Full disclosure…in decades of brewing, bottle conditioning has never been attempted. Not once as our beer gets kegged.
We had an extra gallon of Fest Bier, so rather than dump it, I decided just to bottle it.
Sanitized the bottles and caps, then added 1/2 teaspoon of table sugar to each bottle. Filled the bottles, and then capped.
Shook each bottle to ensure the sugar was fully in solution.
This is a total experiment, just to see what happens.
Can someone with lot’s of experience in this area tell me what to expect? No, the sugar was not boiled in water. Just added straight to the beer. I saw no reason to water down a perfectly good Fest Bier!
Will this be a candidate for the toilet? Or will it be a decent beer?
Next all grain brew will be my 39th, 22 glass bottles (22oz each) are used for each batch.
1 teaspoon sugar is used for each bottle. 39 batches x 22 bottles = 858 bottles.
The sugar is placed in bottle before adding beer. After bottle is sealed, it’s
gently rolled upside down to mix the sugar. Not sure what shaking would do.
Never had an infection, risk would be less than carb tabs in my opinion. If the batch
is infected, sugar is not likely the issue. One batch was over carbed.
It is believed that sub-standard cleaning and sanitizing bottles/caps was the culprit.
Maybe overkill, but I use sanitized nitrile gloves when bottling.
Bottles are conditioned/carbed at 73 degrees for 3 weeks, 3 weeks at 63 degrees,
then 3 days in fridge. Many trial and errors to come up with the aforementioned.
Sugar readily goes into solution on its own rather rapidly and requires no shaking. Shaking induces oxygenation darkening as can be seen in this video.
Thanks for the input. I figure about two weeks to condition. The beer was lightly carbonated already…I guess some C02 got picked up while in the fermenter at 32 F.
Generally no need to sanitize caps unless you know they have encountered a source of potential infection (dropped them in floor). In fact if you get o2 absorbing caps wet it may inhibit their o2 absorbing potential.
Not really any need to shake bottles and when you do you are making any DO pick up worse. The yeast will find the sugar.
There’s no need to boil the sugar either, sugar won’t harbor much in the way of bacteria unless it is wet.
Personally, if I am going to bottle condition and I have kegging equipment I feel it is far better to ad the desired amount of priming solution to the keg, purge with co2 and mix in your flat beer. Then purge again and shake to insure properly mixed, then fill from cobra tap - you can even jam a bottling wand snuggly into the copra tap. If possible purge bottles with co2 before filling
Thanks! So…here is the big question: is 1/2 teaspoon of sugar enough per 12 oz bottle? That is what was added. I did read on various forums anywhere from 1 ts to 1/2 ts was sufficient.
Again, you are adding such a small amount that you are making no noticeable difference in the final product. I guess we all have our quirks that we just can not help ourselves from obsessing over and if it works for you then have at it.
In 5 gallons, it would not be a big deal. But in this case it’s 12 ounces. A six pack. But we always use beer (not water) for our gelatin. Works great. And not diluting the beer. Yep, works for us!
For the last 6 or so bottled batches I have added 1/2 tsp into my 500ml bottles and they have been fine. I always have one plastic PET bottle in the batch so I can give it a squeeze test and gauge where it’s at with regards carbonation.
It also comes down to personal preference.
I prefer normal (subjective) level carbonated beer, others I have known prefer
seltzer like beer. I personally can’t stand seltzer. When first started bottling,
saught advice of many, only to discover my carbonation level
was almost half of theirs. Even when following recommendations found online,
it was way too much carbonation for me. Which made me think, is it personal
preference ?, or there are many out there that don’t know what a good beer
really tastes like.
