Priming sugar substitute

I just got 3 ingredient kits from Northern brewer. They don't include priming sugar, and I'd rather not pay $7.99 in shipping to have it mailed to me. The closest beer supply store is 80 miles away. My local grocery stores don't have corn sugar. As a substitute, the rep at Northern Brewer said to use 2/3 cup of table sugar in 2 cups water. Does that sound like good advice, or not? Thanks.

Yeah, it's fine. I have no idea why people spend money on corn sugar for priming. There is so little sugar being added that even if it did add any kind of flavor (which it doesn't anyway) you wouldn't be able to pick it up. I always use table sugar.

Same here - been priming with table sugar for a while now.

Cane sugar is fine. Go here:
KotMF: Priming Sugar Calculator
to figure out how much you need (varies based on desired carbonation level, which is different from style to style).

There's a little dropdown on the page that lists different beer styles and their usual carbonation range, so just find your style and pick the middle of the range if you aren't sure.

You only have to fill out the volume of beer, desired carbonation, temperature of beer, and kind of sugar and hit calculate--it'll figure out the residual CO2 and the rest on its own.

I just posted this on another thread, glad to help:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/prime-other-types-sugar-97782/

KayaBrew said:

I just posted this on another thread, glad to help:

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f14/prime-other-types-sugar-97782/

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That link doesn't tell you how many volumes of CO2 you're carbing to. The amount of sugar you use is going to vary based on that.

Also, it doesn't really make any sense to use different amounts of CO2 for kegging vs. bottling. The volumes of CO2 don't depend on the container size. I guess your tank would wind up force carbing up the difference anyway, but why bother priming then? I'd either prime fully and carb naturally, or skip priming and force-carb fully.

machinegunner said:

As a substitute, the rep at Northern Brewer said to use 2/3 cup of table sugar in 2 cups water. Does that sound like good advice, or not? Thanks.

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Table sugar works fine for priming.

If you can swing a 1/10th oz or a gram scale I'd do it. (about $15 off eBay, shipped) I think it will make small measurements like hops, priming sugar, etc, much easier and hella accurate.

Thanks for the advice. I spaced picking up priming sugar during my last trip to LHBS, so this is helpful!

I found that some kitchen gadget/gormet food stores have corn sugar. Also there it can be found in some healthfood stores. But table sugar will do in a pinch. You really don't need a whole lot.

+1 for table sugar. I use it all the time. I see no reason to use corn sugar.

unionrdr said:

I use the priming calculator @ http://www.brewheads.com/priming.php
Worked out well for me.

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Great calculator! It's now in ma favorites :rockin:

great info, I have been trying to tell some of the guys to use table sugar, so now they can see.

machinegunner said:

use 2/3 cup of table sugar in 2 cups water. Does that sound like good advice, or not?

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Yes, that's right. Or even a little less. I use more like 5/8 cup for 5 gallons. I've been doing this for probably the past 100 batches. Works great every time.