Stout Carbonation

Just a quick question. Im going to be bottling my Stout and was wondering if one teaspoon of sugar would be about right for carbonation, I haven't got my scales atm so please keep it with basic measures Also I was thinking of trying brown sugar for priming and was hoping for some feedback on the success/failures the community has had with stout and brown sugar priming? (as opposed to white sugar)

If you can get a scale, you'll be much better off. Measuring by weight is much more precise because sugar can be loose or packed in a cup so the same measure by volume can be two different amounts of sugar.

It's much easier to prime the entire batch rather than spooning sugar into each bottle. If you have to measure by volume on this batch (and then pick up a scale for next time) 3/4 cup is a good rule of thumb for a 5 gallon batch.

Bring a small amount of water (just enough to dissolve the sugar) to boil and then dissolve your sugar into it.

Let the sugar water cool and then pour it into your bottling bucket. Rack your beer into the bucket on top of the sugar water and give it a gentle stir.

As you bottle, you may want to stop and give it a gentle stir once or twice during the process to make sure everything stays properly mixed.

Thanks for the reply Chshre, unfortunately I have a couple of problems.

• I have a basic kit so I dont have a secondary or bottling bucket, just the primary
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• I heard that 3/4 cup is a general guide for most beers so won't I probably want less for a stout?

Carbing by volume is not precise at all, especially with brown sugar. 3/4 cup packed in tight vs 3/4 cup just poured in will have significantly different amounts of sugar in it. How do you plan to bottle? Are you dumping sugar in and racking with an autosipon?

how i have done it in the past has been to get the mrs to put two teaspoons of white sugar in each bottle, fill it, cap it and wait. Not very specific with priming measurements at our house

Then I'd stick with that method for this stout, not weighing brown sugar could lead to mess on your hands. If you want less carb just have SWMBO use 1.5 teaspoons of white sugar.

You're right about probably wanting less carbonation for your stout. Without a scale to weight the sugar out, and given your current set-up, I'd suggest you have the mrs put 1-1.5 teaspoons of white sugar in each bottle.

Obviously, this isn't the best method, however.

cheers guys thats pretty much what i thought, hopefully ill be able to get some scales in time for bottling, we need to do something better for bottling then we are now.

I think 1/2 tsp of dextrose per 12 oz bottle is the usual amount when priming individual bottles. Tripling the dose or more could lead to big problems.

I recommend weighing 3 to 4 oz of table sugar, brown sugar, or dextrose, and mixing the entire amount with some boiling water. Cool it slightly and gently stir it into the entire batch.

Here's a good link: http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/priming.html

thanks for the link yuri, that will serve me well I think Im going to have to go to shops tonight and get a bottling bucket and some scales...

Both will serve you well. With the exception of water, i can't think of an ingredient in beer that is added by volume. And one can argue that water isn't added in volume either.

hmmm, sounds like a topic for the drunken rants forum