Can I use Dextrose?
- Thread starter Psymon
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Yes, Dextrose is the same thing as corn sugar which most people use to prime for bottling. How much you'll need will depend on how much CO2 you want. But 5oz of dextrose will give you about 2.5 volumes of CO2. Mix the dextrose with about 2 cups of water and boil for ten minutes, let it cool then pour it in your bottling bucket before racking your beer into it.
Homebrewtruth
Active Member
You could use the previous method explained by the previous post, or you could just prime each bottle with a level teaspoon of dextrose (per 500ml bottle) or alter the stated amount according to the volume of bottle you're using. There's no need to boil the sugar; I've always found this to be unnecessary.
The motivation for boiling sugar for bottling is to convert disaccharides to mono saccharides. From a standpoint of chemistry, dextrose being a monosaccharide, doesn't need to be boiled for yeast to easily and cleanly digest it. However in the interest of having everything sterile and getting the sugar well distributed boiling isn't a bad idea.
Not that much of anything can live on pure sugar of any sort, it kills most everything for many of the same reasons salt does. However, that doesn't mean that a few spores can't survive in it.
Not that much of anything can live on pure sugar of any sort, it kills most everything for many of the same reasons salt does. However, that doesn't mean that a few spores can't survive in it.
Well,you want the water to be sanitized,but the real reason is simple. Dissolving the sugar in 2C of water helps it mix with the beer in the bottling bucket way better. Making a liquid out of it makes it mix with the liquid beer easier than just dumping sugar in a bottle. More accurate when measured & mixed with water. Added to the beer it won't matter what size bottles you use in any combination.
Homebrewtruth
Active Member
I suppose it has an advantage if you use different size bottles, but your first reason is based on a specific circumstance, as you're assuming everyone uses a bottling bucket; many people just use the 'dumping' technique you have just described so crassly.
In regards to the mixing of dextrose (without it dissolved in water beforehand), when have you ever read a thread titled 'Help! My sugar won't dissolve in my beer!'.
And in regards to your third point, it sounds pedantic. Do you think you could tell the difference between a beer primed with 7.5g from 7.8g? I raise this point from interpreting your comment 'More accurate when measured & mixed with water'; I assume it means accurate in regards to measuring out the correct amount for each capacity of bottle.
There actually doesn't seem to be too many people on here that dump the sugar into the bottles. You have to work out how much for different size bottles to get x amount of carbonation. It's not the same as using a priming calculator program to determine how much sugar by weight to add to x number of gallons of beer & what the max temp was for that batch. Then weight out that amount of priming sugar on a cheap digital scale.
Adding that amount of priming sugar by weight,not volume is the method commonly used to prime to style. That was my intended meaning.
It also means that it won't matter if you're one of those that does use different size bottles in a given batch. Some folks on here do. Nothing crass or arrogant about being accurate. Alot of folks on here do. I think it makes it easier to dupicate the beer later.
And once you get used to priming to style,you would indeed be able to tell the difference,say,between 1.3 volumes & 1.8V.
Homebrewtruth
Active Member
I can perceive the carbonation in different styles of beer, and you have a fair point in that it is a more accurate way of getting a specific style of carbonation. I had a lovely pale ale in Oslo this weekend (I've struggled to find beer on tap in this style in this pilsner obsessed town), and I loved the subtle carbonation and the way it went down so easily. I can appreciate that to achieve this, it is very difficult with the bottle priming method. I think I may convert; good work sir.
aiptasia
Well-Known Member
The best reason to make a simple syrup with priming sugar and boiled water is even distribution of the sugar into the wort. By pouring a few cups of sterilized (boiled) simple syrup into your beer before bottling, you're ensuring an even distribution of the sugars into the beer, which can be hit or miss with other methods such as adding the sugar directly to the bottles. Temperature also has an effect on carbonation level, so it will depend on the conditioning temperature you're holding your bottles at as to the level of carbonation as well.
As a side note from someone who used carb tabs for his first few batches and switched to sugar water, the difference in carb times and head really is noticable. We loved the convenience of the tabs, but we're probably going to stick with batch priming going forward - just seems more....beery with the batch prime.
Homebrewtruth
Active Member
If a beer is conditioned within the functioning temperature range of the yeast it will always reach the level of carbonation dictated by the amount of priming sugar added to the beer, and the amount of CO2 dissolved and suspended in the beer before bottling will affect the level of carbonation - which is dictated by temperature and the amount of manual handling a beer is exposed to before the beer is sealed in a bottle; i.e. changing the temperature for conditioning with a set amount of priming sugar and the same beer temperature before bottling will yield the same level of carbonation - as long as the manual handling of the beer stays constant.
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