Enough priming sugar?

[Walshy87]

I'm starting to second guess myself on how much priming sugar I used please help.

I have about 4.5 gallon of ESB and directions said to use 3/4 cup of dextrose, but I didn't have any so I used table sugar. I looked on several priming calculators and they said around .26-.3 cups so I used 1/3 cup of sugar. After reading some threads several people say they use 1 oz per gallon which for 4.5 g would a little over half a cup or almost twice what I used.

So I'm confused, did I not use enough? Is it fixable?

Any help is greatly appreciated

 

[duboman]

1 oz per gallon is for dextrose/priming sugar, not table sugar/sucrose. I believe the values for sucrose are less but I don't use it so i'm not 100% sure.

 

[kh54s10]

I use the calculator from Northern Brewer. I carbonate to the style of beer. It gives amounts close to what you used.

Also an ESB wants pretty low carbonation levels.

http://www.northernbrewer.com/priming-sugar-calculator/

Also it is much better to weigh your sugar as this is much more accurate than volume which varies by how densely packed the sugar gets in the measuring cup.

 

[TheHomebrewNerd]

In How to Brew, John Palmer says to use 2/3 cup white table sugar, or 3/4 cup corn sugar (dextrose) as a general rule. You do need to keep in mind what your target carbonation level is though. For an ESB made to style you'd want less carbonation than you'd want for something like a North American Light Lager.

Having said that, you are better off to measure your priming sugar by weight and not by volume. The amount you get in a measuring cup will depend on how densely you pack the cup. You can be more consistent using weight.

You will likely be on the lower end of the carbonation scale, but that may be just fine for this ESB. I'd let it fully carbonate and see if you find it acceptable or not.

 

[Walshy87]

Thanks!

If its not carbonated enough am I SOL?

 

[TheHomebrewNerd]

Thanks!

If its not carbonated enough am I SOL?

You might be able to gently remove the bottle caps, add a bit more sugar and recap. I've never done this before, but I think it can be done. Of course you'd need to warm your bottles back up to room temp for the yeast to ferment out the new priming sugar.

 

[Walshy87]

Good new I looked at one this evening and shakes it up a little and it was bubbly, hopefully that's a good sign.

 

[Walshy87]

Because I'm impatient I had one tonight. Surprisingly it's already fairly carbed and taste delicious! Although it smells a lot like farts, is that normal?

 

[Walshy87]

It took a little while but it carbed up nicely!