Brown sugar for priming and how to add.

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colshandy

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Hi chaps, complete novice here.

Finally got round to using a home brew kit I got 2 christmas' ago !!

It is ready for bottling tonight but I have just realised we only have brown sugar in the house.

Read some old posts about brown sugar and seems okay to use but the instructions on the pack stated a 1/2 teaspoon per bottle. However I note in here folk mention cups per 5 gallon and water.

Can someone please advise the best way to add the sugar and if I would be better to get some white instead of brown.

Many thanks

Colin
Aberdeen
UK
 
It is really better to bulk prime (boiling your priming sugar in 2 cups of water for 5-10 minutes then adding it to your bottling bucket while you are racking your beer into the bucket-this will mix the priming solution and beer thoroughly.)

You have more control over priming this way. Adding dry sugar into each bottle can cause a couple things- the mentos/diet coke gushing effect, OR inconsistant carbonation, it is really difficult to accurate measure out a tiny amounts of sugars without getting a few grains more or less in each bottle, you could end up with inconsistant carbonation.


Priming sugar, which is corn sugar is sort of the standard sugar to use. It is what comes in the kits, in 4.5-5 ounce packets. I prefer it over any other sugar, but you can also prime with table sugar, dry malt extract or really any fermentable sugar, but priming tabs (which usually are corn sugar,) table sugar, priming sugar or dry malt extract are the most common.

Brown sugar you treat like table sugar.

You have to use different amounts depending on which sugar you use. I put together a hints and tips thread for bottling that got stickified, Here.

You can find most questions answered in there.
 
It is really better to bulk prime (boiling your priming sugar in 2 cups of water for 5-10 minutes then adding it to your bottling bucket while you are racking your beer into the bucket-this will mix the priming solution and beer thoroughly.)

You have more control over priming this way. Adding dry sugar into each bottle can cause a couple things- the mentos/diet coke gushing effect, OR inconsistant carbonation, it is really difficult to accurate measure out a tiny amounts of sugars without getting a few grains more or less in each bottle, you could end up with inconsistant carbonation.


Priming sugar, which is corn sugar is sort of the standard sugar to use. It is what comes in the kits, in 4.5-5 ounce packets. I prefer it over any other sugar, but you can also prime with table sugar, dry malt extract or really any fermentable sugar, but priming tabs (which usually are corn sugar,) table sugar, priming sugar or dry malt extract are the most common.

Brown sugar you treat like table sugar.

You have to use different amounts depending on which sugar you use. I put together a hints and tips thread for bottling that got stickified, Here.

You can find most questions answered in there.

Many thanks for the reply, given I am a beginner I am not sure of some of the terms mentioned so excuse my ignorance.

So given I have it is ready to bottle (bottles sterilised last night) I plan to bottle tonight if I can.

To keep me right would appreciate it if you could advise how much white sugar I should add prior to bottling, or am I barking up the wrong alley completely....?

Note: I added a 1kg bag of white sugar when I first made the mix (but I think I may have ballsed up as I added the bulk of the yeast before it had cooled down...will this have spoiled the whole process? Should have maybe mentioned this first !!)
 
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