I'm an idiot...

[andre the giant]

I went to bottle/mini keg the blueberry ale at midnight (the first chance I've had to get around to it) and damned if I didn't have any priming sugar. I'd use DME, but I'd like the beer to be primed in two weeks. And what I've heard is that DME takes a bit longer to ferment than corn sugar.

SOOOooooo, Here's what I did... I had some clear Belgian Candi sugar, I boiled and dissolved 3 oz of the stuff into a little bit of water, I primed with that. After the mini-kegs were full, I added another 3/4 oz of candi sugar and bottled the rest.

Has anyone primed with candi sugar? I assume it will ferment at least as quickly as corn sugar... right?

I'll be bottling the IPA tomorrow morning, (if I can wake up, its 2am here) I'm going to use the candi sugar for that too, unless someone here advises against it.

You thoughts would be welcomed....

 

[chillHayze]

I've neer tried it but candi sugar is fermentable is it not? Should work. May just be a tad sweeter ad of course more expensive that dextrose. Oh and DME will prime in 2 weeks just fine using 1.25 cups in a 5gal batch. Try to keep the temp above 70 for those two weeks.
Good luck!

 

[veggiess]

I haven't tried it either, but my LHBS sells Belgian light and Beligian amber candi sugar as a fermentable. They recommend it for tripels & lighter Belgian ales and say it "helps to maintain the high alcohol content of Belgian ales without making them overly malty or sweet". Not sure about the ratios. Let us know how it turns out!

 

[andre the giant]

Update. Priming with candi sugar is fine. I don't know if it's the candi sugar, the mini-keg setup, or some sort of expertise with all grain, but the head on the beer was fantastic. It was creamy, rich, thick, and hung around for a long time. I didn't notice any off flavors in the beer.

If you're ever in a pinch, but don't want to use table sugar, Candi sugar seems to work very well.