Party pig priming amount question

I have an IPA that is ready to bottle. Using tastybrew's calculator I come up with 3.1 ounces of corn sugar for a 4 gallon batch to get 2.3 volumes of CO2. How much less should I use for two party pigs instead of bottles?


Will it carbonate any slower or faster than bottles?

It'll carb the same rate. Typically what i've done for my pigs is use what is recommended (1/3c corn sugar?) - which seems to be a "middle of the road" style. Then for styles which typically has a noticable higher level of carb i just add slightly more sugar.

Main thing is not to add the "normal" amount of bottling sugar to the pigs - it's a pain to manage everytime you want a beer a couple weeks down the road and every glass is 3/4 foam.

I measured and weighed 1/3 cup for each of the two pigs. They weigh 1.5 & 1.8 ounces. Which is more than the 3.1 oz calculated for 4 gallons in bottles. If I adjust to 1.5 oz each it works out to slightly less.

How many volumes of co2 is in a "middle of the road style"?

Is the "normal" amount of sugar the 5 oz that come with recipe kits or the amount typically calculated for a specific style?

If you're working from a kit, 4gal seems kind of an odd volume of finished beer to me. Weird enought to think that the kit's recipe is intended for 5gal of beer and that that's what 5oz of priming sugar is for.

Bear in mind that you have less beer than the pigs' capacity is! The pig priming ratio is 1/3c per 2.25gal (please double check that with the pig instructions - but i'm pretty sure that's right). Assuming you're splitting your 4gal equally in both pigs, that's only 2gal beer per pig.

So:

0.333c theoretical sugar = Xc actual sugar
----------------------- = -------------------- = 0.296c sugar per pig
2.25gal theoretical beer = 2gal actual beer

and 0.296c x 2 (two pigs) = 0.592c sugar for two pigs. Since you're weight per 1/3c is somewhat different in two cases, i'll let you do with that what you will. If it were me, and shooting for an IPA, i'd use 2.8oz for 4gal (this assumes 1.6oz per 1/3cup).

This follows what i've typically done for every beer i've ever put in a pig. You'd get a level of carb somewhere between a wheat beer and a flatter porter. I think the typical pig carb (1/3c per 2.25gal beer) lends itself best to something like an amber.

The general rule is that the pig requires significantly less sugar than bottles due to the headspace & volume differences. So if the general pig rule of 1/3c and your calculated value are roughly the same (i wouldn't consider .2oz too different), I'd use less than 1/3c per pig (per 2.25gal that is).

I wish i could give you more info than that, but i can't, as when i use the pigs (i've since moved to kegging) i never used hard numbers in relation to volumes of carb.

The kit was indeed made for 5 gallons. I lost a bit due to trub, dryhopping and I was short on sparge. It was only my second brew and first partial mash. I have since made adjustments to sparge and to account for boil off & trub/transfer loss.

I will use 2.8 oz in the bottling bucket to be sure to get an even spread between the pigs.

Thank you for the info it helps a lot .

No prob. I advise to do as you are planning on doing and always prime the bucket, then dispense to the two pigs. If only doing one pig, it works just as well to add the sugar to the pig first, then the beer on top of the sugar water in the pig. That way, if you only do one pig, you can pig 2.25gal, and add another portion of sugar water to the bottling bucket and bottle the rest without complicated math or forgetting how much sugar is in certain portions, blah blah blah.

Just as long as you stick close to the 1/3c sugar per pig ratio, you won't be disappointed. You could go a little more or less, depending on the style, if you feel advenureous.

This carbed nicely at the recommended amount :rockin:.

Great. More importantly, you now have a starting point to base future batches on - whether you want "undercarbed" or "overcarbed" batches. Never hurts to hit middle-of-the-road with the pigs, i've found.

Brew on!