How to Bottle Carbonate Homebrew for Fools (Beer, Wine, Cider & Mead) 

I have found perfect bottle priming solution. After 10 years of home brewing, after trying all publicized methods, this works perfectly: Make a simple syrup with equal parts water and white sugar. 1 level teaspoon of syrup per 740ml bottle. Absolutely perfect. This method is virtually free and you will save tons on buying carbonation drops.

Best comment I have heard about trying to rely on the yeast cap - YEAST CAN'T READ!

A round of applause for Garrett! I love it when people are blunt and straight to the point. Telling people "Don't do that, that's stupid". Lol! There is a time to be blunt and to the point and that is when talking bottle bombs. I never had it happen to me, but I came close when my cousin passed out spruce tip beer for Christmas. I popped a top and it overflowed, so I called him alerting him to have everyone he gave them to REFRIGERATE IMMEDIATELY! Unfortunately, one of them blew up in his friend's refrigerator. At least no one was injured. Hey when are we going to see something with dandelion?

Just made a store based apple cider. Did it old school with an empty plastic bottle.First attempt. Definitely took some notes on what to change. Very informative video, thanks.

Perfect timing, I've only just had trouble bottle carbonating for the first time with this last batch

Wow, that’s quite useful tip for our people who new to brewing. I was thinking to do add primming sugar before bottling in my cider as new method while add backsweetin without ruining it.

Great and clear advice. Thanks for this video one of the best I’ve seen on RU-vid

Excellent video. Thank you for the education.

Another method for backsweetening while also carbonating is to have a plastic tester bottle (sanitized Mtn Dew bottle works well) that’s the same size as your glass bottles. The important part is to thoroughly mix your sugar BEFORE bottling to ensure you have the same mixture of sugar throughout, instead of trying to measure per bottle. Test the tightness of the bottle everyday and when it’s around the tightness of what the Mtn Dew would have normally been, pasteurize the bottles in a big pot with an immersion circulator (sous vide) and make sure that the internal bottle temperature gets to 140 degrees Fahrenheit for 20-25 minutes. I like to add an extra bottle to the pot filled with water to the same level of fluid as my cider, mead, or wine, leave the cap off, and use an instant read thermometer to check the temperature of the water in the bottle to be certain it’s at 140 degrees. Happy brewing! And great vid!

Very Informative , as always , Really Enjoyed your Video ! 🍻🥂🍷. 🐯🤠

Good breakdown! Of course measuring for safety is super important but besides that for flavor, one hydromel batch I did where I assumed incorrectly that it had gone dry overcarbonated, and I tested carbonation over the weeks to not get bottle bombs, but having overshot the amount of residual sugar no matter what I did or how long it was in the fridge, opening each bottle would kick up all the sediment making every drink undrinkable levels of yeasty. Measurements are our friends!

Just the video I needed!

Nice tunes 👌

My first batch of mead I accidentally bottle carbonated by doing one month in a bucket, another month in the carboy, and then bottling right after for aging. The mead was just about done with fermentation but wasn't done completely so the CO2 naturally built up and dissolved in the bottle. When it was 8 months old, I opened it up with some friends and had this really nice sparkling tingle effect. Not saying this is a defacto method or reliable. Just sharing a story about a cool little accident that happened.

thank you for your teachings. im gonna put them to use!

Very useful!

Thanks again.

Thank you very much. I'm trying to bottle carbonate hop water with DME and finding reliable info is very hard.

I had a problem with a hydromell carbonation, don’t overlook the temperature, after 10 days I popped a bottle open and it hadn’t carbonate at all because it was stored too cold had to put on a heating mat for two more weeks and they carbonated just fine.

Any advice on dissolving honey so that it incorporates evenly into the beer?

