Bottling today - priming sugar question

So I working on my first batch of beer. I decided to try putting it in a secondary primarily so that I could get experience using the equipment. In the 5 gallon carboy, I discovered that I have less beer than expected.



It looks to me like 4 gallons instead of 5. I suspect that I didn't adequately account for fluid lost due to evaporation during the boil, and I didn't have a good way to accurately measure water by the gallon so I had to wing it on brew day a few weeks ago. It still tasted OK when I moved it to the secondary, so I'm not worried, but I'll be more careful next time.

So my question is - since I have 20% less beer, should I reduce the priming sugar by 20% before I bottle it? I made this from a Brewers Best kit and it came with a bag of priming sugar with instructions to mix the whole bunch in prior to bottling. But I also don't want bottle bombs!

I'm put it in my kegerator to cold crash on Friday and plan on bottling this evening after dinner.

A good rule of thumb for priming sugar is 1oz sugar per 1 gallon of beer.

Good Luck!

1 oz by volume or by weight? The kit bag isn't marked with a quantity so I'd have to measure it myself.

Try this calculator.

http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/priming.html

Here is an oz to cup conversion tool.

http://www.convertunits.com/from/oz/to/cup+[US]

I would recommend a cheap digital kitchen scale it come in hand for priming sugar and yeast starters.

JLW said:

Try this calculator.

http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/priming.html

Here is an oz to cup conversion tool.

http://www.convertunits.com/from/oz/to/cup+[US]

I would recommend a cheap digital kitchen scale it come in hand for priming sugar and yeast starters.

Click to expand...

That is a calculator to convert from fl oz to cups. Priming sugar is normally measured by weight in ounces. So you're liable to come up short if you use that calculator.

3/4 cup of corn sugar is a safe bet. The best option by far is to get a kitchen scale and weigh it though, this allows you to modify the volumes of Co2 to style and weigh the priming sugar accordingly.

Thanks for the help everyone!

Do you have an extra bottle? You could pour in water until you hit the same mark and then know the volume of beer for sure.
Yeah digital kitchen scales come in handy! 15 bucks or so these days will do it. Maybe 20.

jaycount said:

That is a calculator to convert from fl oz to cups. Priming sugar is normally measured by weight in ounces. So you're liable to come up short if you use that calculator.

3/4 cup of corn sugar is a safe bet. The best option by far is to get a kitchen scale and weigh it though, this allows you to modify the volumes of Co2 to style and weigh the priming sugar accordingly.

Click to expand...

Your right. I clicked on the wrong calculator. There are a bunch out there.

Until I purchased a scale it was a PITA to get accurate measurements. Scale is a must have piece of equipment.

tvtoms said:

Do you have an extra bottle? You could pour in water until you hit the same mark and then know the volume of beer for sure.
Yeah digital kitchen scales come in handy! 15 bucks or so these days will do it. Maybe 20.

Click to expand...

Yeah I've seen alot on amazon in the $15-30 range that can cover from .1oz (hops measurements) to 10 lbs (grain measurements).

Measuring is good

You can get a close approx of the volume in your carboy by measuring the diameter of the carboy and the height of the top level of beer...... use inches for both

Volume(cubic inches)=3.14 x Height x (Diameter^2) / 4
Now convert the Volume to gals by dividing by 231