Using honey or brown sugar as a priming sugar

My Honey Brown Ale calls for honey OR brown sugar as a priming sugar.

The salesperson at my local homebrew shop said that he never uses anything but "normal" priming sugar.

Two interesting side notes:

1) The local homebrew shop does not stock or sell honey or brown sugar.
2) The recipe I am using is one of the "canned" recipes that said shop has on their website.

Please chime in on this.

Do you have any good or bad experiences using honey or brown sugar for priming purposes?

No help here?

You can use either. But it will rest in a different flavor, not a lot but a tiny bit. Regular priming sugar ferments out completely and doesn't lean rally any flavor but honey and Brown sugar are I believe more complex so they will leave a little bit of flavor. That's just my thoughts good Lu k

Just be aware that you need to use a different amount if you go with honey. Not sure about brown sugar, since I've never primed with it.

General rule of thumb is to use 1.25x the normal sugar amount in honey to obtain the same carbonation level. Also, honey can take longer to carbonate than the other sugars. I wouldn't be discouraged though, since I've used it before with good results.

Use this site to help figure out how much honey to use. Keep in mind, you want to WEIGH honey just as you would regular priming sugar. Don't use volume measurements for this.

According to John Palmer, you can use either for priming. Honey is 95% fermentable & Brown sugar is 97% fermentable. Meaning you may be able to taste the percentage that is unfermentable. For a 5 gallon batch he recommends 4.7 oz of honey or 4 oz of brown sugar.

I haven't used either, but the above information is in the book How to Brew, and it's been dead on accurate for everything that I have tried.

Good luck!

I've used honey with great success. The head and carbonation I got from using honey was very nice. Small, tight bubbles, and great lacing down the glass. Just make sure you use a priming calculator to determine how much you should use...

cholmes said:

You can use either. But it will rest in a different flavor, not a lot but a tiny bit. Regular priming sugar ferments out completely and doesn't lean rally any flavor but honey and Brown sugar are I believe more complex so they will leave a little bit of flavor. That's just my thoughts good Lu k

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Any thoughts on which to use for a honey brown ale? I am thinking honey based upon my tasting after a gravity reading.

Also, curious to know if people agree that priming sugar is "the only way" when it comes to priming for bottling.

Golddiggie said:

Just be aware that you need to use a different amount if you go with honey. Not sure about brown sugar, since I've never primed with it.

General rule of thumb is to use 1.25x the normal sugar amount in honey to obtain the same carbonation level. Also, honey can take longer to carbonate than the other sugars. I wouldn't be discouraged though, since I've used it before with good results.

Use this site to help figure out how much honey to use. Keep in mind, you want to WEIGH honey just as you would regular priming sugar. Don't use volume measurements for this.

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This is really great but I am a noob and I have no idea what to put for volume of CO2 desired.

Jarrodaden, there are plenty of sources to say that Priming sugar (corn sugar I'm guessing) is NOT the only way. I've been using regular white cane sugar for the last few batches and it's worked great. You can use honey, brown sugar, molasses, Maple syrup, DME, candy sugar, and probably more things that aren't coming to mind just yet. Molasses has the least amount of fermentable sugars of the ones listed, so it will impart the most noticeable flavor.

You can try using this one. It gives you examples of different volumes depending on style
http://www.fattymattybrewing.com/homebrew_recipes/index.php?page=tools&section=sugar&action=entry

Stauffbier said:

You can try using this one. It gives you examples of different volumes depending on style
http://www.fattymattybrewing.com/homebrew_recipes/index.php?page=tools&section=sugar&action=entry

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Nope that still has desired co2 volume and I have no clue what to enter.

jarrodaden said:

This is really great but I am a noob and I have no idea what to put for volume of CO2 desired.

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There's a pull-down item with different styles that also has the CO2 volumes range with it... Is this an American or English brown ale??

I use honey and it is nice in a subtle way. Use 4.7 oz for five gallons for standard priming. This is equivalent to 4 oz of corn sugar.

Has anyone used something crazy like soda syrup?

jarrodaden said:

Nope that still has desired co2 volume and I have no clue what to enter.

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It actually has a chart at the bottom of the page that gives you example of different volumes according to style... So the question is, what style does your brew fall under?! Did you use an American yeast, or belgian yeast, etc. Was it ale or lager, etc, etc...

I am really unleashing my inner noob on this one... I used white labs California ale yeast. Between 4 and 5.5 ounces of honey depending on the co variable I use. I will go with the recommended 4.7 which is close enough considering I do not have a scale.

I had a same problem, and I don't know what to use. I don't like honey but it seem's more delicious.

kevin009 said:

I had a same problem, and I don't know what to use. I don't like honey but it seem's more delicious.

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Once fermented there is no real honey taste. Especially in the quantities we are talking about (less than an ounce per gallon).

kaconga said:

I use honey and it is nice in a subtle way. Use 4.7 oz for five gallons for standard priming. This is equivalent to 4 oz of corn sugar.

Has anyone used something crazy like soda syrup?

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Dr. Pepper Ale? Hmmmm

I only use honey to prime and love the results. I use 3 tablespoons per gallon, or 63 grams per gallon. You will definitely get a hint of the smell and taste in the honey. It does depend on what type you use though. Search the forums for honey on here, there has been many discussions on this

Jarrodaden,
As others are saying, you can use any sort of sugar to prime your beer. As long as it is fermentable it will work. The main things to consider are that different sugars offer different levels of carbonation, and impart some flavors occasionally.
White sugar carbonates a bit more, but no added flavors
corn sugar ferments all away with a nice level of carbonation, which is why its the usual choice.
Both brown sugar and Honey will impart some flavors which is why they aren't used much, BUT it sounds like in this beer those flavors are desired I would say go with it!
One more thing about Honey, every batch is different so you aren't going to get a scientific match with it. 1 cup of honey in batch A might have less sugar in it than 1 cup of honey in Batch B.