No Priming Sugar!!

[cwhill]

I thought I had a bag of priming sugar! I got everything ready to bottle my BM Octoberfast and AHHHHH...!! None to be found. Can I use cane sugar (table sugar) with good/equvalent results?? Should I just pack everything up until I can get priming sugar? I'm out of DME and I have no other sugars either...Anyone online now with some helpful hints?

Thanks!!!

 

[hoss75]

Nope. Table sugar will give you an even more cidery flavor than corn sugar. Y0u can use it, and the beer will be OK, but it will diminish what you got. Definitly worse than any alternative. If you do use it do so very sparingly. If you happened to have honey or brown sugar or some sort of hippie/orgain/ unaltered/natural cane sugar available it would be much better.
Now that I think about it, the strength of the octoberfest might overcome the acid/cideryflavors the cane sugar will give you. But still, if you have any alternatives, go that route.

 

[hoss75]

If you have O2 that can be used to prime, too.

 

[cwhill]

Bummer,....Well OK I'm glad I posted. I guess better to wait and use the right stuff. I ran up to my local grocery store and they didn't have any cirn sugar. All they had was corn syrup. Is that the same stuff? Is priming sugar just corn sugar? Thanks so much for quick feedback. You guys rock!!

 

[Yuri_Rage]

If you have O2 that can be used to prime, too.

You mean CO2, and you can't prime with gas. You can force carbonate, given the right equipment.

Corn syrup is not exactly like corn sugar. It's the same base ingredient (dextrose), but it has water and flavorings (often vanilla) added.

 

[FishinDave07]

I have primed with both corn sugar and cane sugar. I could not tell the difference. Try using this Carbonation Calculator

 

[cwhill]

You mean CO2, and you can't prime with gas. You can force carbonate, given the right equipment.

Corn syrup is not exactly like corn sugar. It's the same base ingredient (dextrose), but it has water and flavorings (often vanilla) added.

Yeah I figured he meant CO2. But if I had that I would bbe kegging and not bottling. Although I know you can prime a keg. Anyway I did see the corn syrup bottles there with vanilla but the one I grabbed was the dark and it only had caramel flavoring. I figured in a pinch it might work. I've decided to scrap it until I can get to my LHBS and buy some priming sugar.

 

[Bill1968]

I always use cane sugar and have had no problems. Infact, 3 of my beers have won awards in some state wide brewoffs. I have not had any judges feedback sheets say anything about "cidery" tastes. I say use it and you'll have no problems.

 

[TeleTwanger]

you can use honey or maple syrup or invert sugar or table sugar or molasses or a ton of other sugars. I've used honey in a PA with great results, you couldn't taste the honey at all and it fermented really fast. Just be sure to boil the honey for half an hour and skim all the bees knees off.

 

[EvilTOJ]

You shouldn't have to boil honey at all, but if you do, 10 minutes is plenty of time.

 

[Orfy]

Basically any fermentable sugar can be used to prime.

 

[lapaglia]

Bummer,....Well OK I'm glad I posted. I guess better to wait and use the right stuff. I ran up to my local grocery store and they didn't have any cirn sugar. All they had was corn syrup. Is that the same stuff? Is priming sugar just corn sugar? Thanks so much for quick feedback. You guys rock!!

There are 11 grams of Sugar in 2 tablespoons, 1 oz, of dark corn syrup. So thats 66 grams of sugar in 3/4 of a cup of dark corn syrup. 5 oz of dextrose is 142 grams of sugar by weight or 150 grams of sugar in 3/4 cup by volume. If you use 3/4 cup of dark corn syrup you have less than 50% of the priming sugar you need. You need 1 & 5/8 cups of dark corn sugar (143 grams of sugar) to get the right amount of priming sugar and you get other "stuff", read the bottle, in there as well. Id stick to table sugar before I'd use corn syrup.

Yes Priming sugar is dextrose which is corn sugar.

 

[fratermus]

Can I use cane sugar (table sugar) with good/equvalent results??

Absolutely. Use 5% less table sugar by weight.

 

[hoss75]

You mean CO2, and you can't prime with gas. You can force carbonate, given the right equipment.
.

I mean O2. Definitely O2.
Pumping enough oxygen thought your beer will put dissolved O2 into it. This will allow the yeasts to start fermentation once again but for a brief time to bottle condition the beer.
I knew a guy that used to do this instead of using corn sugar and it had great results. However, you need the oxygen tank and stone.

 

[Yuri_Rage]

Pumping enough oxygen thought your beer will put dissolved O2 into it. This will allow the yeasts to start fermentation once again but for a brief time to bottle condition the beer.

That makes zero sense. Yeast need sugar to create CO2. They don't produce it during the reproduction phase. Also, oxygenating finished beer is GUARANTEED to produce off flavors associated with oxidation - usually cardboard/stale flavors.

 

[hoss75]

That makes zero sense. Yeast need sugar to create CO2. They don't produce it during the reproduction phase. Also, oxygenating finished beer is GUARANTEED to produce off flavors associated with oxidation - usually cardboard/stale flavors.

Yeast also need oxygen to grow and reproduce. The beer already has sugars. If you want to restart ferementation without jacking those up further one needs to do ther things to the environment to make the yeast happy again.
Besides, beer is never finished till the yeast are removed. When one bottle conditions they arent putting finished beer into the bottles, hence adding sugars to restart fermentation.
If you add oxygen and if the conditions dont jumpstart fermentation once again, then yeah, you're screwed. No one's arguing that. But its a common technique used to aerate wort before pitching, its a common technique to unstick a primary fermentation, and at least one guy used it for bottle conditioning -hand on my heart.

