Ach! I thought I bought "corn sugar", but...

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JLem

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...I bought pure fructose.

Actually, I knew I was buying fructose, but I thought it was the same as "corn sugar" since the package said that it was derived from corn. I bought this stuff as a priming sugar and, now that I have it, would like to use it. I've read various things about cidery flavors and such, yet others dismiss this claim.

Anyone have any issues using fructose as a priming sugar?

If I use it, how much do I use for a 5 gallon batch with "average" carbonation? (It's an English-style Pale Ale)
 
Fructose is just one half of a sucrose molecule. Dextrose is the other half. For priming I would think you could just use the same amount as if you were using dextrose or sucrose, normally 5 oz per 5 gallons. The cidery flavor thing is not an issue with the quantity of sugar used for priming.
 
Fructose is just one half of a sucrose molecule. Dextrose is the other half. For priming I would think you could just use the same amount as if you were using dextrose or sucrose, normally 5 oz per 5 gallons. The cidery flavor thing is not an issue with the quantity of sugar used for priming.

OK. But 5oz seems like an awful lot to use. No?
 
If I enter English Pale Ale, 5 gallons at 67 degrees, I get 0.4 oz - that's an order of magnitude lower

If I use the American Pale Ale setting, I still get under 5 oz.

Where does your 5 oz come from?
it's the volumes of CO2 (1 'volume of CO2' means that one gallon of beer has one gallon of gaseous CO2 dissolved in it). that calculator has 1.025 as the default volumes of CO2 for english pale, which is very low (more-or-less average for an american pale is ~2.5 volumes. if you enter american pale, 5 gallons at 67 degrees, it gives you 4.4 oz of dextrose, for example)

english pales and bitters are traditionally less carbonated than american pale ales, but 1.025 volumes seems _really_ low to me..
 
If I enter English Pale Ale, 5 gallons at 67 degrees, I get 0.4 oz - that's an order of magnitude lower

If I use the American Pale Ale setting, I still get under 5 oz.

Where does your 5 oz come from?

5 oz at 68 degrees is 2.7 volumes. I go for about 2.5 volumes of CO2 on most beers. More for hefeweizen about 3.0.

The list they give is just a basic guideline according to BJCP.
 
If you weigh it out and then compare it to a dry measurement, it would probably be in the neighborhood of 2/3 cup or so.

Check the priming calculators to be sure of the amount, though.

As someone who does a lot of baking (in addition to brewing), always, always weigh any solid. One of the biggest pitfalls of anyone getting into serious baking is failure to realize that measurement by volume is not the same as measurement by weight. My suggestion is that you always weigh (although with sugar, it'll probably pack more uniformly than flour). Given what I see brewers spend on equipment, $25-30 on a digital scale is not a major expense.
 
At what amount of priming sugar do bottle bombs become a concern?
 
At what amount of priming sugar do bottle bombs become a concern?

Tough question to answer, in that most "bottle bombs" are the result of bottling a batch prior to the end of fermentation.

Oh, and just a heads up, lots of brewers claim table sugar will give the same results for priming. I think you use a bit less though, 4 rather than 5 oz??
 
Just to follow-through on this post - I just bottled my English Pale Ale with 4 oz of fructose. The flavor of the flat beer was great - can't wait to taste it fully carbed. Thanks for all the advice/help!
 

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