How much did you dilute the priming sugar? I’m figuring on like 320-ish grams for 5 gallons, IIRC. I usually use 3 cups of water, but I’m worried about it dispersing evenly. Maybe 6 cups?
Well Drew, I should’ve taken your advice. I primed the bottles individually, by weight. It was kind of a PITA. The beer was probably about 50* when I bottled it. I swirled the fresh yeast around as much as I could, but when I was done bottling I found quite a bit of yeast-looking stuff at the bottom of the bucket. Hopefully most of that was the GoFerm. I hope enough yeast made it into the bottles, and I didn’t eff the whole batch up.
I have 10 more gallons I’ll be bottling later this week. Next time I’ll let those come up to room temp so my fresh yeast doesn’t just flocc out, and I’ll be priming as usual, not by bottle.
I’m going to frame the first part of that response. No one ever says that to me! 
Drew - Maybe I missed it on your site, but how much spice did you use in your dosage? I’m planning on using some Sauvingnon Blanc for the dosage liquor, and I was thinking coriander might pair well with that. Any idea how much I should use and how long I should let it steep? How did you feel about the sugar level when you did your 10% sugar dosage?
Update in case anyone tries this in the future:
First 5 gallons, where I bottle-primed and added 1 packet of yeast is carbing, but pretty unevenly. Maybe half the bottles are close to fully carbed, and the other half still have a ways to go.
The 10 gallons I bottled after that, I followed the bottle priming dosage instructions for the yeast (20g/Hl or 10g/5gal, IIRC), and I batch-primed. Every three or four bottles I filled, I stirred the bottling bucket with a long spoon to rouse the yeast and keep the sugar solution mixed evenly. Those have all carbed up pretty well and evenly.
A few of the first batch I bottled have started leaking very slowly at the crown. I used my bench capper to try to pinch the crown on, and that’s worked for some of them, but a few I couldn’t get to seal.
Any thoughts on the leaky bottles? I thought about chilling them and riddling, but I’m worried about turning the bottles upside down if they’re leaking. I think once they’re chilled, though, the pressure will be a lot lower so maybe they won’t leak?
The bottle priming vs. batch priming definitely jibes with my experience.
On the leaky bottle front, I don’t think you’re going to be able to riddle those, sadly. Call em keller Bruts.
Mind if I hijack the post to backup a step???
Why go through all the trouble (I didn’t really get it from the presentation .pdf)? Can you not achieve the level of carbonation through traditional bottle conditioning?
Sadly, I’ve had to drink the leaky bottles. Terrible, really.
I think it’s more that at high carbonation levels, any “junk” in the bottles doesn’t stay nice and compact at the bottom of the bottle, like in normal beers.
Oh, and Drew mentioned “nucleation sites from hell.” The bits of junk make the beer much foamier than it should be.
I had a bottle that was only half-full because I ran out of beer. I opened it today, and enough CO2 blew out it frosted the neck of the bottle. 5 volumes is really quite a lot of CO2. I felt kinda silly wearing goggles rousing the yeast in the bottles, but that’s probably a good idea. If I had some really heavy elbow-length gloves, I’d probably be wearing those too.
not to mention a full suit of plate armor. those champagne style bottles are hefty! I wouldn’t want a shard of that sticking in my chest.
Yeah, you’re probably right. I know the local paramedic through the volunteer fire district, and I wouldn’t really want to rely on him in a life-threatening situation.
I always emphasize safety goggles at least. This pic usually drives home the idea.
Of course, that doesn’t really save you from other accidents:
Speaking of bottle bombs, on the Maltose Falcons page, there is a picture of a bunch of the bottles all balancing precariously on their crown in a fridge. I strongly suggest that anyone trying this not balance the bottles this way.
I was placing them on their crowns in a tote bin to riddle them today. One of them slipped and knocked three others down, and all of their crowns blew off and sprayed beer everywhere. The tote caught most of the beer, but it was a PITA to take all the bottles out and clean them.
I ended up taking out the bottle dividers from the cardboard cases they came in, and placing those in the totes, then filling the totes with upside-down bottles. This way they shouldn’t fall down.
All told, I’m down 11 bottles, due to the mishap today plus the ones that’ve sprung leaks. I have 5 more that leaked that I sealed back up, but I’m not sure if they’re going to hold. If I don’t lose any more, I should have 54 bottles when all is said and done.
5 of the leaking bottles went into my fermentation chamber (58*) upside down for riddling. They have yet to start leaking again, but I’m keeping my fingers crossed.
I had two more start leaking at room temp, but by the time I noticed they had lost 1/5 of their volume. I’m just going to chill and drink those. The yeast has dropped really quickly, but there are little bits of dark cloudy junk that’s taking longer to settle out. Hopefully once I can get the fermentors out of my freezer, the cold will help them riddle faster.
I think at 5 volumes, 75-80* is just too hot to store these bottles safely. I’m not sure what kind of PSI 5 volumes puts on the crowns at 80*, but it’s apparently too much for some.
I disgorged yesterday. About The (now) 8 bottles total with a small leak: I chilled them, they ended up riddling and disgorging fine.
I lost six bottles due to improper freezing of the crown. The slug wasn’t solid, and there was a tiny hole in the center of the plug so the pressure couldn’t push the plug out all the way. I was using a brine of Everclear (95%) and dry ice. I couldn’t get the plug to form properly with the brine. By accident, I added a large chunk of dry ice, and the bottle ended up resting on top of the ice, and not in the brine. The plug froze perfectly, and was just the right size.
Using my timer, I figured out that resting the crown directly on the dry ice for 3min froze the plug properly and consistently.
All told, I ended up with 49 bottles, or 36.75L. I also ended up with about fifteen or so bottles that were messed up but still drinkable, along the way. I started with three batches of 20L, so if you don’t know what you’re doing, be prepared for quite a bit of racking/bottling loss.
I’ve really enjoyed following along this thread and reading about Drew’s clubs’ experiments with this method.
Nateo - how long should these cellar before you’re ready to drink?
I have no idea! My friend’s wedding is this weekend, so it’ll have to be a week. Now, if you can let it set longer, that’ll be better. I’m not sure how long it’ll take for the dosage to integrate with the base beer, but we’ll definitely be drinking some this weekend so I’ll let you know when I get back in town. I’m taking half for the wedding, and saving the other half.
I also got quite a bit of powdery junk in the younger saison, so I’d recommend doing a loooong secondary at cold temps if possible. I used gelatin and cold crashed for a week on both batches, and I also just let the first saison/mead hybrid I made sit at room temp in a carboy for a couple months.
A guy from the homebrew club said it might be oak dust. IIRC I used ~2oz of oak chips per 5 gallon in both batches.
Also, FYI, I used my Super Agata-type bench capper to insert the stoppers. No hammer needed like when Drew did his. I unscrewed the bell and took out the magnet, then screwed the bell back on. It worked really well, so I’d suggest inserting the stoppers that way if you have a bench capper.
Bah! Hammer’s more fun (and for the record - not hammer - rubber mallet - I’m not completely f’d in the head!)
Reviving an old thread…
My brother is making a champagne-like cider, and he found this:
Thoughts? Think this is a viable alternative to the ‘Methode’?