Qs on Brewing with Party Pig

I recently got a couple of party pigs so I didn't have to mess with bottles any more, I followed the 'structions that came with the pigs but was unclear on a few things.

-It gives info on how much priming sugar to use, but not on using DME. I estimated to use 2/3 cup of amber DME for five gallons, and the beer wasn't very carbonated. Any ideas of how much I should be using?

-Regarding technique, here's how I got the beer into the pigs:
=Boiled some water with the DME in it for the usual amount of time
=Added it to my sanitized brewing bucket
=Transferred the beer from the secondary into the bucket
=Carefully stirred without splashing to ensure the malt was distributed throughout
=Transferred the beer into the pigs, added the pouch, and so on...

Is this the best and easiest way to do this? The PP instructions lead me to believe that the xfer to the bottling bucket may not be necessary.

Thanks for any advice!
Zipr

Why are you using DME to prime? That costs like 4 times as much as table sugar.

If it were me, I would just put sugar in the pig (a measured amount of course) and rack the beer on top of it, crimp on the spout, activate the pouch and wait 2 weeks for yummy beer.

I used DME because I had some left over and didn't have any priming sugar on hand. You can use 'normal' table sugar to prime? If so, do you use the same amount?

ChrisKennedy said:

Why are you using DME to prime? That costs like 4 times as much as table sugar.

If it were me, I would just put sugar in the pig (a measured amount of course) and rack the beer on top of it, crimp on the spout, activate the pouch and wait 2 weeks for yummy beer.

Click to expand...

If you do this, make sure the sugar soln is cooled significantly. I melted a pig once in my impatience.