What if you pascherise your mead first then back sweetn with hunny then cabanate

im new to making beer but always made wine and shine . and is it possible to say carbonate 2 gallons of beer using carbonation drops and carbonate the 2 gallons of beer in a sealed 5 gallon bucket with weight on top of lid and tightly rap plasic bag over bucket ? please anyone let me know

You could have experimented the bottle bursting event in a place where it was possible to collect all the glass shards !

i made a applecider it started out at og 1.046 ended up at 1.000 when i bottle it. i first backsweeten it with tablesugar to de sweetnes i like then put in 4grams per litre extra for carbonation. i bottleit and also filled up a plastic sodabottle to keep track on it. my plan is to pastorize it when its done carbonating. now its been going for about a week and there is pretty much no co2 made. i dont know whats wrong

Just primed my first ever brew. Putting them in a cooler just in case

The ABV cap isn't just a yeast stopping point. Yeast slows down before it reaches the cap. A high-alcohol beer will take longer to carbonate because while the alcohol level is not quite high enough to kill the yeast, it is high enough to slow it down.

what should be the S.G. be in the wine for a 75cl champagne bottle prior to corking to make a homemade champagne. I usually prime a bottle with 2 teaspoons of sugar. But I had some wine left over from a gallon demi-john and I have put it in a champagne bottle the S.G. is 1000, is this to high and is it dangerous to bottle with that S.G. hope you can help. kind regards jimmy jones

Firstly I just wanted to say thank you for the awesome videos. They have been very helpful. My first mead has been fermenting for about 5 weeks now, I hydrometer tested it 2 weeks ago and it had dropped from 1.14 to 1.03. I wanted to let it sit a little longer and see if it could get to 1.0 (checking tomorrow after working the weekend). I was going to rack it regardless to a 2nd carboy to get rid of the sediment build up at the bottom, but if it is down to 1.0 I was going to backsweeten with more honey and bottle to get the carbonation. My confusion I guess is since I used a Lavin D-47 which is said to have an alcohol tolerance of 14% I've technically already hit that. Would carbonation begin for secondary fermentation, or are the little party monsters all pooped out? The other thing was, for clarity purposes (not that it bothers me if it's hazy) could I let secondary work in the carboy and then try and carbonate say at 2 months? Sorry if this seems annoying I'm just new to this and your videos have been super helpful.

Great Video!!! I'm really wanting to try and bottle carbonate some of my meads. I'm very new to mead making and brewing in general. I know you say to use the priming sugar calculator, but not really what value to use for the first item; (Desired Volume of CO2 - OR "Choose A Style" (Drop Down List)). The other two values are pretty obvious, but what volume of CO2 should we shoot for to carbonate for 1 gallon of mead? 2, 20 or 200? Or, is there something in the drop down list that is equivalent to mead, wine or cider? I certainly want to use the calculator, but I don't know what value to put in the first requirement and I don't want any bottle bombs. Thanks again for everything your doing, I use your videos a lot and really enjoy making the mead. Just had a great 1st taste test with some family and it was awesome. Thanks again.

Did explostion ar so dangerous ?

Hypothetical, if I just wanted to attempt to make carbonated water.... What gravity of sugar would get what level of co2 if bottled instantly? I have an old root beer extract from the late 70's and on the back it says to mix the extract with 5 gal of water and 5lbs of sugar, then add 1.5 teaspoons of active yeast, bottle instantly and wait 10 days to chill then serve..... all it says. I know a lb of sugar into a gal of water is around 1.045 gravity and am a bit scared to fill 5 gallons up in my flip top bottles.... I don't really want it to be alcoholic or I would just ferment it till dry then back sweeten and prime but I do want to try this out. Don't think there is enough room in fridge for 5 gallons of bottles to cold crash and stop ferment and 5 gallons is a lot to drink and a week. Lol I'm thinking maybe if I can figure out the proper sugar gravity to carbonate with I can then just sweeten with unfermentable sugars to taste and not worry about explosions... Thanks for your time and any info helps.

Hey I was wondering, what if you put mead into a soda stream and carbonated it that way, what would happen? Could you then have carbonated mead if you carefully transferred it to your bottle from there?

