Palmer's Nomograph for Priming

Am I supposed to read this and say at 35F at 2.5 atmospheres typical for APA that I only need 2.5 oz white sugar per 5 gallon batch?

Link to text and page... http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter11-4.html

the temp the nomograph is referring to is the highest temp the beer got to after (or during) fermentation and before priming. what your supposed to do is draw a straight line from the temp through the number of atmospheres you want and see where it intersects the weight of sugar you should use.

You must use the highest temperature the wort has been at after fermentation was complete. The highest temp determines how much residual CO2 is in solution. Higher temp means more of the CO2 has out-gassed and it is not replaced by further fermentation. So, if you secondary at 70F, then later chill to 35F, you use the 70F temp. If your beer has always been at 35F, then you are correct.

Brewham said:

You must use the highest temperature the wort has been at after fermentation was complete. The highest temp determines how much residual CO2 is in solution. Higher temp means more of the CO2 has out-gassed and it is not replaced by further fermentation. So, if you secondary at 70F, then later chill to 35F, you use the 70F temp. If your beer has always been at 35F, then you are correct.

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further fermentation at a lower temp would replace the residual CO2. a beer will not ferment at 35F. the yeast will simply not work at those temps. so in that case i would use the actual fermentation temperature.

I didn't think that graph had a lot of practical value at first. I eventually decided to give it a try and been sold since.

I get the most mileage out of it with my ales. I'll usually ferment around 66-68 degrees and then crank it up to 74 after peak fermentation just to squeeze as much attenuation out as possible. I may or may not cold crash but 74 will be the temp used in my case to calculate priming levels.

My last beer I wanted 3 volumes of CO2 and that came out to be about 5 oz of cane sugar. It came out perfect.

also one thing everyone seems to fail to realize is that that nomograph assumes you are at sea level. you need to add 1F for every 500 feet above sea level you are. its along the same lines as water boiling at a lower temp at higher elevations. the CO2 will come out of solution easier at higher altitudes.