Bulk Priming

[Big Bad Burley]

Has anyone tried using the Brewprint Priming pouches to bulk prime a brew prior to bottling? I only recently bought a Droid and grabbed some Brewprints to try it out and rather than waste the priming pouches i thought i could use them to bulk prime, just wondering if anyone has done this?

Cheers

[Captain 3 Droids]

On 14/12/2018 at 10:28 AM, Big Bad Burley said:

Has anyone tried using the Brewprint Priming pouches to bulk prime a brew prior to bottling? I only recently bought a Droid and grabbed some Brewprints to try it out and rather than waste the priming pouches i thought i could use them to bulk prime, just wondering if anyone has done this?

Cheers

Hi BBB, sadly no one replied however activity here now.

Did you try it out? If so how did it turn out?  I would suspect ok as bulk priming in a secondary fermentation container often done particularly with all grain brews.

Cheers Mark.

[Big Bad Burley]

 

15 minutes ago, Barrelboy said:

Hi BBB, sadly no one replied however activity here now.

Did you try it out? If so how did it turn out?  I would suspect ok as bulk priming in a secondary fermentation container often done particularly with all grain brews.

Cheers Mark.

Hi Mark

I didn't try it on the advice of Liam. He said that that the priming pouch would need to be stirred in and that would risk unsettling the yeast cake and if it was just left to settle in the droid it would likely drop to the bottom, making carbonation uneven, and as a result he didn't recommend using them.

He did however suggest that if you have some they make good sugar syrups for cocktails so i used mine for some rather nice whiskey sours and stopped buying the prints.

Hugh

[Captain 3 Droids]

1 hour ago, Big Bad Burley said:

 

Hi Mark

I didn't try it on the advice of Liam. He said that that the priming pouch would need to be stirred in and that would risk unsettling the yeast cake and if it was just left to settle in the droid it would likely drop to the bottom, making carbonation uneven, and as a result he didn't recommend using them.

He did however suggest that if you have some they make good sugar syrups for cocktails so i used mine for some rather nice whiskey sours and stopped buying the prints.

Hugh

Thanks Hugh for the response. Liam was correct, forgot about the yeast cake at the bottom. Do you brew regularly and are you only using Brewprints (for the cocktail sugar 😋) or mixing the brewart ingredients with other ingredients?

[Big Bad Burley]

13 minutes ago, Barrelboy said:

Thanks Hugh for the response. Liam was correct, forgot about the yeast cake at the bottom. Do you brew regularly and are you only using Brewprints (for the cocktail sugar 😋) or mixing the brewart ingredients with other ingredients?

I had been a sporadic home brewer for years prior to buying a droid but have since brewed a little more frequently, testament to how easy the system is and how good the beers are i guess. I bought a couple of Brewprints early to try the system but haven't used them since as (a) i bottle so don't need the priming pouches and (b) its cheaper to buy other stuff separately, either from Brewart or the home brew store. I have done brews using all Brewart ingredients through to all grain brews where i have used no Brewart ingredients in the droid. Generally though I use the Elements and Enhancers as the base for the recipe but add speciality grains and hop pellets as it provides a good balance of improving the beers greatly whilst not being too tricky or time consuming. I also generally brew hop heavy beers and have found the hop oils from brewart to not have the impact i want.

[Jason Billue]

My thought on bulk priming. Is it possible to bottle from the brewflo? If yes cant we use the liquid priming sugar as directed with the Brewflo but instead of starting the carbonation process In the keg Immediately put the keg in the Brewflo and bottle from that?

 

I get my system on Monday. I'm super excited to get back to brewing. 

[Captain 3 Droids]

45 minutes ago, Jason Billue said:

My thought on bulk priming. Is it possible to bottle from the brewflo? If yes cant we use the liquid priming sugar as directed with the Brewflo but instead of starting the carbonation process In the keg Immediately put the keg in the Brewflo and bottle from that?

 

I get my system on Monday. I'm super excited to get back to brewing. 

Hi Jason, Mark here and welcome to the forum. A lot of positive information and help here plus some good healthy banter. You will certainly love the droid and BrewArt ingredients, many of which have been reviewed on here.

Yes you could bottle from the Brewflo as you suggest but why not from the droid? You could use carbonation drops for the bottles or dextrose, would be a lot easier.

Under the main thread “Brewprint Customisation” there is a thread post on using dextrose.

Ps welcome back to brewing any particular styles?

 

Edited May 3, 2020 by Barrelboy

[Rob Courtney]

Yep, just double handling putting it into the keg, putting keg in flo and then drawing bottles from there. Much easier to put carb drops in as suggested. If that means you have liquid primer left over, it will come in handy at some point, it won't get wasted

[Jason Billue]

I was also thinking if one was to use the BrewFlo for bulk kegnig they could do a few bottles for friends and keep the rest on tap for the Home Brew Master, family and friends who come to visit. But like Rob said, the double handling could be a problem when it comes to cleaning and such. 

I like oat stouts the most, I am looking for a recipe clone of "Bellhavens" Scottish Oat Stout or somthing with a noticeable Oat flavor 

[Captain 3 Droids]

2 hours ago, Jason Billue said:

I was also thinking if one was to use the BrewFlo for bulk kegnig they could do a few bottles for friends and keep the rest on tap for the Home Brew Master, family and friends who come to visit. But like Rob said, the double handling could be a problem when it comes to cleaning and such. 