Hello. Yesterday i just made my first mead. Now its fermenting pretty good, the mead yeast i used is doing its job nicely i guess. But, as this is my first try ever to make a homemade alcoholic drink, I did not measured the gravity. I was wondering is it possible to measure it now, approximately 24 hours later? And also, your channel - very helpful. I learned a lot about a lot of stuff. Thank you for what you are doing. Greetings from Bulgaria!

Straight up

This is perfect timing, I'm planning on bottle carbonating soon for the first time with some ciders. Is there any way to backsweeten and carbonate using the pasteurization method, or would I have to use a non-fermentable if I want them sweet?

I have tablets that I was going use in a cider. Could I add sugar to back sweeten and pasteurize my bottles once I’m getting close to the carbonation level I want?

Would fermaid o be a good thing to add to encourage the yeast while carbonating?

How long do you have after a fermentation is still before you have to add sugar for carbonation? At some point, the yeast will no longer be active, right? Can you rack a mead a couple times to clear and then bottle carbonate? Or should you bottle immediately to carbonate rather than racking?

So if I use that calculator accurately (after fermentation has fully stopped) I can let the priming sugar ferment out without checking the bottles and releasing pressure? Should I use a plastic bottle just to make sure? I'm back sweetening with erythritol.

Dumb question. I have had people say to use snap caps because the gasket will fail before a mistake carbonating blows the bottle. Others have said the exact opposite is true, yet say crimp caps are safe like this. Any thoughts?

I want my mead or sparkling wine clear. How do you clear it and leave yeast to carbonate?

How important is it to get an accurate volume? My final volume will be less than 1 gallon, is it better to round up or down when inputting the volume value into the calculator?

Any advice on back sweetening and priming a cider with frozen Apple juice that has 28 g of sugar per container. Made a 5 gallon batch of cranberry Apple hard cider and a buddy of mine is telling me to back sweeten it With one can a frozen juice per gallon of cider. His thinking is 2 birds with one stone getting the concentrated Apple flavor and the premium sugar to carbonate.

Would Dextrose fall under the Table Sugar category? I noticed it on your list, but it is not listed on the Priming Sugar Calculator on the Brewer's Friend website.

Anyone have recommendations on non fermentable sugars that don't taste weird? I hate the "diet" taste. Trying my first carbonated cider and backsweetening at the same time... going pretty sketchy so far so I'd like to avoid that in the future.

Thank you for this. Could we get a keg to bottle vid?

I'm a little confused with the fermentation of beer. Why does it stop if the gravity reading is still maybe 1.010? And if it stopped with sugars still available then how does it work to add priming sugar if there's already sugar in there? But thank you for great info like always 👍

I have a brew that's been sitting at the same gravity for about 7 months, it's at 1.020 I tried pushing it to 21%abv it stopped somewhere between 19.5-20 is this safe to bottle (not carb) ? Or should I heavily consider stabilizing still

Question, just so I am clear. If I want my mead to be carbonated when someone opens a bottle, that means I do not need to halt the yeast, right?

The calculator only works for beer, does it not? Can I use the same calculator for ciders?

So just to make sure I understood correctly, it is not possible to make a mead, back sweeten with honey and then carbonate? Reason being, I would have to stabilize before back sweetening which means there’s no yeast left to then initiate the carbonation through drops or priming sugar?! Only option would be to force carbonate?

Great video. Two quick observations. Over carbonation isn't just stupid. It's deadly dangerous. Bottle bombs are not a clever phrase used by wine makers. Glass under the kinds of pressure that poor carbonation practices can produce WILL explode (if you use corks, the cork will pop before THAT amount of pressure can build up but if you use crown caps (beer bottles), or you use wire nets on champagne bottles, the cap or the cork cannot release the gas and the bottle will explode - literally, and you will have shards of broken glass fly across the room. Not TERRIBLE if you are not in the room, but if you are holding the bottle (heat from your hands) to open it, those shards can sever arteries. And, THAT is no joke. The second , very different point is that even if your yeast is close to its tolerance for alcohol (and alcohol IS a toxin as far as yeast are concerned), you CAN do what the French have been doing for so many generations and that is add a sprinkle of champagne yeast with the sugar. That yeast has good tolerance to begin fermenting in a high ABV wine; high acidity environment even if your original yeast has more or less quit.