 

[TeleTwanger]

Yeast also need oxygen to grow and reproduce. The beer already has sugars. If you want to restart ferementation without jacking those up further one needs to do ther things to the environment to make the yeast happy again.
Besides, beer is never finished till the yeast are removed. When one bottle conditions they arent putting finished beer into the bottles, hence adding sugars to restart fermentation.
If you add oxygen and if the conditions dont jumpstart fermentation once again, then yeah, you're screwed. No one's arguing that. But its a common technique used to aerate wort before pitching, its a common technique to unstick a primary fermentation, and at least one guy used it for bottle conditioning -hand on my heart.

No.
Yeast settle out when all the available sugar is converted. Adding just O2 is only going to stale the finished beer. In fact, the amount of head space between the cap and top of the beer has more o2 in it than the yeast can scavenge. Adding kreusen or sugar gives the yeast that haven't settled out something to convert.

 

[Tonedef131]

I mean O2. Definitely O2.
Pumping enough oxygen thought your beer will put dissolved O2 into it. This will allow the yeasts to start fermentation once again but for a brief time to bottle condition the beer.
I knew a guy that used to do this instead of using corn sugar and it had great results. However, you need the oxygen tank and stone.

This is the worst idea I have ever heard. Do not do this under any circumstance.

 

[Orfy]

Yeast are facultatively anaerobic which means that they perform fermentation only under anaerobic conditions. In the presence of O2, the yeast will perform aerobic metabolism. With O2, the yeast will replenish their NAD+ through electron transport in the mitochondria. Alcohol and CO2 (which produces carbonation) are produced by the fermentation pathway which occurs significantly only in the absence of O2.

Or in simpler terms.

1. Yeast start producing CO2 after oxygen levels are depleted.
2. Oxygen in beer will make it go stale.

AND

The MAIN FUNCTION OF FERMENTATION is to regenerate the coenzyme NAD+, so that the glycolysis process can continue to breakdown glucose, produce ATP, and also produce pyruvate for the continuation of the process at the same time in anaerobic conditions when no oxygen is available. For example, bacteria and yeast cells living in anaerobic conditions use the combination of glycolysis and fermentation to continue to produce ATP. Likewise animal muscle cells can use pyruvate in a fermentation process to continue to make ATP as a backup process under stress in anaerobic conditions, e.g., when the oxygen needed can not be delivered fast enough. Muscle cells are much more efficient at producing ATP using the chemical pathways in the cellular respiration process when enough oxygen is available.

In addition to transforming NADH back to the usable coenzyme NAD+ fermentation produces waste byproducts lactate or ethyl alcohol (yeast pee!) depending upon the type of cells involved. If the cells are certain types of bacteria or muscle cells the waste byproduct of lactate is produced. The accumulation of lactate produced by anaerobic bacteria in food inhibits aerobic bacteria from spoiling the food, i.e., the food is preserved and tastes different, e.g., the formation of sauerkraut when anaerobic bacteria are added to cabbage, and the formation of yogurt when anaerobic bacteria are added to milk. The accumulation of lactate produced by muscle cells in anaerobic conditions, e.g., in exercise demanding more oxygen than is available, causes the muscle soreness and muscle cramps associated with such activity. However, if the cells undergoing fermentation are yeast cells, then the waste byproduct is not lactate but ethyl alcohol (yeast pee!), e.g., the formation of wine from fruit juices when yeast cells are added to fruit juice or the formation of beer when yeast cells are added to grains (primarily barley). Fermentation does not produce any more ATP molecules but regenerates the NAD+ used up in glycolysis that does produce the needed ATP.​

The cells of multicellular plants and animals consume large amount of ATP - much more than they could produce by means of the combination of glycolysis and fermentation. For example, the equivalent of about 90 pounds (!) of ATP is needed, broken down, and used by a Human body each day. We could not produce that much ATP from scratch as we needed it. The ADP is regularly transformed back into ATP with the addition of a phosphate group. The large amounts of ATP required are produced through the process of cellular respiration, which is an efficient producer of ATP from glucose by using oxygen in the process. In comparison to only 2 ATP molecules produced by the combination of glycolysis and fermentation without the presence of oxygen, 36 ATP molecules are produced by the combination of glycolysis and cellular respiration from one molecule of glucose in skeletal muscle cells and brain cells, while 38 molecules are produced in other cells.​

 

[Tenchiro]

If you have some Malt Extract you can prime with that, although I am not sure how much is needed.

 

[DutchK9]

Yeast also need oxygen to grow and reproduce. The beer already has sugars. If you want to restart ferementation without jacking those up further one needs to do ther things to the environment to make the yeast happy again.
Besides, beer is never finished till the yeast are removed. When one bottle conditions they arent putting finished beer into the bottles, hence adding sugars to restart fermentation.
If you add oxygen and if the conditions dont jumpstart fermentation once again, then yeah, you're screwed. No one's arguing that. But its a common technique used to aerate wort before pitching, its a common technique to unstick a primary fermentation, and at least one guy used it for bottle conditioning -hand on my heart.

Think of a Sanke keg. You start pumping the tap to get the beer to flow by pushing O2 in. As the keg sits overnight, it turns flat from all the O2 that was mixed inside.

 

[sterling214]

Thanks Orfy, my head hurts now.
I would never put corn syrup into my beer, it has too many ingredients other than sugar that do not belong in most beer styles.