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How should I calculate te correct amount of priming sugar (inverted sugar) in liquid form, pretty much like a syrup for bottleling ?
I was thinking in using a cooking syringe to add it to each bottle, but I would like to know a more practical way to do it!
Regards!
Here are the numbers that I use to calculate the amoutn of priming Sugar that I use (based on actual Sugar, not syrup, but that should be easy to convert):
4 grams of Sugar (Sucrose) per liter will produce 1 volume of CO2.
This might need some more explination. You will have notived that not every beer has the same carbonation and you can easily vary this yourself when home brewing. Some guidelines for different styles:
Ales: 1.5 - 2.0 Volumes of CO2 Lagers: 2.0 - 2.5 Volumes of CO2 Stouts: 2.0 - 2.5 Volumes of CO2
So the amount of priming Sugar will depend on the beer that you are producing and the amount of carbonation that you would like to add. It is important to note that fermented beer already holds around 1 volume of CO2, so you will have to subtract that in your calculation.
An example:
To prime a 330 ml bottle of Porter (which is what I am doing right now), looking for 2.5 volumes of CO2 (I want it pretty foamy):
2.5 - 1.0 (the residual CO2) = 1.5 Volumes of CO2 to add
4.0 (grams of Sugar per volume of CO2) x 1.5 Volumes of CO2 to add = 6.0 grams of sugar / liter of beer to add 1.5 volumes of CO2
So for bulk priming 20 liters, one should add 20 x 6.0 = 120 grams of Sugar and for 330 ml bottle priming, one should add 0.33 x 6 = 2 grams / bottle
It is much easier and much more accurate to add 120 grams in one go to the whole batch of beer, over adding 2 grams to each bottle. You might also have bottles of different sizes (I always do), in which case bulk priming has another benefit.
Just the way you do with regular sugar or sugar solutions. Use one of many available carbonation calculators. May be online one if you don't want to install anything. Know how much sugar is in your mixture. If calculator calls for 120g of sugar, and your syrup is 80% sugar, then you need 120g / 80% = 150g - and that's it.
I prefer to mix it in bulk. If you prefer doing it bottle by bottle, just divide result per number of bottles. 150g / 50 bottles = 3g / bottle, simple like that. Tare your electronic scale with empty syringe, suck 3g into it, see how much ml it is. Be careful to inject it without leaving any on bottle's neck, and to let it all drop into your bottle. Mixing in bulk would be much faster.
By the way, consider malt extract, glucose, etc. Inverting sugar requires acids and / or enzymes, I wouldn't trust it not to affect taste of my beer.
I've just done what you described. I'm not an expert, this is just my 4th batch, but after the priming is finished I'll tell you how it worked. I used inverted sugar syrup which I didn't know the % of sugar in it. I estimated how much sugar there was by diluting it (50% warm water/50% syrup) I used warm water to help dilute the syrup. Next, I used my brewing hydrometer and take a reading like the one you make to know how much sugar there is in the wort.
When I knew that I could know how much of this solution I needed to make a priming solution. I did it and then I estimated, not by weight, but by volume, how many ml I needed to add to each bottle. It is easy to find the volume of priming solution to add if you know that a carboy is 5 USGallons=19L and your bottles are 3/4L and 1/3L. Just estimate the sugar per liter you need to use and then multiply this by the fraction of litre there is on each bottle. I'm crossing my fingers not to have my first bottle bomb or flat beer (I almost always under-carbonate).
