How much priming sugar in a CO2 setup...

Hi all,


1st post here of what I am sure will be many more.

Anyway, I have a question regarding the amount of priming sugar used when I plan on force carbonating.

Should I use any? This is going to be a Blueberry Wheat (from a kit from beer-wine hobby) thus I need to add the blueberry "flavoring", should I skip the sugar?

I just bought one of those 3 bottle carbonating setups with the 2 CO2 cartridges. It has a name but my memory is not what it used to be.


Thanks,
Jon

BrewstersMillions said:

Should I use any?

Click to expand...

NO

Heck, that was easy !

lol

Seriously, you do not really need to add sugar at all, thats whay you bought a CO2 system.

Put in in the keg, set the pressure to 12 to 15 lbs, give it a shake once a day or so and in just a few days you will be enjoying boozy goodness.

Others may suggest adding a bit of sugar, thats fine too. But in truth you really don't need it. The CO2 will do its job, just give it time to work.

Cheers,

knewshound

Yeah . . but if CAMRA catches you . . .

Seriously, I have been wanting to get into keggin and I am slowly gathering material for my keg fridge. This is a question that I have been thinking about - Do I prime with DME for a true "real ale" . . . CAMRA style, or do I force carbonate and stray a bit from what the purists may think about what real ale should be.

For those of you who force carb, what do you do when you brew a batch and already have your kegs filled? Do you take a beer off of the tap in order to force carb your new beer for storage? I am assuming that you need to get CO2 on it as soon as possible to avoid oxidation.

For your basic 3-bottle setup, I'd use about 1/2 the normal priming sugar. This will put some carbonation into each of the bottles. You can complete the carbonation by forcing it after chilling a bottle.

I keg everything. Since there is always some sugar left in the ale, I don't worry about carbonation until it goes on tap. I fill a keg with CO2 before adding the ale. This eliminates the oxygen. I'll also burp the keg a couple times in the first week.

OK, I understand no priming sugar needed with CO2, but I have a batch in secondary ready to be kegged. I haven't put together the frdige/CO2 system, so would I be ok priming the batch as usual putting it in the keg and storing at room temp until ready to chill and dispense?

leif. said:

OK, I understand no priming sugar needed with CO2, but I have a batch in secondary ready to be kegged. I haven't put together the frdige/CO2 system, so would I be ok priming the batch as usual putting it in the keg and storing at room temp until ready to chill and dispense?

Click to expand...

I would just leave it in the secondary until you are ready to keg. Others, and myself, have left a batch in the secondary for 2-3 months without any problems. Just wait until your ready and do it the way it should be done.

If you are going to add sugar to the batch now, you will get all the sediment (which you know already), and possible your kegged beer will not ever be clear, because everytime you pour a glass you will stir up the sediment, and hencefore will defeat the purpose of kegging.

IMHO,
IGOR

leif. said:

OK, I understand no priming sugar needed with CO2, but I have a batch in secondary ready to be kegged. I haven't put together the frdige/CO2 system, so would I be ok priming the batch as usual putting it in the keg and storing at room temp until ready to chill and dispense?

Click to expand...

If you primed and transferred to the keg, then let it sit, you'll end up with a lot of sediment at the bottom of a flat, non-carbonated keg. Why?

Most cornies won't seal properly unless, after you seal the lid, you hit it with a few pounds of CO2 to pressurize it and seal the lid. Without that pressure, the CO2 produced from the priming will just leak out the unsealed lid.

That makes sense. I can get the nec. CO2 parts in the next week or two.