Bulk Priming - Calculating wort volume before racking to priming vessel?

[Khellendros13]

Hi guys,

 

Trying to wrap my head around bulk priming.

 

How do you calculate how much wort you will have in the priming vessel, so you can accurately measure out the sugars?

 

If the FV measures 20L, and I rack to my priming vessel, wont that come in at closer to 19.5L or less, depending on the size of the yeast cake?

 

2nd to this, I was planning on 6gms per litre for my IPA - 8gms per litre is a tad high I am finding.

 

I used caster sugar for my fruit salad ale and quite happy with that compared to the carb drops. Would dextrose leave less residual sweetness?

[Reuben]

I calculate for slightly less than is in the fermentation vessel depending on how much gunk is at the bottom.

 

I find priming at about 6 grams per litre will give you some good carbonation for something like an IPA.

 

I just use dextrose into a small amount of boiling water and leave it to cool for 10 mins, then rack onto the solution and gently swirl the bottling bucket. Seems to do the trick.

 

This website has a pretty handy priming calculator...

http://www.brewersfriend.com/beer-priming-calculator/

 

Good luck! [biggrin]

[Otto Von Blotto]

Dextrose won't leave any residual sweetness.

 

Anyway, I don't know what others do but I just work out my priming sugar based off how much beer is in the primary. e.g. if it sitting at the 25 litre mark then I'll work out my priming sugar based off 25 litres. But in saying that I'm too lazy to bother working out how much I lose to trub and all that; I haven't had any problems so far though. I think given the volume of a batch it would make minimal difference whether you account for the litre or whatever you lose to trub. Now I have to work it out to satisfy my curiosity. [lol]

 

Let's say you've got 20L you want to prime at 6g/L. This would give you 120g priming sugar (we'll use dextrose).

 

Using 120g:

at 19.5L it works out at 6.15g/L

at 19L it works out at 6.32g/L

 

On my 25L batches, 150g is required for the 6g/L ratio

 

Using 150g:

at 24.5 it works out at 6.12g/L

at 24 it works out at 6.25g/L

 

So really at the end of the day I don't see much point in worrying about trub losses when working out priming sugar, unless you're doing batches of 3 litres or something. As you can see, the difference in the actual rate is pretty minimal and probably unnoticeable in the finished beer. [biggrin]

[Khellendros13]

Thanks guys :)

 

I will just work it out at the FV levels then, and prime with dextrose. 6gms per litre it is!

 

My original coopers FV has the lid stuck on, I put it on too tight from the last brew. I might just cut it off and use that for priming.

[Hairy]

This thread may help:

 

Coopers - Lid Stuck On

[Khellendros13]

This thread may help:

 

Coopers - Lid Stuck On

 

Inspired by that thread, I popped the lid in a vice and cranked it open haha. Motueka Slam here I come on Saturday.