DME and sugar to prime?

[BigTexBrewer]

Ok so I made a noob mistake. I bought my kit from a local shop and it came with instructions on how to do everything. The kit had instructions to add sugar and not DME to the wort, but I switched out the sugar for DME. I followed the instructions to a T, even leaving 3/4 cups sugar (DME) for priming. Well come to find out I should have added all the DME and just used the sugar to prime. So my wort has 3/4 cups too little of DME and I don't have enough DME to prime with. My question is can I do a blend of DME and sugar to prime? I am making an English Bitter, if that makes a difference.

 

[BigB]

Absolutely! Just remember that the DME isn't is as fermentable as sugar. But if you are blending, I wouldn't worry about it unless you are using mostly DME- then just bump up the amount a little bit... no more than 1 oz extra.

 

[weirdboy]

What is the volume of beer you are producing?

3/4 cup of DME is fairly insignificant in a 5 gallon batch of English Bitter so I wouldn't worry about it. If it's a 1 or 2 gallon batch it's a bit more, but still not too big of a deal.

Also, you can prime with the DME (and no sugar) although there is less fermentable sugar, so you'll have to use a bit more DME.

Assuming you are bottling this beer, try using this calculator:

TastyBrew Bottle Priming calculator it lists amounts for corn sugar, table sugar, and DME. Since you probably don't know which type of DME you are using, pick the middle one.


There is also one on that site for priming kegs, in case you need it.

 

[BigTexBrewer]

I am making 5 gals. The reason why I am asking if I can blend is because I don't want to have to buy more DME, I have 3/4 cups of DME on hand. I will be bottling, I don't have the equipment or fridge space for a keg.... yet.

 

[weirdboy]

Yeah you can blend. Actually, 3/4 cup is probably pretty close to the right amount to prime an English bitter to the right level of carbonation.

 

[BigB]

Nice link weirdboy! I wasn't aware of that one.

 

[weirdboy]

OK I take that back, I measured out 1.9oz of DME (which is what I got using the calculator for 1.3 volumes of CO2 @65F) and it was more like 1/2 cup.