Toy4Rick

Recipes 

Hey gang,

I only bottle and use corn sugar to prime with. My LHBS says to always use 3/4 cup of sugar for 5 gals regardless of the beer/style. They are very adamant against any more than that.

Now, 3/4 cup of corn sugar weighs in at approx 4.75oz. If I use the priming calculator at TastyBrew.com for my Hef, it says to use 8.5oz of corn sugar. If 3/4 cup weighs 4.75oz, 8.5oz would be nearly double the LHBS recommended amount.

So what is the story here? Is 3/4 cup really the standard across the board for bottle priming? How much am I risking bottle bombs by going to nearly 1.5 cups based on the calculator...? My last 3-4 Hefs seemed to be carb'd very well using 3/4 cup. My last English Porter was only lightly carb'd and could have used more...

Thanks in advance
Toy4Rick

lowtones84

Recipes 

Weighing it is more accurate, a lot of people say an oz. per gallon is a general rule of thumb, and in my experience as well 3/4 c. weighs less than that. But it definitely depends on the style you're doing, like I will be using more to carbonate my saison in the coming weeks because I want it to be very carbonated. As far as exact amounts of corn sugar to use for priming different styles I'm not really sure, I've only experimented a bit. 1.5 c. seems to be quite a bit to me though.

Toy4Rick

Recipes 

According to TastyBrew my English Porter should only need 3.5oz or way less then 3/4 cup and my last batch could have used more carb.

Not sure which way to go

Toy4Rick

unionrdr

Recipes 

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Everything works if ya let it-Roady(meatloaf)

Malticulous

Recipes 

There is a little more info from BYO here.
Brew Your Own: The How-To Homebrew Beer Magazine - Carbonation Priming Chart

TyTanium

Recipes 

Hefe's generally have more carbonation. Personally, I would trust the collective wisdom of this site as opposed to your LHBS

Toy4Rick

Recipes 

So how do we explain why my English Porter was under carb'd with nearly 5oz of corn sugar when the calculators indicate to use 3.4-3.6oz?

What is the risk of having bottle bombs by going up to 8 or 9oz of corn sugar for a Hef? Does this sound right? Hate to ruin a good batch

Toy4Rick

beccabrew

Recipes 

I work in a home brewing store and we use 1 1/2 cups of corn sugar for a 23 liter/5 gallon batch.

sagnew440

Recipes 

Here is the calculator I use The Beer Recipator - Carbonation. I've never had a problem with it.

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Whispering Eye Meadery

tektonjp

Recipes 

Priming calculators are based on the temperature you have fermented the beer. Depending on the temp, the level of residual CO2 varies. Yes, there is CO2 in the beer before you carbonate! A simple "one amount carbonates all" solution isn't accurate. Shame on your HBS.
If your two beers' fermentation temps were different (and attenuation as well!), then you will get a different finished carbonation with different beers even though you use the same amount of sugar for priming.

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Tempest Bebende!