I like oat stouts the most, I am looking for a recipe clone of "Bellhavens" Scottish Oat Stout or somthing with a noticeable Oat flavor 

With respect to an oat stout recipe what Is your level of brewing, Set up for all grain? Set up for biab (brew in a bag) or just kits? If just a kit recipe you will need to steep/boil the oats.

[Jason Billue]

Sorry for the late response, For some reason I could not get in.  Fixed now. 

I have a few years experience in all grain brewing. Never did BIAB. I have made/modified recipes. In my set up for brewing I have a failed part. Unfortunately, I cant get the part until they all go back to work. Until then I am on hold. 

Thanks for the Idea about steeping. I will give it a try.    

[Captain 3 Droids]

18 minutes ago, Jason Billue said:

Sorry for the late response, For some reason I could not get in.  Fixed now. 

I have a few years experience in all grain brewing. Never did BIAB. I have made/modified recipes. In my set up for brewing I have a failed part. Unfortunately, I cant get the part until they all go back to work. Until then I am on hold. 

Thanks for the Idea about steeping. I will give it a try.    

To steep the oats, the easiest way is to  place them in a large sanitised grain or hop bag and put into water that has just come to the boil (turned off) and leave with lid on for about an hour. Remove the bag after rinsing through about a litre of water to get more “goodies” out and squeeze the bag. Then bring the liquid back up to the boil and boil for about 5 minutes to kill off any impurities.

If no bag you can add the oats direct in the water, but you will have to strain the liquid into another vessel.

[Jim H]

So has nobody tried using the keg primers for bottling? I had the individual bottle primer drops that came with the plastic bottles for a couple batches. For a couple other batches I racked to another container and added sugar boiled in water, as I have always done with regular home brew batches for years.
Can't the keg primers just be boiled down in a little water and used like regular priming sugar for bottling? I hate to waste them.
I assume BrewArt wants us to buy their expensive keg system, but why not give the option for bottle tabs, even if they charge a buck or two more? Better than paying $3-4 for the bottle tabs AND throwing out the keg primers. 
I guess I'll try it and see how it comes out. Transferring from the Droid to another container before bottling only takes a few extra minutes. if time is money the individual drop, or just a bit of sugar in each bottle, would be the way to go. But I just don't like wasting stuff.

[Steve Gyldenvand]

Hi Jim, and welcome to the community. I also strictly bottle my brews. I simply don't have the space for a keg system, and when drinking, we tend to change up our beers throughout a session, so bottles just work well for us.

One thing I learned early on is to order ingredients rather than the complete brewprints. It's easy enough to do, just make a note of everything that comes in the brewprint, then jump over to the ingredients and supplies pages to grab what you need. Obviously, this lets you avoid paying for the keg primers, and it's overall a more economical way to stock up. Additionally, this approach lends itself readily to experimentation with the basic brewprint recipes.

Slainte!

[Mike A]

7 hours ago, Jim H said:

Can't the keg primers just be boiled down in a little water and used like regular priming sugar for bottling?

I suspect so, but I would recommend you use a sugar calculator, ensure you get your proportions correct.  Using water vs just getting a mortar & pestle out and then measuring the dry weight, I'll leave that math to you.  However this site has a good online calculator for you to use: https://www.brewersfriend.com/beer-priming-calculator/

As Steve says, don't order the full brewprints and save a few $$. I've starting using stellar-san & Stellar Clean for things like washing, de-labeling and sanitising my bottles, so once you have that you also don't need the tabs you get in the prints as well.

[Jim H]

On 4/12/2023 at 11:50 AM, Steve Gyldenvand said:

One thing I learned early on is to order ingredients rather than the complete brewprints. It's easy enough to do, just make a note of everything that comes in the brewprint, then jump over to the ingredients and supplies pages to grab what you need. Obviously, this lets you avoid paying for the keg primers, and it's overall a more economical way to stock up. Additionally, this approach lends itself readily to experimentation with the basic brewprint recipes.

Thanks! I hadn't even thought to check the prices. I just assumed it was like ordering a pizza, where a Supreme costs $20, but building your own Supreme with the same toppings is $25.

[Jim H]

On 4/12/2023 at 12:43 PM, Mike A said:

I suspect so, but I would recommend you use a sugar calculator, ensure you get your proportions correct.  Using water vs just getting a mortar & pestle out and then measuring the dry weight, I'll leave that math to you.  However this site has a good online calculator for you to use: https://www.brewersfriend.com/beer-priming-calculator/

As Steve says, don't order the full brewprints and save a few $$. I've starting using stellar-san & Stellar Clean for things like washing, de-labeling and sanitising my bottles, so once you have that you also don't need the tabs you get in the prints as well.

Thanks! I've brewed beer for a long time, so I know quite a bit about sugar levels, but that calculator is handy and has a few things I've been meaning to try but never have. The sanitizing tabs are another things I don't need. I have plenty of other sanitizers and cleansers, and mine don't claim they need 2 hours of sitting there to sanitize.
I didn't think of it until just now, but I suppose I could just boil down the few keg primers I have and add them to some batch of cheap experimental beer. I've made plenty of beers with added sucrose and glucose. I just hate wasting any kind of "food."

[Mike A]

9 hours ago, Jim H said:

I just hate wasting any kind of "food."

Food and almost any kind of bag (i'm weird) I totally agree with you.  Always wonder if I could have done something more with most stuff I throw out.

Glad the calculator helped, that site it good, I've been looking at the 2 forced carbonation tools on there as well (Chart & calc).  Not knowledgeable enough yet for the other tools on there right now.