Im working on three 5 gallon batch meads. One is blueberry, S.G.- 1.050... using the 71B yeast. The second is raspberry, S.G. - 1.042... using 71B yeast. The third is the sansas lemon mead, S.G. - 1.080... using K1-V1116 yeast. The blueberry and raspberry I want to carbonate. What should the FG be at before I carbonate? And can I carbonate the lemon mead even though I used the K1-V1116 yeast? What should the lemon mead FG be before carbonating. I was planning on using the erythritol for back sweetening and honey for priming. I haven't used the calculator yet. Do you have a video showing how you put the info in? The room temperature is between 66-70F and 5 gallong batches each. How much honey would I use for priming? After looking at the calculator on the top what do I put in for the desired volume of C02? And for the temperature do I have to take the temperature of the mead or can I go by the room temperature?

I'm sure he'll respond but my opinion is that it's good to go. The yeast have reached their limit. Even the strongest yeasts won't go past 20%. And being 7 months you are good. My yeast ussually eat everything up within 30days even 14 most times. 7 months gave plenty of age time in there. You should be good to bottle and drink although with the high alcohol content age will help mellow the bite

Has anyone tried this after sparkalliod? I'm wondering if that will leave enough yeast to referment?

I let my mead finish to the yeast tolerance, I don’t stabilize, and then I back sweeten to taste. Considering that my mead is already at its tolerance, how can I possibly carbonate? Wouldn’t the fact that the brew is already at tolerance mean it can’t ferment anymore?

My brew just not enough carbonation. Am I expecting to much?

what type of corks do you use? do you use a cage?

Back in my uni days we use to deliberately over carbonate some of our bottles and hide them around the dorm to prank our mates... we didn't get much study done :(

Do you have to pasteurize after you bottle carb?

how many grams of stevia per litre for backsweetening?

What if i open up a bottle and it didn't carbonate at all?

If your using Kveik it can be done carbing in a week or less lol

Lol yeah on the first batch I did, I thought it was fully done fermenting so I tasted it and it was a peach mead I did and it wasn’t sweet at all so I added about a pound of sugar. Lucky I added slowly, cuz it went CrAzY. Lol. Thank God I wasn’t bottling.

I def carbonate wine.

He emphasized 4 different times about using the calculator. It's that crucial...

Great explanation, and your instructions are definitely geared at ensuring your viewers are NOT fools. The one BIG point you missed was the bottles. If you are bottle carbonating, you absolutely MUST use bottles that are capable of holding the internal pressure associated with carbonation. Old beer bottles or pressure-rated flip-tops are best (be careful with cheap flip-tops, as not all of them are designed to take pressure), and definitely DO NOT use wine bottles. Interestingly, I was watching a different RU-vid channel (I won't name) a few weeks back, where they also demonstrated bottle carbing by putting "around X amount of sugar per gallon". In the comments, I did suggest a safer, more accurate method, was to use of an online Priming Sugar Calculator. I even provided links to several different ones, but they decided to delete my comments. Needless, I've stopped watching their channel.

yea, see this is where you and everyone else on brewtube loses me you all say a thing but then don't explain what it means that calculator, for example - is the total amount of priming sugar added per bottle or to the entire brew? i wish you'd all assume we can't read your mind and go into more depth video length is irrelevant, if we're watching this, it's because we are here to learn, so feel free to explain

lol wtf never whisk in undissolved sugar like that, you want to aerate the finished ferment as little as possible

Any advice on dissolving honey so that it incorporates evenly into the beer?