Forgot to prime

[aurelius121ad]

I couldn't remember too clearly if I primed a batch or not - now at the 5 week mark I cracked one open and sure enough it was nearly flat. Any suggestions? I am planning on boiling a bit of water with the proper amount of sugar then put it in a graduated cylinder to make it possible for me to divide it evenly among the bottles. Then uncap, add the proper amount and recap the batch. Anyone see a problem with this?

I don't wanna add sugar directly cuz I cant measure it down to the 2ml per bottle I need accurately (still cant find a scale so I have to work in volume). Also I fear infection from dirty sugar as well as it not dissolving very well.

[Kevnlis]

I know a lot of brewers (myself included) some who have been brewing beer for longer than I have been alive that use white sugar to prime. I have never heard of one getting an infection from the priming sugar.

Also I am not sure anything could survive on raw dry sugar for very long?

I say you use ryan's teaspoon and funnel method! Takes me half as long to bottle since I started that...

[Boonie]

Just do not use dex....it fizzes.......plain sugar only

Cheers

Boonie

[rwh]

The amounts of plain sugar are 1tsp (6g) per longneck or 1/2 tsp (3g) per stubbie.

Now if you want to boil it up and add liquid to your bottles:

* sucrose is 1.6g/mL.
* Let's say you want to prime at 8g/L (see the Essential Guide to Bulk Priming). That's 180g for a 23L batch.
* A 23L batch is 30 longnecks, or 60 stubbies.
* Let's say you boil your 180g (112mL) of sucrose up and want to add it to 30 longnecks. I suggest you go for 300mL of priming solution, so add 188mL water (or slightly more to account for evaporation). Then all you have to do is add 10mL of the priming solution to each longneck, or 5mL for each stubbie.

Of course, I've never done any of this; I just add plain white sugar to prime mine.

[Boonie]

Makes sense....pure mathematics, well done rwh

[aurelius121ad]

I actually found a kitchen scale while walking around a market on my lunch break today. I think I'll try 5g of dry sugar since all my bottles are 600ml as opposed to your 6g per 750ml longnecks. My math conversion worked out to 4.8g but my scale only goes to the nearest gram. I just figured I ought to boil the sugar as it has been opened for a few months and never sealed all too well and to help it dissolve. Guess thats unnecessary!

[KEG]

given that it'll be at least 2 weeks in the bottle, you don't need to worry about it dissolving.

[ryan]

I actually found a kitchen scale while walking around a market on my lunch break today. I think I'll try 5g of dry sugar since all my bottles are 600ml as opposed to your 6g per 750ml longnecks. My math conversion worked out to 4.8g but my scale only goes to the nearest gram. I just figured I ought to boil the sugar as it has been opened for a few months and never sealed all too well and to help it dissolve. Guess thats unnecessary!

What sort of tucker are you on over there?
I had some of those Bung Twat dim sims and they were pretty howyagoin? {frozen tho}
All set for the Olympics?

[aurelius121ad]

Yeah, I suppose 2 weeks will dissolve it all pretty well.

You'll have to forgive me. I am not Australian and I have no idea what "tucker" is... you wanna explain that one for me?

I also only remotely know what dim sum is. All I know is some kind of dumpling thing that is common in southern China, since I am in the north I don't get much southern food. The again you could be making some kind of joke on the Romanization of Cantonese (again southern China) with the "Dung Twat." I dont know... but I wouldnt put it past those Cantonese speakin' folks to have a dish called that. You would be amazed how many times I have explained to Chinese people that "cock" is not best choice in words to use when referring to a male chicken!

Olympics? I am ready for them to be over! Besides not liking sports I am fed up with all the hype, propaganda, increasing restrictions on everything and the increasing presence of the law. However if I do end up watching any of it televised I need to find the broadcast with those hilarious Australian commentators whose names escape me at the moment. That would be the only way to make the events watchable. A few months ago I saw some of the highlight from Athens and was dying laughing... unfortunately we miss out on a lot of good stuff from abroad in the US with the tendency to write off anything from abroad as crap.

