DME, Corn, Cane..

[businesstime]

Age old question, I know. I went to my homebrew store to get corn sugar and they were out. Apparently, I have to travel an hour to get corn sugar anywhere. The guy who works there (and also makes their commercial beers) just told me to use DME. Said it may take a little longer, but works just as well and some claim it to condition better than sugar.

My question- just how long does it take? What are the variables that affect it? I used cane sugar last time, and to be honest, I had carbonated beer after only 4 days and it tasted fine!

Would anyone suggest mixing cane sugar and DME or just stick to one?

 

[ArcaneXor]

It's pretty much a matter of preference - priming sugar usually makes up such a tiny proportion of the overall fermentables in a beer that it doesn't significantly affect the flavor.

 

[WindRiverGuy]

DME does take a little longer about 10 days but it varies with temp etc. I also use more, 1 1/4 cups of DME instead of 3/4 cups of corn sugar.

 

[chefmike]

use cane (table) sugar and save the dme for starters etc. my $0.02

 

[Beernik]

They didn't even have carb tabs? Weird.

 

[businesstime]

They didn't even have carb tabs? Weird.

They did! I thought they were only for instant carbonation and later learned they were used for priming. Honestly, I rarely hear about people using them, so I didn't think much to pick some up. Besides being expensive, are there any other cons to carb tabs?

 

[Beernik]

I imagine they are sized for 12oz bottles. So if you are bottling 16oz or 20oz, you're cutting tabs.

I have some, but I've never used them.

 

[jonp9576]

i have carb tabs that are kind of small. it says to use like 4 for a 12 oz bottle, so you can easily do the math for the different size bottles