How much priming sugar?

Using the calculator located here: Priming Sugar Calculator - Northern Brewer

This will be my first time bottling a batch that I cold crashed in my garage for a day at about 45*F. So my question is, how do I know what temperature to put into this calculator?

If I go with the temperature that the beer fermented at (70*F), I will need 20.63g of corn sugar. Or am I supposed to put the temperature that the beer is currently at now that I left it in the garage (45*F, means I would need 7.53g of corn sugar)?

I know that at lower temperatures the beer will already have more CO2 in it, which is why it requires less sugar to carbonate. But I only left it at the lower temperature for a day, and at that point fermentation was already completed so I don't think that it would have any more CO2 in it than it had when it was at 70* just the day before.

Advise please!

The temperature to use is basically the highest temperature the beer reached for a sustained period as fermentation is winding up, or after it finished fermenting. 70F sounds correct to me.

As an aside, you might want to just keep your beer at 45F for a few days, as this will help clarify it before priming & bottling.

How big is your batch, 20 grams is nothin!

Thanks for the tip. I may just keep it in the garage for another day or two in that case.

This is just a 2 gallon batch of ESB, and according to Northern Brewer an ESB is normally carbonated to 1.5 volumes. Does this sound correct to you guys? The beers I have made before have all been between 2-2.5 volumes of CO2. Would it make a big difference if I carbonated it more, or is that really just up to personal preference?

I'm also cold crashing an ale for the first time (4 week primary), using the highest temperature that the beer was kept at (70F after active fermentation, 67F controlled temperature during active fermenation).

I did 2 ESB's back-to-back. One was 1.8 vol CO2 (after a friend talked me out of carbonating it to 1.5 vol based on his experience) and the second was 2.2 vol CO2. I liked the carbonation and head of the second one better and would repeat that.

The 2.2 vol CO2 seemed undercarbonated still compared to commercial american ales (obviously the ESB isn't in that category). I felt I had to defend/educate friends drinking it because it took a rough pour to get a 1" head. The 1.8 vol CO2 was practically flat.

I think it is personal taste and how many times you want to describe why it's flat beer.

DSmith said:

I'm also cold crashing an ale for the first time (4 week primary), using the highest temperature that the beer was kept at (70F after active fermentation, 67F controlled temperature during active fermenation).

I did 2 ESB's back-to-back. One was 1.8 vol CO2 (after a friend talked me out of carbonating it to 1.5 vol based on his experience) and the second was 2.2 vol CO2. I liked the carbonation and head of the second one better and would repeat that.

The 2.2 vol CO2 seemed undercarbonated still compared to commercial american ales (obviously the ESB isn't in that category). I felt I had to defend/educate friends drinking it because it took a rough pour to get a 1" head. The 1.8 vol CO2 was practically flat.

I think it is personal taste and how many times you want to describe why it's flat beer.

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Well to be fair in the UK they often have a sparkler attached to the faucet to get the foamy head with low carbonation.

1.5 volumes is just about flat. If you like your ESBs pretty flat, then that's probably "to style". I like almost all of my bottled beers carbed to 2.2-2.6 volumes so I would carb it up more.

Yooper said:

1.5 volumes is just about flat. If you like your ESBs pretty flat, then that's probably "to style". I like almost all of my bottled beers carbed to 2.2-2.6 volumes so I would carb it up more.

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I agree. Even though some styles are supposed to be low co2 volumes, it's just not for me...I carb them higher than the charts say.