Wheat beer - prime w/ corn sugar?

[LeftyMcGee]

I got a wheat beer kit from my LHBS. It is their own kit and the recipe does not specify what to use for priming. I bought my equipment kit used, and the guy had a bag of corn sugar from the LHBS. Does it matter what I prime with? Considering it is a wheat beer, would corn sugar be incorrect?

My first batch was a Brewer's Best American Amber Ale and it included priming sugar.

Thanks for the help!

 

[Blender]

Corn sugar will be fine Lefty. Wheat beers generally are well carbed so I would use about 4.5 ounces.

 

[bradsul]

Corn sugar (dextrose) is always a great choice for priming. It ferments out completely and leaves no flavours of it's own.

 

[homebrewer_99]

CS will be fine.

Most brews recommend 4 oz for 5 gals. (This equals .8 oz per gal by weight.)

You can use more for a weizen if you want to, but I wouldn't recommend any more than 5 oz.

 

[LeftyMcGee]

Thanks!

 

[Pez]

I am gonna add on to this thread....... What if you used the full amount but only had 4 gallons? Would it produce off flavors or be overcarbed?

 

[bradsul]

No off flavours, but it would definitely be overcarbonated.

 

[homebrewer_99]

No off flavours, but it would definitely be overcarbonated.

Which is some cases is not necessarily a bad thing depending on the brew.

This is the reason I gave the measurement in oz per gal. If you only have 3.5 or 4 gals then you can recompute:

# Gals X .8 = oz of priming sugar

Using a measuring cup can be deceptive because CS will compress (actually displace the air between the sugar) if you tap the cup on a countertop...too easy to over and/or under prime.