How Many Volumes Do You Carbinate To?

[Zuljin]

Be it bottle or keg; corn sugar, table sugar, brown sugar, DME, honey, tabs or force carb; how many volumes?

I bottle, usually using corn sugar, and have mostly used the old one ounce, by weight, per gallon rule. That's about 2.7 volumes. Results were good. Nice and fizzy.

Over the past year, I've been trying to carb lower for style, and do not like it. Maybe I like the fizz more than the style. That's fine. But what volumes are yall carbing too?

 

[Black Island Brewer]

Be it bottle or keg; corn sugar, table sugar, brown sugar, DME, honey, tabs or force carb; how many volumes?

I bottle, usually using corn sugar, and have mostly used the old one ounce, by weight, per gallon rule. That's about 2.7 volumes. Results were good. Nice and fizzy.

Over the past year, I've been trying to carb lower for style, and do not like it. Maybe I like the fizz more than the style. That's fine. But what volumes are yall carbing too?

I generally carb to the high end of the style recomendations, partially out of preference, but partly for competitions, because the beers aren't always sampled under ideal conditions, so a little extra carbonation helps it hold up during comp.

 

[estricklin]

I like a lot of carbonation too, especially in the funky beers.

I use table sugar, it's cheap and I always have it around.

 

[FatDragon]

After trying out Brewers & Union's Handwerk All Day IPA on draft in Guangzhou, I made a low-bitterness (46 IBU per Beersmith, but seems a bit lower - only 12.7 IBU from boil hops), heavily whirlpool- and dry-hopped IPA and carbed it to around 2 volumes. It's actually really nice that way, and appeals to a lot of friends who couldn't handle a really hoppy IPA (the vast majority here in China).

Normally, though, I stick within the style guidelines, assuming they've been established for a reason.

Also - table sugar because it's readily-available.

 

[JimEb]

I go to the high end of the style guidelines. I like carbonation.

How are you guys using table sugar? I tried it once and boiled it in some water and it turned into a thick syrup. The beer took forever to get any carbonation and still wasn't good. So for now I just keep copious amounts of corn sugar on hand at all times.

 

[FatDragon]

I go to the high end of the style guidelines. I like carbonation.

How are you guys using table sugar? I tried it once and boiled it in some water and it turned into a thick syrup. The beer took forever to get any carbonation and still wasn't good. So for now I just keep copious amounts of corn sugar on hand at all times.

I weigh the sugar into a large mug or a pyrex measuring cup, then pour in about a pint of boiling water and mix until it's all dissolved. That goes into the bottom of my bottling bucket before I rack, and theoretically gets swirled into a pretty even distribution in the pre-bottled beer. Effectively, I often end up with inconsistent carbonation.

I might try again with corn sugar, but I'm not sure how it would change the results - although it's finer-ground, it offers lower potential gravity than table sugar, so if anything I would expect the priming syrup to be thicker and thus harder to mix evenly into the beer.

 

[estricklin]

I weigh the sugar into a large mug or a pyrex measuring cup, then pour in about a pint of boiling water and mix until it's all dissolved. That goes into the bottom of my bottling bucket before I rack, and theoretically gets swirled into a pretty even distribution in the pre-bottled beer. Effectively, I often end up with inconsistent carbonation.

I might try again with corn sugar, but I'm not sure how it would change the results - although it's finer-ground, it offers lower potential gravity than table sugar, so if anything I would expect the priming syrup to be thicker and thus harder to mix evenly into the beer.

I use it just as I would corn sugar, weigh it out, add a bit of water and bring to a boil. There is a slight difference in fermentability, (less than 10%) but I don't even adjust for that!