Method advice needed - Priming beer for bottle conditioning & bottling

[GallowsHillBrew]

We are in the process of planning a substantial system upgrade. Looks like we will running 10-15BBL fermenters to begin with.

As far as possible I would like to limit the number of times the beer is transferred. My idea is the following: Ferment in cylindro-conicals; cold crash when fermentation is done & drop spent yeast / trub; mix in priming sugar dissolved in some of the green beer, blend into the tank; drive with CO2 to bottle.


My questions are:
What is the best process for getting the priming liquid into the tank, ensuring proper mixing with as little chance as possible for mixing in oxygen and/or infection?
What bottling equipment is best suited for almost flat beer, driven under CO2 for bottling?

Thanks in advance for the help


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[Azbrewdude]

Hop on

Id like to hop on this thread and get this info too.

[ChristianSA]

We are in the process of planning a substantial system upgrade. Looks like we will running 10-15BBL fermenters to begin with.

As far as possible I would like to limit the number of times the beer is transferred. My idea is the following: Ferment in cylindro-conicals; cold crash when fermentation is done & drop spent yeast / trub; mix in priming sugar dissolved in some of the green beer, blend into the tank; drive with CO2 to bottle.


My questions are:
What is the best process for getting the priming liquid into the tank, ensuring proper mixing with as little chance as possible for mixing in oxygen and/or infection?
What bottling equipment is best suited for almost flat beer, driven under CO2 for bottling?

Thanks in advance for the help


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Back in the day, we would just boil sugar and water for a few minutes to dissolve and sterilize, climb up to the top-manway of the bottling tank with the pot of hot sugar water. Blow Co2 into the bottom of the tank to create positive pressure before opening the top manway, pour in the sugar water and priming yeast. Wait another minute and so before closing the tank and then press the contents of the tank into the bottling machine with more Co2.

It worked and it produced beer with years of shelf life and perfect carbonation, but my older and more safety-conscious self, would probably shoot the hot sugar solution into the tank from a keg.

As for bottling device the Vigo gravity filler is cheap and sanitary. It is small enough that you can boil the entire thing before use to make sure it is sanitary and it is easy to take apart with very few non-steel parts, that can be replaced often.

-Christian