Bottling first batch tomorrow.

So after 1 week in primary and 2 weeks in secondary, my beer seems ready to bottle. I will do a gravity reading tomorrow to be sure.

I made the Irish Stout kit from Midwest and it came with 5 oz of corn sugar. In the instructions it says to use all of it for priming. However I used Northern Brewer's priming sugar calculator and it says to use 2.49 oz for an irish stout. I don't want to risk over-carbonating but at the same time I don't want my beer to be flat.

What should I do?

I would go with the 2.5 oz if I was you. With a irish stout you want your volumes of CO2 to be around 1.6 - 2. With 2.5 oz of dextrose you should get about 1.8 volumes of CO2 in a 5 gal batch. If you add the whole 5 oz of dextrose you will get around 2.8 volumes which is out of the style guidelines.

chadbraun said:

I would go with the 2.5 oz if I was you. With a irish stout you want your volumes of CO2 to be around 1.6 - 2. With 2.5 oz of dextrose you should get about 1.8 volumes of CO2 in a 5 gal batch. If you add the whole 5 oz of dextrose you will get around 2.8 volumes which is out of the style guidelines.

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I agree, mostly. I'd still want the stout to be on the low end off carbonation, so using the whole packet does seem excessive. However I would shoot for 2.2 volumes of CO2. 1.8 volumes is pretty low and I believe most bottled stouts are higher than this. I also think anything under 2 volumes is tough to appreciate if you are not used to it - and most folks have never had a beer this low, so it is better to err on the higher side of low in this case. Just my $0.02 anyway.

The whole packet isn't going to "ruin" you beer, but it will be out of style. As stated, Irish Stouts are typically more lightly carbonated than typical ales. Use the 2.5-3.0 oz to keep it in the style guidelines, and sprinkle the rest on a breakfast grapefruit or corn flakes!