1st time corn sugar carbing in a keg?

First time natural carbonation experiment:


Wanting to carbonate a 5 gallon batch of Hoegaarden Belgian Wheat Whit Beer in a Corny keg with corn sugar.

The recipe calls for:
"1.25 cup (300 ml) of Muntons Extra Light Dry Malt Extract boiled for 10 minutes in 2 cups (473 ml) of water. "

(I don't want to use that method, and don't have the Muntons DME anyway.)

Other recipes for natural carbonation say to use 5 oz. of corn sugar, while at the same time several people on HBT seem to believe that you should use only half the amount of corn sugar that is used for bottling when you are natural carbing in a 5 gallon keg (which would be 2.5 oz of corn sugar). One of the explanations is that there is about 1/2 of the head space in a 5 gallon keg vs. all of the total head space in 54 (12 oz.) bottles when you bottle the same amount of beer. That seems to make sense, but I want to make sure.

Should I just wait until the final gravity is ready and use 2.5 oz. of corn sugar? Then just wait 2 weeks and test?

:rockin:THANkS!!!:rockin:

I set my kegerator to serve @ 12 psig @ 37F. To get that level of carbonation I naturally carb my kegs with 2.5~3 oz of corn sugar.

I mostly switched to just using table sugar to prime in kegs, but the last time I used corn sugar I believe it was about 2.25oz. So you're right on track with 2.5oz. Should work well for you.

I have gone to 3-3.5 oz of dextrose to prime my kegs.

I keg condition all my beers. I use 3/4 oz of priming malt (darker beers) & the same amt of priming sugar for light beers.

Thanks, I'm going to try 3 oz corn sugar, since Belgian wits are supposed to be highly carbonated.
THANKS

I don't think you will be highly carbonated with 3 oz, but its very easy to take it from there and go higher using your CO2 bottle. Still a good plan.

following the advice of my lhbs i just added 5oz of priming sugar to a corny on wednesday. lol, we'll see how this turns out

NewJersey said:

following the advice of my lhbs i just added 5oz of priming sugar to a corny on wednesday. lol, we'll see how this turns out

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Hope you are serving cold or have a lot of line.

Just so I understand, if you are ( naturally carbing ) do you mean add priming sugar and let keg sit outside fridge with no gas on it ?

What is the advantage/disadvantage of adding priming sugar to kegs? Why not just use the natural carbination from being on the CO2?

Can't speak for others, but the major reason I do it is related to space in the kegerator and pipeline management. My rig only holds two kegs, so I generally rotate between force carbing and sugar carbing batches. Force carbing usually takes me 7-10 days, so this allows me to keep my taps flowing more often. Makes the most of the limited real estate in there. It's nice to just pop a keg in the kegerator to get cold overnight and then tap it, fully carbed, the next day without messing with the regulator. I generally limit sugar carbing to my batches that play nicely with a little conditioning time (porters, bitters, some pale ales, stouts, etc.). IPA's or anything I want to serve super-fresh get force carbed.

Probably not for everyone, but this system works really well for me.

thanks for the info. I usually just let the CO2 do its thing. I agree that it takes almost a full week for the natural process, but its worth the wait.

Sheldon

kerant said:

Just so I understand, if you are ( naturally carbing ) do you mean add priming sugar and let keg sit outside fridge with no gas on it ?

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Yes, by naturally carbing I do mean using corn sugar and storing it at 70 degrees F for 2 weeks and it is not connected to any gas line.

Sheldon said:

thanks for the info. I usually just let the CO2 do its thing. I agree that it takes almost a full week for the natural process, but its worth the wait.

Sheldon

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It only takes one week for natural (corn sugar) carbing in a keg? My "Beer Captured" book says that it takes two weeks.

I guess just checking once a day should tell though...

I am only about 10 months into brewing beer, though in my experience forcing carbonation (slow or fast) seems to result in a more acidic taste/aftertaste for what I brew (Blue Moon clone, Shock Top clone, Hoegaarden clone, Belgian strong ales).

