB Pale
Conditionin' - Thwaits Nutty Black
Plannin' - A user upper!
Posted 1 year ago by Member
great, thank you
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Hi,
my first ever post and my first ever brew so I'm still learning. I have some wherry brewing right now and I want to bottle it. It is in the FV right now. I also have a pressure barrel.
My plan is to leave the brew in the FV for a week or 2 until it's done its thing, then I will syphon it across into the pressure barrel, priming it with sugar and leave it for another couple of weeks whilst it clears.
I then want to transfer it into bottles. The reason I want to transfer into the pressure barrel first is so that I can keep my eyes on the clearing process before I commit to my bottles.
If I don't breach the pressure barrel at all until I am ready to bottle, will I still need to prime again in the bottles, or can I just pour straight from the barrel into the bottles, since the stuff coming out of the tap by then would be ready to drink?
Thanks for help.
Posted 1 year ago by Moderator
You will still need to prime if you want to bottle. I would transfer it to the keg if you want, wait a week then transfer to bottles and prime.
I normally ferment for a week (plus a few days to ensure fermentation has stopped) then into a secondary (keg or fv will be fine) Batch prime the lot and bottle (eg add 80g sugar that has been boiled with a bit of the beer or water to the 2nd fv then syphon the beer in before bottling)
Conditionin' - LEB Pale
Conditionin' - Thwaits Nutty Black
Plannin' - A user upper!
Posted 1 year ago by Member
I've messed up then, after 2 weeks I went from Primary to primed Secondary, left another 2 weeks and bottled about a dozen, the rest I Cornelius kegged. The bottles after a week seem to have a permanent cloud, that you can see when you tilt the bottle, looks like a swirling mist, opened a few and no psst, so pours like flat beer, not sure about the taste either ( Wherry ). The keg I haven't tried yet, but I can only imagine that the forced Co2 will make it cloudy. Still no wherries.
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Going to bottle my next batch i already have the the little bottler and a 25ltr fv with tap is it a simple case of running a bit of clear hose from the fv to the bottler ?
Fermenting:
Conditioning: Elderflower wine,Dandelion wine,Ribena wine,summer ale
Drinking: Turbo Cider/summer ale/way to amarillo/funked up wherry
Posted 1 year ago by Member
So does that mean I should not bother priming it until I'm about to bottle it then? I can just transfer it into my barrel without priming, leave it another couple of weeks to clear, and then prime it and transfer straight into the bottles? Or will it need priming in order to clear properly?
Posted 1 year ago by Member
Need to prime some 1tr coke bottles for turbo cider how much should i use 2 teaspoons?
Fermenting:
Conditioning: Elderflower wine,Dandelion wine,Ribena wine,summer ale
Drinking: Turbo Cider/summer ale/way to amarillo/funked up wherry
Posted 1 year ago by Moderator
Unsure mate, Ive never done turbocider though I know ya have to be careful as Tony had some bottles explode on him (think it was ginger beer) and turbocider has a nasty habbit of continously fermentin'.
Hopefully a peep will be be on here soon with the answer.
Conditionin' - LEB Pale
Conditionin' - Thwaits Nutty Black
Plannin' - A user upper!
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