benefit of priming with invert sugar?

probably a stupid question..

i did some searching and i couldnt find exactly what i was looking for so i decided to ask the experts.

i was wondering if there is any benefit for priming a keg of red rye ale with invert sugar. my thinking was that after primary fermentation the yeast may be tired and since invert sugar is easier for the yeast to digest. i have to boil the sugar anyway before i add it to the keg, it wouldnt be much harder to add a pinch of cream of tarter and bring to 300 degrees. thoughts? opinions?

I can't think of any advantage to invert sugar. It would be fine to use, I'm sure, but I don't think there would be any reason to go out of my way to do it.

You are saving the yeast a step and carbonation proceeds quicker in my experience. If you have a pressure cooker, it is easy to invert because the 15 pound pressure setting is good to about 250 degrees. It becomes no more trouble to invert than it does to boil the sugar.

well im three hours from my LHBS and i cant justify the drive for corn suger. i didnt feel it would be right to add plain table sugar for priming

doulovebeef said:

well im three hours from my LHBS and i cant justify the drive for corn suger. i didnt feel it would be right to add plain table sugar for priming

Click to expand...

Well, you can use table sugar if you want. I don't think you'd be able to tell the difference between corn sugar, table sugar or invert sugar in the taste of the carbed up beer.

But, I forgot to say in my first post above that it's NOT a stupid question at all! It's actually a very good question!

doulovebeef said:

well im three hours from my LHBS and i cant justify the drive for corn suger. i didnt feel it would be right to add plain table sugar for priming

Click to expand...

Well, there is nothing 'magical' about corn sugar over table sugar. It may take a little more time but since the bottle is 'live' the yeast will eventually clean up by products. Like I said, if you boil the sugar anyhow, then inverting isn't going 'that much further'. Pressure cooker? No brainer, pop it all in and turn off the heat when it reaches temp.

I have inverted and fermented sugar in beers before and from my experience, invert sugar will start fermenting very quickly (little to no lag phase, fermentation starts within 30 minutes to an hour). I couldn't notice any different effect that it had on flavor or overall quality of the beer so it's probably not worth the trouble.

It does take boiling temperatures for 10+ minutes and a pH at or below 4 (citric acid inverts best, well hydrochloric actually, but you can't add stomach acid to your brew)

thanks for all the answers! Hermit, ill get the pressure cooker a shot cuz im always willing to try something new, and this is probably the last 'real' use of my pressure cooker once i figure out how im going to start my steam mash system. thanks again!

Hermit said:

You are saving the yeast a step and carbonation proceeds quicker in my experience. If you have a pressure cooker, it is easy to invert because the 15 pound pressure setting is good to about 250 degrees. It becomes no more trouble to invert than it does to boil the sugar.

Click to expand...

Hi Hermit (or anyone else),

Can you give more information or a link on using a pressure cooker to invert sugar? I've never heard of this method.

Thanks,

TD

ToledoDave said:

Hi Hermit (or anyone else),

Can you give more information or a link on using a pressure cooker to invert sugar? I've never heard of this method.

Thanks,

TD

Click to expand...

Not really. It is just something I started doing after I realized that the temp in a pressure cooker is around 250 at 15 lbs pressure. The normal temps given are around 240 so I figured it was close enough and no having to worry about checking the temp, stirring and adding water back to make it more liquid. I get a very slight color change, but not much. I always fill a clear bottle first so I can watch what is going on. I haven't done anything 'scientific', but it seems that my yeast will start to flock out earlier if I do this. So, since I boil the sugar anyhow, I just put it in the pressure cooker now with a little acid.

If I remember correctly, the boiling point of water under 10 lbs. pressure is 240f. If that's what you're shooting for just step back the pressure cooker a bit. Mine is adjustable to 5, 10, or 15 psi.

Most pressure cookers have a working pressure setting of 15 psi (approx. 107 kPa) over the existing atmospheric pressure, the standard determined by the United States Department of Agriculture in 1917.[3] At this pressure boost relative to sea-level atmospheric pressure, water boils at 122 °C (252 °F) (refer vapor pressure of water).

Close enough for me... wikipedia....

FWIW, there's no advantage of invert sugar over corn sugar. Corn sugar is just plain old dextrose, aka glucose. Invert sugar is glucose and fructose.
Yeast also don't need invert sugar over sucrose (table sugar); they have an enzyme called invertase that will invert the sucrose for them. They just need a few more hours to make the enzyme.