When I have tasted natural (corn sugar) carbed Belgian Ales, the taste is more complex (bitter orange, lemon, corriander, honey...) I could just be ruining the force carbonation each time, but the natural carb just seems to work better.

spaceyaquarius said:

It only takes one week for natural (corn sugar) carbing in a keg? My "Beer Captured" book says that it takes two weeks.

I guess just checking once a day should tell though...

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I think there is some terminology being used differently here. I'm fairly certain that when Sheldon wrote 'natural' he meant setting the CO2 to serving pressure and serving temp to carb with CO2. A lot of people call this the 'set it and forget it' method. If you're priming a keg with sugar to carbonate, it will probably take more like 2 weeks.

NathPowe is correct, I did mean "set and forget" for a week and its set to go. I have never added priming sugar to my kegged beers.

Indian_villager said:

Hope you are serving cold or have a lot of line.

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i have like 8 feet of line.
ii'' work it out one way or another.
less sugar next time

I have had poor results from force carbing a handful of our brews, and now opt for priming the keg with table sugar, brown sugar or molasses depending on the brew. Mix the solution into the keg, put under 2-3 PSI to set the seals and let sit unrefrigerated for a few weeks until ready to serve. Like others here I still opt to force carb beers i want to drink while super fresh, but am considering going exclusively with priming. I am having a hard time getting the CO2 volumes exactly where I want them as i seem to need less priming solution for 5 gal in a keg vs 5 gal split into bottles, but the end result has been much better than force carbing in my experience.

Does anyone have a table, chart or calculator for determining priming amounts in kegs with table sugar?

comrock12 said:

I have had poor results from force carbing a handful of our brews, and now opt for priming the keg with table sugar, brown sugar or molasses depending on the brew. Mix the solution into the keg, put under 2-3 PSI to set the seals and let sit unrefrigerated for a few weeks until ready to serve. Like others here I still opt to force carb beers i want to drink while super fresh, but am considering going exclusively with priming. I am having a hard time getting the CO2 volumes exactly where I want them as i seem to need less priming solution for 5 gal in a keg vs 5 gal split into bottles, but the end result has been much better than force carbing in my experience.

Does anyone have a table, chart or calculator for determining priming amounts in kegs with table sugar?

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As I mentioned above, I've had pretty good luck with using half of what is recommended for bottling. I think Northern Brewer has a pretty good priming calculator page (you can choose from quite a few different priming sugars). Just enter the parameters for your batch and then use half of what it calculates. Again, this is just what works for me, so YMMV. Might be worth a shot though.

comrock12 said:

I have had poor results from force carbing a handful of our brews, and now opt for priming the keg with table sugar, brown sugar or molasses depending on the brew. Mix the solution into the keg, put under 2-3 PSI to set the seals and let sit unrefrigerated for a few weeks until ready to serve. Like others here I still opt to force carb beers i want to drink while super fresh, but am considering going exclusively with priming. I am having a hard time getting the CO2 volumes exactly where I want them as i seem to need less priming solution for 5 gal in a keg vs 5 gal split into bottles, but the end result has been much better than force carbing in my experience.

Does anyone have a table, chart or calculator for determining priming amounts in kegs with table sugar?

Click to expand...

I naturally prime all my kegs. Because they have to wait for room but also I like how it continues to age the beer. I use beersmith great software and it has an option for priming a keg with all types of sugar to hit a target volume. I like lower carbed stuff so I use about 2 oz corn sugar to hit 2.3 volumes.

Thanks for these, I hadn't run it through beer smith yet, never even thought to look there and I use the software to double check most of my recipes (use iBrewMaster for the actual recipe designs). As far as cutting the bottling amount in half, it is pretty close for sure as that is where I have been most successful, I usually cut the bottling amount in half and add just a touch more.