DME Carbonating

[Tombraider2]

So today I bottle my IPA, not useing Suger for Carbanation. Going to use DME, anyone do that before and what does it do for your beer ?

 

[sweetcell]

what will happen? you beer will carbonate. lots of people use DME, but it's not as popular as sugar.

be sure to boil it in a little water before adding it to your bottling bucket, to sterilize it.

use a priming calculator like http://www.northernbrewer.com/priming-sugar-calculator/ to figure out how much to use.

 

[Denny]

What does it do for you? Nothing that sugar won't do better. DME is slow to carb and the carb level is unpredictable since it relies on the fermentability of the DME, which is usually unknown. Sugar is cheap, reliable and tasteless. I'll stick with sugar.

 

[Revvy]

And many who use it notice bottle krausens, which mean nothing, it's no different that in a fermenter, but a lot of books warn of film on top of the beer in the bottles, and a lot of new brewers using it then panic thinking they're beer is infected when it's not.

 

[UnDeadPresident]

What does it do for you? Nothing that sugar won't do better. DME is slow to carb and the carb level is unpredictable since it relies on the fermentability of the DME, which is usually unknown. Sugar is cheap, reliable and tasteless. I'll stick with sugar.

DME is more expensive than sugar, but in my lighter beers I've noticed that the cidery flavor/odor I don't like that corn sugar lends is gone, and that makes it worth it for me. If you don't care or notice that aspect, I'd stick with just sugar. I've not had a problem with unpredictable fermentability in DME, but I use the same brand every time and my LHBS has a pretty steady turnover so I know it's not been sitting there for months. I tend to use pils DME for mine just for consistency's sake, so I don't have 2 different types of priming sugar sitting around.

 

[Denny]

I totally don't believe that sugar adds a cidery flavor, especially in the amounts you use to prime. I've tested it over and over as have a lot of others. I use up to 30% sugar in some of my beers and there's never a hint of that flavor. When I did my priming experiment, not a single blind taster could tell a flavor difference between DME and corn or table sugar.

 

[brewinginnc]

Hey if thats what you works for you rock on.

 

[UnDeadPresident]

I totally don't believe that sugar adds a cidery flavor, especially in the amounts you use to prime. I've tested it over and over as have a lot of others. I use up to 30% sugar in some of my beers and there's never a hint of that flavor. When I did my priming experiment, not a single blind taster could tell a flavor difference between DME and corn or table sugar.

My conditioning temps are probably higher than yours are, which is a contributing factor for the cidery flavor. I've unfortunately had some creep up near 80 that really shouldn't have and a swamp cooler's not really an option for me at the moment. These are usually lighter beers that I prefer to drink in the summer, but that's also when the temps really get up there, so it's kind of a self-perpetuating problem. Once I get a fermentation chamber built, I'm doing a taste test with a split batch between DME and corn sugar. If the flavor's gone, which it sounds like it should from your test, I'm heading straight back to corn sugar. If not, looks like I have to stick with DME.

 

[Tombraider2]

Hit the brew store before I got home for more Fixins for today's brewing. I had DME at home but found out it was wheat kind. Well I used a cup of boiling water to a cup of it and mixed well.

If I had known it was that flavor, why I had it any ways ? I'da got some lite. OH well, it now has a nice smell so the taste test in a few months will tell me what it did.

Today more brewing with my first year grow of Sascade hops