priming sugar, how much is too much?

A thread just down the page got me to wondering this. How much CO2 can you cram into a beer before you you need protective equipment to drink it?

I typically use 3 to 5 oz of corn sugar to prime my bottles and it works great(depending on style). But say I wanted to make something extra bubbly, a hard cider maybe, without getting into corked and wire caged champagne bottles.

3 volumes is where standard beer bottles start to fail, so i'd prime to no more than 3 (with 2.8 being a safer number to stick with).

use an online priming calculator to figure out how many volumes of CO2 you'll get from a given amount of sugar.

there are thicker bottles that can be capped. some champagne bottles can be capped. use either one if you're going to go above 3 volumes.

Looks like 5 oz per 5 gallons is about the Max then. Don't want anyoneo chance any explosions :-D

madcow_number_6 said:

Looks like 5 oz per 5 gallons is about the Max then. Don't want anyoneo chance any explosions :-D

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I use 5.8oz often with no problems. I use that amount with my Hefeweizen's and Belgian Wit's. But, I am using Franziskaner bottles that I delabeled - the 500ml (16.9oz) brown ones. Not sure if that would make any difference. Also just bottled a pumpkin ale with 5.8oz since I wanted a bit higher carbonation to really effervesce the spices. Outside of that my usual amount is 5.4 - 5.6 on average.


Rev.

I've got a mishmash of bottles, so I guess if i start pushing my volume I'll load them up into a Rubbermaid tub to reduce bystander fatality rates. Just to be on the safe side