Priming bottles with glucose/sugar solution

[Garth]

I did away the bottling bucket and 'little bottler' years ago. I bottle straight from the cornie with gas and purge the bottles with CO2 as well, so I cannot add sugar/glucose to anywhere apart from the bottle, so syringing seemed the way to go.

I use one of these, well easy and quick....

...and by the results it worked. Me and my apprentice bottled 90 bottles of Old Pec clone in about an hour and a bit and that was setup and clean down, the squirt-fill squirt-fill thing really was quick.....result... Ta Dave-O

Most things to do with making beer could be described as a 'faff', but I don't brew my own to save time, I enjoy it, I enjoy 'faffing' around, if I couldn't be bothered with the 'faff' I'd go straight the offy, or Sainsburys/Tosco and buy my bottles there to drink at home.

I've often thought things like adding pure oxygen for fermenation is a unnecessary 'faff', but some do it, so it must work for them.

[Fallen]

Thinking about the beer gun option myself.

When you bottle straight from the cornie I thought the beer would be carbonated? If so, why do you need to add priming sugar? Have I missed something?

[Big G]

I batch prime in my cornie after transfering from my conditioner, I then attach my beer gun, purg the tank an dispnse into my bottles.

seems like whatever suits them

[critch]

if your throwing sugar in a bottle, a 2.5ml medicine spoons not too far off the size of a beatson clark 500ml bottle and doesnt cost owt

i now rack into 600l containers(with a sugar solution in it) and do a full pallets of bottles at a time. so sugaring 1160 bottles would be a bit of a faff

[Fallen]

Post by Big G » Wed Aug 24, 2011 10:19 am
I batch prime in my cornie after transfering from my conditioner, I then attach my beer gun, purg the tank an dispnse into my bottles.

seems like whatever suits them

I'm definitely missing something. I understand that you could transfer directly from the primary to the cornie then bottle immediately from the cornie under pressure and using a beer gun. That makes perfect sense and you would need priming sugar and conditioning time in the bottle.

What I'm not clear on is whether you could use a cornie as a conditioning tank, leave the beer to condition (at least 2 weeks) then bottle when it is fully carbonated and conditioned. The plan being, only to bottle a few at a time when you're going to friends, parties etc. If the bottles still need priming and conditioning after transfer from the cornie, this doesn't seem like a sensible option.

What do you reckon?

[Big G]

What I'm not clear on is whether you could use a cornie as a conditioning tank, leave the beer to condition (at least 2 weeks) then bottle when it is fully carbonated and conditioned. The plan being, only to bottle a few at a time when you're going to friends, parties etc. If the bottles still need priming and conditioning after transfer from the cornie, this doesn't seem like a sensible option.

Im still yet to master the art of my beer gun while dispensing my forced carbonated beer (I wasted 5L of my Wheat the other day ) The bottles wouldnt need any conditioning if I forced carb'd the beer. I think I need to invest in a twin head co2 regulator.

I use my corny at the mo just to bottle along with the gun. Rack off into corny from a Condition vessel along with my priming sugar.....good shake.....pumped up to 5psi an fill my bottles from that. This is not the ideal option & not the true function of the beer gun, although I shall keep trying!

[Scotty]

I'm definitely missing something. I understand that you could transfer directly from the primary to the cornie then bottle immediately from the cornie under pressure and using a beer gun. That makes perfect sense and you would need priming sugar and conditioning time in the bottle.

What I'm not clear on is whether you could use a cornie as a conditioning tank, leave the beer to condition (at least 2 weeks) then bottle when it is fully carbonated and conditioned. The plan being, only to bottle a few at a time when you're going to friends, parties etc. If the bottles still need priming and conditioning after transfer from the cornie, this doesn't seem like a sensible option.

What do you reckon?

This could work but it isn't without its problems. Carbonated beer likes to foam pretty much uncontrollably so you would need provisions to cool both kegs and bottles to a low as temperature as possible to help prevent foaming. By the time it has conditioned and dropped bright in the keg, you could have bottle-conditioned your brew.

I use my cornies for two different reasons. One to store and serve (mainly bitters and low-aroma beers as the aroma disappears quickly in cornies), and secondly as a conditioning tank before bottling. I rack the beer into the keg and gas to 20psi to seal the lid and don't add anymore CO2. I then leave it to condition for about a week at 5c to allow a lot of the yeast to drop out before bottling. Because the beer has very little carbonation, I don't need to chill the bottles.
As with Garth, I also use a beer gun and find it a breeze.

[Garth]

It's basically what Scotty has said. If you want to bottle carbonated beer from a cornie, you need everything that touches the beer really really cold. This includes the tube the beer is flowing along from the cornie. I don't think you could instantly force carb it then bottle it anyway, it would take a while for the liquid to absorb the gas, again, the lower the temperature the better.

If you have a bit of forethought you can still take decent, carbonated beer to friends, then again who just takes a few....

better still, do what I sometimes do and deliver the cornie to the friends earlier in the day giving it time to settle...

[Fallen]

Cheers Garth/Scotty. I'll probably stick to the bottling bin for the time being and ask nicely for a beer gun from Santa!