Priming

Carbonation

Carbonating Craft Beer

After a period of maturation and clarification, it's time to carbonate the craft beer .

Beer carbonation can be done in different ways, with Priming and Forced Carbonation being the two most used methods in home brewing.

Priming or Natural Carbonation basically consists of adding an extra amount of fermentable sugars to the beer so that the residual yeasts start a re-fermentation in the bottle, generating CO2 and the consequent carbonation of the beer. Forced carbonation is the application of CO2 directly to the bottled beer.

Because priming is one of the simplest and cheapest methods, in this post I will teach you how to correctly priming craft beer.

What sugar can I use in priming?

For priming you can use various types of sugars, such as: refined sugar, brown sugar, corn syrup, malt extract, etc.

Since sugarcane sugar has an exceptional fermentability, reaching almost 100% of its extract, it is the most used to make the solution called invert sugar or priming.

How to calculate the amount of sugar for priming?

If you're just starting out, it's important to consider simplifying this process, using a range between 4-8 grams of sugar per liter, depending on your goals:

Low Carbonation Style: 4g of sugar per litre;

Medium Carbonation Style: 5-6g/l;

Style with High Carbonation: 7-8g/l.

It is worth mentioning that with priming the alcohol content tends to increase a little, on average approximately +0.2% of the volume.

Now, if you want to calculate the ideal amount of sugars for priming your beer, it is interesting to note some essential points, such as taking into account the residual amount of saturated CO2 in the beer, as well as the appropriate volume of CO2 for each style.

Estimating the volume of saturated CO2

There are several calculations and graphs to estimate this value, however, fermentation and maturation time + temperature can directly influence these values, making it difficult to accurately ensure the amount of residual CO2.

But for the sake of study:

To read this table you will need to take into account the highest fermentation temperature and not the temperature of the beer when it is bottled. For example, if during fermentation you raised the temperature to 22ºC and then lowered the temperature during clarification to close to 4ºC, for this calculation you will have to take into account 22ºC, that is, the dissolved volume of CO2 will be approximately 0 .83.

The CO2 volume measure represents that each liter of beer has that certain volume of dissolved CO2, for example in the red temperature range we have that for each liter of beer there is (under normal atmospheric conditions and beer at 0°C) 1, 04 liters of dissolved CO2.

Another important point when calculating the amount of sugars for priming is the appropriate volume of CO2 for each style, as shown in the table below:

That's because for each style of beer we find an adequate level of carbonation .

The graph at the right side is quite interesting to estimate the amount of sugars needed for the carbonation of beer:

To use this graph, simply locate the amount of CO2 that you want to inject into the beer and locate the last approximate temperature range of the fermentation, visualizing at the bottom of the graph the amount of sugars indicated for each liter.

Before we go to the step-by-step guide on how to priming your beer, let me give you some important tips…

Important tips when doing the Priming

– Before bottling, make sure that your beer has completed fermentation. If you have any doubts, check out our article on the Fermentation Process ;

– If you are not absolutely sure what you are doing, do not risk adding an amount above the indicated amount of sugar;

– Use bottles in good condition, without any “cracks”.

Pay attention to the fact that the CO2 generated during the re-fermentation will create a pressure inside the bottle, and that, if we add an excessive amount of sugar at this stage, an amount of CO2 greater than that supported by the bottle will be generated, which can cause an explosion. her.

And this same principle applies to the bottling of a beer that has not finished fermentation, as the residual sugars from the wort + the priming will produce an excessive amount of CO2.

How to Prime

To make the priming or invert sugar is quite simple, just check the desired amount of sugar according to the carbonation indicated for the style you are doing (low, medium or high) in g/L, multiply this value by the amount of beer that will be bottled - in this case it is important to discount the amount that will be in the fermenter/maturator -, measure 3x this value in water and bring to a boil - letting it boil for approximately 5 minutes.

Example:

– 19 liters of beer (excluding the loss of the fermenter/maturator);

– Let's use 7g/L of sugar, so 133g;

– 399ml of water (3x the amount of sugar);

- Simmer for 5 minutes.

There, your invert sugar is ready!

Let it cool a little and then add it to the bucket that will help you in the filling, remembering that it must be properly clean and sanitized. Then start transferring the beer to this bucket.

Ideally, the transfer should be done with the aid of a non-toxic hose attached to the fermenter/maturator faucet that will slowly take the ready beer to the bottom of the other bucket, avoiding possible aeration and future oxidation of your beer.

Page updated

Google Sites

Report abuse