Amount of priming sugar *beer temp related*
 

I have always wondered about this, and I don't know the true answer to this. I usually use the Northern Brewer priming calculator, and they have a field "Current temperature of beer (F):". I am bottling my first lager tonight, and its sitting in my chest freezer at 38*F. The thing is, I'll be taking the beer into the kitchen for 30min and it will warm up a little bit, probably to 50*F.

Another calculator asks for the temp of the fermentation, which was 50*F for my lager.

I'm just confused on what temperature I should use as it really depicts how much corn sugar I should use.

I want to reach 2.5 volumes
5.1 gallons
Primary 16days Ferm Temp = 50*F
Primary 48hr D-Rest = 58*F
Lager 6 weeks Temp = 38*F

Any idea what temp I should input? Also, this is my first lager, will I have enough lager yeast in secondary to carbonate as long as I siphon enough into my bottling bucket?

Sorry for the stupid questions, but 3 months in the making, I need this Oktoberfest to be perfect :rockin:

Thanks-Justin

The reason the calculators ask for the beer temp is so that the residual CO2 still in solution from fermentation can be accounted for. The colder the beer, the more CO2 it holds. If you let the beer warm up, CO2 will come out of solution, but cooling the beer down won't cause it to absorb/re-absorb much CO2. For the most accurate carbonation level, you'll want to use the highest temperature the beer reached after active fermentation. Since it's unlikely that there was significant CO2 producing fermentation going on after the D-rest, you'll want to use 58°F. According to the calculator I use, you'd need 4.0 oz of dextrose, or 3.8 oz of sucrose to reach 2.5 vol.

Hope that makes sense.

Agreed. This questions comes up a lot and there are a few opinions on the matter, but science is what science is. Go with the highest temp.