[ryan]

Tucker is food.
The dim sims are "Bung Twat" brand
The commentators are probably Roy and H.G.
5gram would be the max. I`d be priming 600ml. bottles with.
Does everyone over their eat rice every day?
That could have something to do with the world shortage predicted
Could you ask them to ease up a bit?

[ryan]

please.

[aurelius121ad]

Way off topic again but yeah, Roy and HG were the guys names. A friend here (and fellow brewer) from Australia showed me some of the commentary ... "Hello boys!" Hahahaha. That joke doesnt seem to get old for some reason.

Wow there is actually a brand of frozen dumplings called Bung Twat! Thats hilariously awful!

Most people do eat rice as a staple here but it does vary some depending on the region. In Northwestern China they eat more noodles than anything else. Here in Beijing there is a pretty good balance off noodles, rice, and steamed bread consumed... but I would assume rice does have a higher percentage of consumption.

Could you ask them to ease up a bit?

Hold on I will ask a coworker.... wait that isnt going to work she needs to eat more she is really short and ultra thin. She's 28 but looks like she's 11! I'll let the next fat guy see know that Australia is concerned about his rice consumption though!

And for the record the tucker is really good here! Cheap and absolutely delicious! Well most of it anyway. The chicken cartilage, lamb kidneys, and 2-3" in diameter crabs aren't exactly some of my favorites.

And back on topic... I'll get around to priming up that batch last night with 4-5g sugar per bottle. The bottles are the only advantage I have brewing in China. All Chinese beer is bottled into refillable 600ml heavy duty glass bottles. I can go to any convenience shop and go buy as many bottles as I want for the deposit of .5RMB per bottle. Finding caps is a problem though,I have been using a lighter to pry caps off in order to save, sterilize, and re use them!

[ryan]

Good to see you`ve got a sense of humour mate. That`s essential here, most without it seem to sink without a trace.
Fancy you knowing about Roy and H.G.`s "Hello Boys" over there. It is a classic
From what I know, the Bung Twat dumplings are a franchise owned by that Thai actress Mai Bung Twat.She did a few B grade movies.
Well, I`d better go and have another beer, don`t forget to give the fat Chinamen a tune up re. the rice consumption.
Happy brewing.
ryan

[rwh]

Finding caps is a problem though,I have been using a lighter to pry caps off in order to save, sterilize, and re use them!

How does that work?

[aurelius121ad]

aurelius121ad wrote:Finding caps is a problem though,I have been using a lighter to pry caps off in order to save, sterilize, and re use them!


How does that work?

I don't know yet, I am still stockpiling used caps. I haven't run out of new caps that I had mailed in from abroad. I don't see why it wouldn't work if they caps aren't all bent up. I tried capping bottle a while back filled with water and a recycled cap... seemed ok. When you pry the cap off with a lighter (or whatever other makeshift lever you have on hand... I find myself using chopsticks pretty often!) the cap comes off looking almost like a new one.

[KEG]

i know what you mean, good for a traveller tallie or something like that, but i really doubt they'll hold any carbonation unfortunately mate

might just need to get caps mailed over - shouldn't be too pricey - or use PET bottles wrapped in newspaper - surely you can get PET soft drink bottles?

[aurelius121ad]

I bottled my first batch in PET Coke bottles. It just doesn't feel right using plastic bottles with beer though. I still have a few batches of beer to put down before I run out of new caps.

I have a coworker knows someone who works for a local beer factory... he called the guy and asked on my behalf about 'acquiring' me 1000 new caps or so. He said he could do it but we'll see if he delivers or not. If not, I know someone else to ask.

But why would reused caps not hold carbonation? It doesn't seem much different from new ones to me - just crimping the metal cap back on a bottle. Maybe i will hold an experiment and see what happens. Fill up a glass bottle with Coke and cap it with a recycled cap then shake the hell out of it and see if it leaks!