Priming a hefe

[Butter]

Will be bottling our NB Hefeweizen next weekend and was wondering how much priming sugar to use. How much can I use to really carb it up but won't have little bombs in the basement? Would 2 cups be too much?

 

[dzlater]

Try this:
Brewheads.com - Priming Sugar Calculator

 

[Butter]

Tried the priming sugar calculator but what do I put in the space for volume? The batch size?

 

[mistercameron]

Batch size = how much beer are you bottling?
volumes CO2 - hefs are often around 3.5

 

[By-Tor]

5 gal hefe=5 oz corn sugar

 

[Butter]

I got 7.7 ounces

 

[By-Tor]

I got 7.7 ounces

seems like to much, but how can u argue with a calculator?

 

[Butter]

Tastybrew.com calculator said 8.8oz

 

[By-Tor]

wow!

 

[Malticulous]

I've used 8 oz of table sugar before. No bottle bombs. I don't think it really needs that high of carbonation. 6-7 oz works fine.

 

[Butter]

Yeah almost 9 oz is alot. I think 7 would be good.

 

[By-Tor]

I would be interested to know if you believe it is over carbed, or good. I use 5.5 oz for hefe, and it seems good.

 

[Butter]

I think we'll try at least 7oz. Won't be bottling till next week but will keep you guys posted. This won't be our only batch of this beer so I'm sure we're going to tweak it some in future batches.

 

[jtkratzer]

I'm almost out of corn sugar since I started kegging, I have 2.5 oz left. I was going to make up the difference with wheat dme, and I was thinking 6.8 oz of that in addition to the corn sugar would be about equal to using 6.5 oz of corn sugar based on the tasty brew calculator.

I wanted 3.5 - 4 volumes of CO2 for the Franziskaner clone, but I'm not thrilled about 8.8-9 oz of priming sugar for my bottles.

Please check my math from TastyBrew.com:

5 gallon batch at 66* for 3.5 volumes is 7 oz of corn sugar and 11.8 oz of Muntons wheat DME. I have 2.5 oz of corn sugar (35.7% of needed), so 64.3% of the 11.8 oz of DME is approximately 7 5/8 oz (my scale goes to the 1/8 of an ounce. I suppose I could get more accurate converting to grams, but I'm fine with it being a bit over 3.5 volumes.

So, does that look reasonable, 2.5 oz of corn sugar and 7 5/8 oz of wheat dme for 3.5+ volumes of carbonation?

 

[Malticulous]

Sounds about right. You can just use table sugar. I do think DME might be better. A half pound of sugar could have a noticeable effect on the body of the beer.

 

[jtkratzer]

Sounds about right. You can just use table sugar. I do think DME might be better. A half pound of sugar could have a noticeable effect on the body of the beer.

I've never had a problem using 5 oz of sugar before, but I think getting up to 7+, I'd rather mix with DME or just use that instead of sugar.

Thanks for looking it over for me.

 

[pohldogg]

Just wondering what bottles these are going into. 3.5 vols in a 12 oz bottle and you may be asking for trouble. Pretty much the guidelines for these are 3 vols max. There's a reason the german hefs come in the heavier 500 ml bottles.

 

[Malticulous]

Some come in regular bottles.

I've done 4 volumes in crappy Michelob bottles with no problems.

 

[jtkratzer]

Just wondering what bottles these are going into. 3.5 vols in a 12 oz bottle and you may be asking for trouble. Pretty much the guidelines for these are 3 vols max. There's a reason the german hefs come in the heavier 500 ml bottles.

Franziskaner comes in 12 oz bottles in the US.