About to make first batch, question about kegging it later

[muchgooder]

I've read conflicting opinions about how much sugar to add to a homebrew that is going to be kegged. Some places said that you should cut the sugar in half, other places said by a third. Opinions?

As I said in the title, I'm about to make my first batch. My wife bought me two different books for Christmas and I wish she hadn't as they don't always seem to agree with each other. It seems that make sure everything is sanitized is absolutely necessary. Any other tips or guides would be GREATLY appreciated.

 

[GreenwoodRover]

1/2 to 1/3 the normal ammount is the appropriate range.
If it were an english style (meaning usually lower carb levels) I would go with the 1/3 the bottling ammount, in an american style I would go with half.

It's all up to you and your individual taste preference.

 

[TwoHeadsBrewing]

Are you talking about bottling sugar for carbonation purposes? If you plan on kegging, you'll have plenty of CO2 at your disposal to force carbonate. So, you don't need to add any sugar unless you plan to "cask condition" in a keg.

 

[GreenwoodRover]

I assumed a cask conditioned senario...
+1 to TwoHeads, force carbing is much easier.

 

[neko]

Yeah, if you carb a keg with a tank then you don't need to deal with sugar. The CO2 will give you the carbonation you need.

 

[muchgooder]

Yeah, if you carb a keg with a tank then you don't need to deal with sugar. The CO2 will give you the carbonation you need.

Sorry, I'm still catching up with all of the lingo (I hate being the noob). The local store provided me with a 5 oz pack of sugar (I hope that is enough detail). So I can skip that step altogether if I'm going to force carbonation later on? I skimmed that topic earlier and I was going to read up on it more when I got to that point.

Thank you soooooo much for your suggestions.

 

[muchgooder]

One more question. I apologize but I don't have either of my books with me.

I thought the purpose of moving the brew to the bottling (kegging) bucket was to add the sugar. If I don't need to do this, can I just dump the wort right into the bottling bocket?

 

[TwoHeadsBrewing]

Sorry, I'm still catching up with all of the lingo (I hate being the noob). The local store provided me with a 5 oz pack of sugar (I hope that is enough detail). So I can skip that step altogether if I'm going to force carbonation later on? I skimmed that topic earlier and I was going to read up on it more when I got to that point.

Thank you soooooo much for your suggestions.

Yes, if you keg there is no need to add the sugar. Simply rack your finished beer from your carboy (or bucket) into a sanitized keg. Then set your pressure to 30psi for 2 days, and connect to the keg. This will "force carbonate" your beer while in the keg. Be sure to lower the pressure to 8-10psi for serving your beer.

 

[TwoHeadsBrewing]

One more question. I apologize but I don't have either of my books with me.

I thought the purpose of moving the brew to the bottling (kegging) bucket was to add the sugar. If I don't need to do this, can I just dump the wort right into the bottling bocket?

Is this going into a keg or into bottles? If you're not going to bottle, then you don't need to transfer to a bottling bucket. Just go straight from the primary to the keg.

 

[OLB]

That sounds like the priming sugar for bottling. Although the amount can vary per beer style, a lot of people use about 1 ounce per gallon of beer as a rule of thumb. It is probably corn sugar, although you can also use DME. I use corn sugar so I do not know how the amount of DME would vary.

As the other guys stated, you will not need this for kegging.

 

[muchgooder]

Is this going into a keg or into bottles? If you're not going to bottle, then you don't need to transfer to a bottling bucket. Just go straight from the primary to the keg.

Perfect, thanks so much! Yes, I'm kegging so that will be nice to be able to skip that step.

 

[TwoHeadsBrewing]

Perfect, thanks so much! Yes, I'm kegging so that will be nice to be able to skip that step.

Happy to help...kegging is a pleasure, and this is just one of the reasons. Oh yeah, be sure to post back with your first glass of homebrewed draft beer! :rockin:

 

[muchgooder]

Happy to help...kegging is a pleasure, and this is just one of the reasons. Oh yeah, be sure to post back with your first glass of homebrewed draft beer! :rockin:

Thanks much! I spent so much time putting together a kegerator how-to that I haven't had a chance to get to the good stuff. Several kegs of Molson Canadian later, I'm ready for the home brew