Barrel or Bottle?

Customer_Question

I have now completed the primary fermentation and syphoned the beer into the pressure keg. I then added the sugar as per the beer kit instructions – half a teaspoon per pint.
Question 1) Should I have then mixed the keg of beer with the sugar using a long spoon or swirling action, or should I just leave it to ferment itself? and
Question 2) I would like to put some of the beer, say 20 pints, into bottles. When should I be doing this – once it has been in the pressure keg for a few days or should I have done it before adding the sugar, in which case I have left it too late? Many thanks.

HBO_Staff

Hi Richard, it sounds like your beer is coming along nicely. When you syphon the beer from the fermenting vessel into the barrel you add the sugar and then give it a stir, or a bit of a shake, it’s not crucial but will aid the start of the secondary fermentation process. The barrel then ideally needs to be around room temperature for a couple of days before moving it somewhere cooler.
If you put some of the beer into bottles you would generally add the sugar to the individual bottles before then syphoning from the fermenting vessel into the bottles. If you have already syphoned all the beer into the barrel and added the sugar it’s not a problem, you just need to fill the bottles from the barrel without adding any more sugar to the bottles. You need to do this quite soon though. Hope that answers your question, please get in touch if you have any further queries.

seanfisher

Just to clarify on this point.. i also wish to bottle the beer and have just put it in the pressure keg with sugar for a day. should i now transfere it to the bottles?

HBO_Staff

If you have already added the sugar, then you can transfer it to bottles and seal them up. Ideally you would transfer straight from the fermenting vessel into bottles, and not into the barrel in between, as this minimises the amount of air being mixed into the beer/lager, so we recommend to try to transfer into bottles carefully and as soon as possible. Once inside the bottles it will then begin to carbonate itself. It depends on whether or not it has started to carbonate, if it has just been transferred into the keg, then you may be OK, but if it has started to carbonate the keg, you may want to add a little more sugar to each bottle, perhaps half a teaspoon per bottle, to help carbonate the bottles. By transferring it from keg to bottle you are mixing more air in with it, and this should ideally be avoided unless drinking quickly.