Priming and Conditioning SOP

The goal is to develop carbonation and clean up beers in their final packaging vessel.

Clean and sanitize the following before starting: 1 pump, 2 recirculating hoses, sugar brink, pitch hose, bottle filler (bottle conditioning only), keg fillers, stainless bucket, whisk, Erlenmeyer flask, and (for kräusening only) 2 half-bbl kegs.

1. Determine yeast and sugar amounts. Use the calculators in the Threes Conditioning Workbook:
   • Can conditioning with sugar: enter beer volume, temperature, and desired CO2 level (about 2.7 for most can-conditioned beers). If the beer is flat with no head pressure, use the calculated output; if it already has carbonation, measure it with the Zahm & Nagel and use that instead. The sheet outputs the weight of sugar and yeast to pitch.
   • Bottle conditioning with sugar or honey: enter liquid temperature to get starting CO2 in solution, then target CO2 volume (typically 3-3.5, depending on brand) and beer volume. The sheet outputs sugar, yeast, and water weights to pitch.
   • Kräusening with fermenting wort: enter measured pre-kräusen CO2, desired CO2 (about 2.7), beer volume, current gravity of the wort being pitched, and final gravity of the beer pre-kräusen (assuming the same yeast for beer and kräusen). The sheet outputs kräusen volume and weight to pitch.
   • Keg conditioning: beer is assumed flat. Enter beer volume to get sugar and yeast weights to pitch.
2. Enter measured and calculated values into the Conditioning Log.
3. Recirculate the tank. Connect sanitized hoses and pump - for tanks with racking arms, input from the bottom and output to the racking arm; for tanks without, input from the side port and output to the bottom. Bleed sanitizer out of the hoses and pump, replacing it with beer, and recirculate at about 22 Hz pump speed.
4. Bloom the yeast. Fill an Erlenmeyer flask with about 1000 mL of 90-100°F water, add the calculated yeast amount, stir, cover loosely, and wait until it's foaming before pitching.
5. Pitch sugar. Weigh out the calculated sugar amount in the stainless bucket (max about 3.5 kg). Add 180°F water at 1-2x the sugar's weight, whisk until dissolved, and pour into the sugar brink. Connect the CO2 line to the barb on the bottom of the brink and bubble CO2 through the syrup to purge and cool it to room temperature. Connect the pitch hose to the recirculating pump input, bleed through with beer, connect to the bottom port of the sugar brink, then move the CO2 line to the top port and push into circulation at about 10 psi.
6. Pitch yeast. Remove CO2 pressure from the sugar brink and send beer back into it. Pour in the bloomed yeast and shake to mix, then push the yeast/beer mixture into circulation at about 10 psi CO2.
7. Let the tank recirculate with yeast and sugar for at least 20 minutes.
8. Set up the sugar brink for bottle sanitizing: rinse it, place it on a barrel or other raised surface, refill with 15.5 gal cold water and 1 oz PAA, hook up the bottle rinser(s), and pressurize to about 20 psi.
9. Hook up a long hose fitted with a sight glass and valve to the pump's bleed. For kegging, attach keg fillers and bleed through the hose and fillers until beer fills the sight glass and comes out of the fillers.
10. Fill kegs: bleed kegs down below tank pressure first, and blow off pressure once filling is complete.
11. For bottling, remove keg fillers and hook the long hose up to the float valve (left) on the bottling line. Confirm the line is fully drained of sanitizer, including bottling udders, close the dump valve, and crack the inlet valve so the bottling reservoir fills slowly.
12. Sanitize, fill, cap, and box bottles.
13. Taste monthly, and release once off-flavors have dissipated.

If a calculator output looks off, double-check the inputs (temperature, starting CO2, batch volume) before pitching - a wrong sugar or yeast weight is hard to correct after the fact.