Priming Sugar Amount

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NTL

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I am at the point of bottling my first batch of beer, however the instructions I have failed to mention how much priming sugar I should be using. I am using a Edme microbrewery series Red Ale recipe. Does anyone have specific knowledge of this recipe or a good rule of thumb to go by?

Any help would be much appreciated as I was hoping to get the bottling done tonight.
 
I think 3/4 cup for a 5 gallon batch is standard. Does eveyone else agree?
 
that's standard and what i've always used. a lot of people go with 4 ounces for a 5 gallon batch.

i think i'm going to start measuring mine in weight and being more exact for my exact finished quantity, tho. i've been making 4-6 gallon batches so it varies now.
 
Most of the kits from BB and Northern Brewer come standard with 5 ounces priming sugar/5 gallon batch... Dissolved in 2 cups of boiling water, then cooled.
 
DeathBrewer said:
that's standard and what i've always used. a lot of people go with 4 ounces for a 5 gallon batch.

i think i'm going to start measuring mine in weight and being more exact for my exact finished quantity, tho. i've been making 4-6 gallon batches so it varies now.

I started with a "5 ounce" bag of priming sugar, about 4 cups worth was used for primary sugar. If I were to add another 3/4 cup of sugar for carbination the 5 oz bag would still be about 1/3 full.

Any further insight? I think I'm going to go with 3/4 cup since it is also recommended on the priming sugar bag.
 
3/4 cup is fine.

Dissolve it in 2 cups of water and boil it for 10 minutes.

Allow it to cool for a little while (15 - 20 mins sitting on the stove or in the fridge with the lid on is what I do), then pour it into your bottling bucket.

Siphon the beer into the bottling bucket with the sugar solution. Swirl gently with the racking cane a few times to make sure the priming solution is well mixed.

Bottle.

BTW...1 cup of corn sugar weighs about 6 ounces. So you must have a magic bag of priming sugar.
 
NTL said:
I started with a "5 ounce" bag of priming sugar, about 4 cups worth was used for primary sugar. If I were to add another 3/4 cup of sugar for carbination the 5 oz bag would still be about 1/3 full.

Any further insight? I think I'm going to go with 3/4 cup since it is also recommended on the priming sugar bag.
3/4 cup is fine, but this may be of some use:

Carbonation Calculator
 
I like a bit more carbonation in my ale and use one cup (about 5 ounces) of corn sugar for a five gallon batch. Up to 25% either side of 4 ounces would be fine. More than that gets very exciting, less just gets boring.

Tom
 
Whatever you do DON'T use the cup measurement that many people recommend. Stick with the 4-5 oz per 5 gal batch.

If you fill a cup with sugar and tap it a few times it'll compress. If you use that (measurement) then you'll end up over-priming. ;)
 
The more priming sugar you add, the more carbonation you get.
The previous answers are all from Americans, and Americans tend to like rather more carbonation in their beer than most others.
Also be aware that the British measuring cup is about 12% larger than the American.

-a.
 
When I was last doing homebrewing 10 years ago, the standard method was to measure a small amount of the sugar into each bottle for priming, and to rack directly from the secondary into the bottles. I would rather not risk contamination and oxidization by putting the beer into a 'bottling bucket'. However, there is no way to mix the sugar into the secondary without stirring up the yeast. So sugar into each bottle seems a better way to do this. What do you think?
 
When I was last doing homebrewing 10 years ago, the standard method was to measure a small amount of the sugar into each bottle for priming, and to rack directly from the secondary into the bottles. I would rather not risk contamination and oxidization by putting the beer into a 'bottling bucket'. However, there is no way to mix the sugar into the secondary without stirring up the yeast. So sugar into each bottle seems a better way to do this. What do you think?

You got it wrong in your thinking, first it's much easier to get a controlled carbonation to style by mixing in the bottling bucket, it is nearly impossible to get the same amount of loose sugar crystals into each individual bottle.

Actually, if you look at the history of homebrewing, most bottle bombs came from priming individual bottles, because that was how it was done throughout the history of early homebrewing even up to the 1970's when it was legalized. . Because you really can't accurately measure sugar and easily get it in the bottle with those tools, and even one or two grains can be too much sugar. Plus adding dry sugar to wet beer can much more easily lead to inconsistant carbonation as some of the sugar my clump and not easily dissolve, and just sit in the bottom of the bottle, it is much better to boil it up and prime bulk. Additional there is a further risk of bottle bombs by dry priming sugar in bottles, and that is due to sanitization....especially if you grab your sugar right out of the sugar jar at home, boiling the sugar in water actually sterilizes it.

Back in the day it wasn't just one rare bottle that blew up, but entire cases, sounding like a string of firecrackers going of, BOOM BOOM BOOM BOOM...you get the idea....

Bulk priming is much more precise and sanitary than your old way....

additionally your fear of oxydation is waaaaay overblown, if it were so bad for brewing, if it was such a big risk of that sort of thing, do you really think Palmer, Papazian and all the other books would be showing how to rack a beer to a bottling bucket?

If you rack carefully, there is no need to worry about stuff like that.

There is a brief discussion about this between me and another brewer from yesterday here...https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/bottling-oxygen-problem-214808/#post2514469
 
It certainly did not seem hard in the past to add the very fine grained sugar to each bottle using an appropriately sized purpose made measure. I never had a problem with bottle bombs or inconsistent carbonation. I'm not sure if I'm convinced that oxidization is not a problem with all the transfers.
 
I am using PET bottles for my bottling and already after 1 day in the bottles, you can feel that they are quite pressurized. Just wondering what the rate of carbonation is over a week? I added 3/4 cup of dextrose to a standard batch.
 
I normally use 5oz of corn sugar or 4.8oz of table sugar depending on what I have on hand. Thats suitable for IPAs and Pale Ales. I find that it takes about 3 weeks of bottle conditioning to achieve an appropriate level of carbonation. I bought a cheap $5 food scale at Target to measure.

For my Hefe's I use 6oz if corn sugar.
 
When I was bottling I would just pickup the packet of priming sugar. My local shop had them pre-measured for 5 gallon batches. If I ordered online it was the same; I just clicked the box for priming sugar at checkout.

Granted I was a brand new brewer when I was bottle conditioning, and only held with the practice for about 4 batches before I became envious of my brewing buddies having kegorators.

The way I read your question I am guessing you are trying to achieve the proper C02 amount to match the style?
 
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