First time home brewing

Hi everyone! I am new to the forum today and I have a question about my first time brewing. I recently got a recipe from a local beer shop which I can post if needed. My question is: when do I use priming sugar? The recipe calls for dry malts (which I have) will these create the carbonation in the beer? Sorry if this question seems elementary I am a first time brewer. Thanks for your help in advance. I can post the recipe if needed.

The priming sugar is what's going to provide the carbonation. You're going to mix that into the wort before you bottle it. The residual yeast in the wort is eat the priming sugar and make the carbonation. The dry malt is the bulk of your recipe and will make your alcohol and flavor.

You will use the priming sugar when you are ready to bottle, not on your brew day.
Just set it aside for now. You wont need it for a couple weeks.

Welcome to HBT. Its like the Libary of Congress for brewing.

Hello, the Dry malts are for making the wort (beer) and the priming sugar is added after fermentation is done and right before bottling.

Mix the priming sugar in 2 cups of boiling water, let cool to 70 deg then put in the bottling bucket, then rack your beer on top of the sugar/water, then bottle.

Cheers and welcome!

use dry malts and hops first. Add yeast and ferment. After a couple weeks in the fermenter, when the beer is ready for bottling, THEN add the priming sugar. It is the last thing you do to the beer, immediately before bottling

Thanks guys! I thought that is when I should use the priming sugar but wanted to be sure. It seems like there is a lot of info here. One more question if you don't mind...I have a glass carboy to put my wort in. When it's time to bottle I would put the beer in the bottling bucket that came with my kit, correct? Also is the priming sugar something I can buy at the beer shop? Thanks again this is a huge help!

I don't have a bottling bucket so I can't say if it's better than going from the carboy or not. Though if it's the carboy that you used for primary fermentation, I would definitely transfer to the bucket first.

The priming sugar should be available at your brew store. I know all of the stores around me have an ample supply of it in various quantities to fit your needs.

mikerock said:

Thanks guys! I thought that is when I should use the priming sugar but wanted to be sure. It seems like there is a lot of info here. One more question if you don't mind...I have a glass carboy to put my wort in. When it's time to bottle I would put the beer in the bottling bucket that came with my kit, correct? Also is the priming sugar something I can buy at the beer shop? Thanks again this is a huge help!

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Yes, ferment in the carboy. Transfer to the bucket when it is time to bottle. Your LHBS should stock priming sugar, if is any good at all

Seems like a good way to go, and yes, I imagine every local brew store has priming sugar(corn sugar) on the planet, or at least they should...

Corn sugar is what's prefered, if not dry malt extract (DME), but table sugar, brown sugar, honey, etc. can be used.

I used to use carbonation drops, but forgot to order some, and so on bottling day I had to make due with table sugar. And I've been using it ever since. It's cheap and always available, and it doesn't count towards my beer supply allowance!

rodwha said:

Corn sugar is what's prefered, if not dry malt extract (DME), but table sugar, brown sugar, honey, etc. can be used.

I used to use carbonation drops, but forgot to order some, and so on bottling day I had to make due with table sugar. And I've been using it ever since. It's cheap and always available, and it doesn't count towards my beer supply allowance!

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So far, I've put everything in a keg but wanted to take a few bottles of my Farmhouse 7 to my parent's for the Christmas. So I bottled four 22 oz bottles just using a dash of table sugar. Three of the bottles were sorta flat but one was perfect. I think it was due to the amount of time they had to carbonate though or just not enough sugar. But regardless is worked fine.

Thanks so much! Love this site already.

I'm in the MrBeer kit thread too, but this seems appropriate to post here also.

I have my LBK going, will be a week on Thursday. Will the type of priming sugar change the flavor at all? Is it worth trying, just to see what happens? I can't ruin the beer if I use honey for 1/3, brown sugar for 1/3 and white sugar for the other 1/3, right?

bzwyatt said:

I'm in the MrBeer kit thread too, but this seems appropriate to post here also.

I have my LBK going, will be a week on Thursday. Will the type of priming sugar change the flavor at all? Is it worth trying, just to see what happens? I can't ruin the beer if I use honey for 1/3, brown sugar for 1/3 and white sugar for the other 1/3, right?

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different priming sugars will produce slight differences in the finished product, but will not "hurt" anything. Your experiment is a good way to see some of those differences first-hand

It's such a minute portion to the beer that I'm not sure if you could tell the difference. Maybe.

Maybe trying each individually is in order. Of course it would be best to try each on the same batch so as to eliminate any other differences...