Amount of sugar in bottles

The amount of beer we have is closer to the 6.5 gallon mark than the 5 gallon mark. Should I scale up the amount of sugar that I use for bottling? Would cane sugar work as well?

cane sugar will work also. there is a calculator somewhere that tells you how much to use depanding on what you are priming with (Honey, Dextrose, Sucrose, Maple Syrup, Malasis, other) (I am at work, so cannot look it up for you)

multiply your priming sugar amount by 1.3, as you have 1.3X larger batch.

I agree with Arkador. Also, the subject of the post made it sound like you are adding sugar directly to the bottles. Although that will work, it is much easier to simply add the priming sugar into your whole batch in the bottling bucket and giving it a good stir. Try not to oxidize the batch while stirring, but this will give you a much more consistent carbonation level with all of your bottles. It will also save you tons of time compared with weighing out sugar for each bottle addition.

rsmith179 said:

the subject of the post made it sound like you are adding sugar directly to the bottles. Although that will work, it is much easier to simply add the priming sugar into your whole batch in the bottling bucket and giving it a good stir. Try not to oxidize the batch while stirring, but this will give you a much more consistent carbonation level with all of your bottles.

Click to expand...

I use this method..

1: Boil 2cups water for 10min, in the last 2 min add the priming sugar (whatever kind you are going to use)
2: pour it into your empty bottling bucket
3: Rack your beer into the bottling bucket so that the force of the racking causes it to gently swirl (set the hose so it wraps arround the inside bottom)

Some people say cool the priming solution, some say it doesn't matter. 2cups of boiling liquid will not burt your beer, plenty of yeast will make it into the bottle to create carbonation.

Same here, I boil Approx 2 cups (its never exact) for 10 mins to get rid of any chlorine in the water. remove from heat (so I don't darken the DME) add the DME and then mix with wisk thats been in the star san, let set for a second and then mix in with the wort. I like to use the term "fold-in" as I do not want to mix so rough I blend in O2 also.

Is it a faux pas to discuss *carbonation drops* here or what? I haven't seen anything written about them, and they've given me nothing but frothy bliss in every bottle.

scrambledegg81 said:

Is it a faux pas to discuss *carbonation drops* here or what? I haven't seen anything written about them, and they've given me nothing but frothy bliss in every bottle.

Click to expand...

Plenty of people use them, but they are more expensive and you can't carb your bottles to a specific volume like you can with dextrose (or other sugars).

Cane sugar works wonderfully. I use nothing else.
This is a good calculator.
TastyBrew.com | Homebrewing Calculators | Botting Priming Calculator

But you can do it long hand if you want. Here is a good read on it.
Brew Your Own: The How-To Homebrew Beer Magazine - Carbonation Priming Chart

If you have a scale that weighs down to a tenth of a gram you can even weigh it out on a per bottle basis.