Priming Sugar: Raw Sugar?

Hello, I'm new to this site and homebrewing in general.


How well does raw (unrefined) sugar work as a priming sugar for bottle carbonation?

Mod edit: This is not extract specific: It's been moved to the relevant forum.

Yeast is still alive and active when you bottle. The yeast then use the sugar added just prior to bottling as more food. One of the byproducts of this process is carbon dioxide. Since the CO2 is locked into the bottle, it has nowhere to go so it is absorbed into the beer creating carbonation. HOORAY BEER!

Raw sugar is ok...the standard though for homebrewers is corn sugar....followed by dry malt extract.

Now saying that different sugars will have different effects. If there's any "flavor" in the sugar, say using brown sugar, after the sugar ferments any unfermentables that contribute to the flavor of that sugar will be left behind.

A couple of craft breweries prime their bottle conditioned pumpkin ales with brown sugar, and you definitely get the mollases flavor in the beer, it is excellent.

Also if you use different sugars, you may need to use different amounts of it to acheive the correct volume of CO2...google priming amounts for different sugars...there's a couple good charts floating around the web.

One can even prime with honey. But honey's sugar content can vary quite a bit, particularly between cheap brands and raw honey from a local apiary.

Tbh, I have primed several batches with regular Cane Sugar and I didn't get any 'Cidery' off flavors. They are very similar in terms of fermentables, but will give you a little higher amount of carbonation per unit weight so make sure you use the right calculator.

Thanks for the help. I'm sure ya'll hear from me again pretty soon.

Here is a carbination chart that i use.