I am DONE using DME for priming. Never again!
 

First of all, no, not going to go to kegging. Kill that before it rears its head.

So, my father in law kits recipe kits from the local Organic brew shop, and they always have 8oz DME for priming. So I used that as a base for when I bottled a batch. Thing is, I had DME from a different store, and becuase it is a different type of DME, all the bottles are foamers. I have had others that end up under-carbed, becuase I used the organic stuff and calculated for the other kind. Inconsistent carbing is a pain, and doesn't make my brews look well put together. I have no idea what type of DME I am even getting at the stores, and the online calculators ask for the type or AA%.

So thanks DME, but I think corn sugar is now going to be my friend for priming. I doubt that cares where I buy it from or who produced it.

Wanted to share my rant/frustration. Now I feel better!

You could always claculate an amount on unferemented wort to add to your bottling bucket to prime as well rather than using DME.

Are you dissolving your DME beofre addingit, or sprinkling it in?

Are you making sure your priming solution and wort are thoroughly mixed (usually the problem with batches that are unevenly carbed).

I have had uneven carbing with dextrose too, again, I don't think my priming solution was mixed well, I learned to stir the wort gently with a spoon and create some turbulence in the bottling pail to better mix things up rather than letting the swirling action of rcking do it.

I have since moved to kegging, no more of those issues, and I can still bottle from the keg.

Regardless, good luck!

Cheers!

Not planning on doing the wort thing, not wanting to worry about the storage and I don't mind the dissolving and cooling of priming sugar.

Yes, I dissolve the sugar before adding it, and yes, I make sure the sugar is added uniformly.

I don't have issues of inconsistent carbing from bottle to bottle; it is batch to batch.

The complaint was about the fact that there are two many types of DME out there that makes using a calculator difficult and a lot of guess work. I figure using corn sugar will make life easier, I have always had good results using it before, I just don't always have it on hand for priming. I tend to have DME though because I am set up for starters.

i just use plain old table sugar. works just fine.

Ummm, the potential extract from the various brands of DME are available online. You could, I dunno, look it up and adjust your priming rate based on said information... :drunk:

I use both dme and Priming sugar... not a problem with either. Beersmith calculations are pretty right on.

I don't want to have to keep referring to that thoguh every time I buy DME, and have to keep everything specifically labeled so when I use it I know what type it is. When the package says "Organic Light DME" it doesn;t give me much to work with. Too much effort than it is worth.

And richbrew99, if I don't know the %AA of my DME then I can't use software or calculators to figure it all out.


Long story short: Different %AA in DME = frustration if you tend to buy it at different places, so corn sugar is the answer for me.

I used those little coopers candies, and so far haven't been burnt. We'll see if they are consistent between batches!

Although I keg everything these days, I'm with you...used DME once and did not like the results...very small bubbles, different mouth feel and texture...I always use dextrose if I'm not kegging.

Do you buy pre-hopped DME? I know you can buy pre-hopped LME but I didn't know about pre-hopped DME. Anyway, if your DME doesn't specify that it's pre-hopped, then I don't think there's going to be any AA so the value in the calculator should be 0.

I just added 50 pounds of light DME to a test recipe in BeerSmith and didn't get any IBUs from it...