Introduction: Bulk Priming Home Brew - Made Easy

A simple instructable on how to bulk prime your home brew and do away with the different measures of sugar/dextrose to different size bottles..

Step 1: Equipment Needed

1 x extra brew barrel (racking barrel)
1 x 2 metre food grade hose to fit barrel tap
and the rest you should have hanging around the house!!

Step 2: Sterilize Bottles

First I sterilize  the bottles. I use Defender (Grain and Grape home brew shop) for sterilizing , you only need 3ml per litre.. I use just that litre to do all the sterilizing needed for bottling a brew.
Add the litre of sterilizing mix to your bottle washer, three or four blasts for each bottle then place bottles on your bottle tree to dry.
Only took me ten minutes to wash all  the bottles..
IMPORTANT - rinse your bottles from previous brews the same day or next morning, don't let the sediment dry in the bottle. Makes washing very difficult..

Step 3: Sterilize Your Extra Barrel

Remove bottle washer of the bottle tree and pour the sterilizing mix into your extra barrel (racking barrel)
Add the 2 metre hose, and the bottling device to the barrel as well. Put the lid on the barrel and give a good shake to ensure the entire interior of the barrel comes in contact with the mix.
let it sit for a couple of minutes then give it another shake and let it sit again for a few minutes.
Then empty the mix through the tap, cause that needs sterilizing too, into a container with your bottle caps.
Next turn the barrel upside down to drain.
Things can be left now till your bottles have dried.

Step 4: Dextrose Priming Mixture

Put around 500ml of water into a small saucepan and boil with a lid on for a few minutes.
Weigh out 200 grams of Dextrose (this is usually the right amount for an Aussie style beer head in regular Aussie style Ales FOR BREWS AROUND 22 Litres. Priming calculators for different beers and amounts can easily be found on the net) and add to the saucepan and dissolve. Simmer lightly with lid on for a minute or two and turn off heat.

Step 5: Clearing Tap

First remove airlock , or loosen brewing barrel lid.
Get a large drinking glass or similar and empty a glass full from your brewing barrel through the tap into the glass.. This should remove any built up sediment in the tap.
Now is a good time to take your final SG reading for working out alcohol content of your brew.


Step 6: Rinse Equipment

Like to rinse the racking keg because it has a lot of nooks and crannies that can hold the sterilizing mix . Just boil a kettle full of water and pour into the barrel put lid on and splash it around and empty out the tap.. BE CAREFUL..  And I usually repeat that again just to make sure!
I use my hops strainer to strain out the bottle caps, but any strainer will do as long as its CLEAN.
Then the bottle caps are rinsed with another kettle of bottling water.
Rinse out the hose I use just my hot water tap for this , my water heater is set at over 70 degrees Celsius so this is fine. Another way would be to boil another kettle of water and let it cool enough so to make rinsing the hose safe.. BE CAREFUL. A quick rinse is all it needs. If it has dried completely from the sterilizing mix it should be fine and wont need rinsing.

Step 7: Racking the Brew

Now everything is rinsed add the dextrose mix to racking barrel.
Then coil the hose into the bottom of the barrel to reduce splashing (splashing causes oxidization of the brew we don't want this!.. coiling also helps mix the dextrose into the brew ) and leave some of the hose out the top of the barrel. 
Connect the other end of the hose to your brew barrel tap, and turn it on!
when the brew barrel gets close to bottom tip it up a little to help get more of the brew out the barrel, not too far though we want to try and leave the yeast cake in the brew barrel.
When done remove the hose from the racking barrel .

Step 8: Bottling

Move the racking barrel to a comfortable place for bottling.
Give the bottler a quick rinse, then attach to barrel tap.
Fill the bottles in the usual way and cap as normal.
It doesn't matter what size bottles you use because the priming sugar/dextrose  is already in the brew!

Step 9: All Done!!

Alright that's it now all there is left to do is wait a couple of weeks (couple of months is way better) and then drink! Bottles should be left in the fridge for at least 48 hrs I'd recommend to chill.
CHEERZ