Bulk Priming in the Coopers fermenter

[Mark D Pirate]

With the amount of crap still making it into my FV there's no way i'd even think about bulk priming in primary !

really need to get my keggle built up and give this stovetop BIAB away ,brewing while under influence didn't help im sure though ....

[Otto Von Blotto]

Yeah you don't want kettle trub in the fermenter. It has the potential to cause the beer to go stale faster, among other problems.

 

I still bulk prime the excess beer that I get after kegging the majority. My method is the same as it was for full batches, but I also use it as a means of clearing out the crap from in and around the FV tap before the clearer beer goes into the keg. I mix up whatever amount of dex and dump it into the bottling bucket then run 4 or 5 litres into it, put the lid on, fill the keg and sort it out, then come back and bottle the few litres. It works well.

 

 

[Mark D Pirate]

I'm trying ! Only about 8 mm deep this time (17 l batch )

Used whirlfloc and an icebath to encourage as much drop out in kettle as I could , most hops I've used in a batch so far as well so may need to invest in a larger strainer or put a sanitised chux over the top of it , should get plenty of oxygen in the wort that way too .

On upside the notty only took 8 hours to show action :-) starters are awesome !

[Otto Von Blotto]

You'll find it easier to keep that crap out when you get your keggle up and running and have a ball valve on it to drain the wort out. Even without fast chilling, the solids drop easily if you use Whirlfloc or Brewbrite or similar products.

 

I use a large hop sock that I turned into a spider which keeps the majority of hop matter contained. I don't know how or if it affects the utilisation, but I certainly have no complaints about the end results.

[Mark D Pirate]

Do you bother skim hot break off ?

Think John Palmer changed his mind about that as well ,not pretty looking stuff so I skimmed it away .

Keggle will take some time , tempted to just go gas but with electric I can use an electronic temp controller for precise stepping ....I'm a bit of a perfectionist and if I do it right the first time it'll provide years of service

[Otto Von Blotto]

I don't bother skimming it. It'd be too much of a PITA with the hop spider in place anyway, but apparently that foamy crap on top isn't much hot break anyway, and you risk skimming away proteins that aid in head retention supposedly. I don't know how true that is though. I can't see it aiding in reducing the kettle trub post boil by much though, because most of that crap is already in suspension, it's only a very small amount that ends up in that foam on top.

[phil2803]

An old thread but this topic has come up elsewhere. I have been bulk priming in the fv and don't understand why you have to stir it in. I use hot water to dissolve the sugar using a blender. Then I pour the solution in gently. I cold crash to 1-2 deg prior for a few days. I don't stir but leave it for a few hours. Surely once its dissolved its going to stay that way. 200g in 23 litres of water is nothing and I can't see the yeast being very active at those temperatures.

[Otto Von Blotto]

Because if you don't stir it in then the sugar solution is not evenly mixed through the 23 litres of beer (not water). You'll end up with uneven carbonation across the batch. It's nothing to do with the yeast fermenting or not, it's just to get the priming solution as evenly mixed through the entire batch as possible. Yes the solution itself will stay dissolved, but it's a bit like pouring water in to a pint glass and adding the cordial second. It doesn't evenly mix through it straight away.

[Scotty1525229865]

I use a bottling bucket (blue 30L from Bunnings) most of my 23 litre batches I use 180 grams dex... I dissolve that in about half a litre of water, then transfer the beer via a food grade tube which is long enough to coil around the bottom of the bottling bucket. With the sugar solution in first I don't stir it after and have never had a problem doing it this way so far.

Gash Slug has a good youtube video on the process.

[Petermur]

I don't go to so much trouble with transferring to a secondary- I bottle using PET and glass tallies with a teaspoon of sugar in each.

Come bottling day, I line up the bottles on the benchtop and I simply add a rounded teaspoon of raw sugar to each sanitized bottle using a funnel - takes only a few seconds, then I bottle and I've never had a problem.

Cheers.

 

 

[jackgym]

I can't work out what some brewers have against dropping 2 carb drops into 30 PET bottles.

IMHO, the little work involved outweighs the risk of stirring up the trub with bulk priming, or infection by using a separate bulk priming vessel ??

 

 

[Otto Von Blotto]

Because carb drops are very one dimensional. You either get the carbonation level from two drops or half that level if you use one, and that's it. If you're happy with that, that's fine, but bulk priming allows a much more precise control over the carbonation levels for different styles of beer. Most people who switch to bulk priming never go back to carb drops or sugar measuring spoons into individual bottles.

 

If done correctly there's minimal risk of any problems. I've been doing it for 4 years using the transfer to bottling bucket method and have had no issues whatsoever. I still use this method for priming the excess beer after kegging when the batch is big enough to bother with any bottles. In this instance I take the surplus beer out of the FV first so that any gunk and crap ends up in a bottle rather than in the keg.

 

A minor advantage of not using carb drops, either by bulk priming or individually priming, is that it is a fair bit cheaper. I can prime about 6 batches worth for the cost of one pack of carb drops.

[cookie49]

Jackgym,

And another reason, which for me is particularly pertinent, I can use several different sized bottles for bottling and don't have to try and split drops into a myriad of different sizes! I have a variety of bottles as well as the PET ones, ranging from 300-600mls.

Cookie

[BlackSands]

As I suggested I would, I primed a batch a while back in the FV - 150g dissolved in water and then VERY VERY gently stirred at surface level, and based on advice then left it to 'mix n mingle' for 30-40 odd minutes. The bottles appear to be evenly primed so the process clearly worked. However, waiting the 30 mins to be sure the sugar solution was fully mixed is actually quite a bit longer than the time it takes to siphon off into a bottling container... so really, there's certainly nothing to be gained time-wise.

[Otto Von Blotto]

That time spent waiting around for it is one of the reasons I never bothered bulk priming in the primary fermenter. Was bad enough having to bottle it at all, let alone prolong the agony...

[BlackSands]

That time spent waiting around for it is one of the reasons I never bothered bulk priming in the primary fermenter. Was bad enough having to bottle it at all' date=' let alone prolong the agony... [img']lol[/img]

 

Well, I guess to be fair, I did use part of that time for bottle sanitising so it wasn't a complete waste... though it only takes me 10-15 minutes-ish to sanistise 25-30 bottles.

 

[phil2803]

Because if you don't stir it in then the sugar solution is not evenly mixed through the 23 litres of beer (not water). You'll end up with uneven carbonation across the batch. It's nothing to do with the yeast fermenting or not' date=' it's just to get the priming solution as evenly mixed through the entire batch as possible. Yes the solution itself will stay dissolved, but it's a bit like pouring water in to a pint glass and adding the cordial second. It doesn't evenly mix through it straight away.[/quote']

 

No cordial here but I did try it with fruit juice last night (after the power came back on!!!) and your right of course, it sinks to the bottom and takes ages to mix, even this morning there was a clear layer at the top. I tried the same experiment with a bit of beer from the fermenter and the same, sinks to the bottom. Then I tried with beer and sugar in my high speed blender until it got quite hot and frothy. It doesn't sink quickly but sits on the top and sinks slowly and seems to mix evenly, going by the colour anyway.