Priming in Secondary?

[terrigus]

Hi all,
Found a pale ale recipe that I liked, so we brewed last night. Didn't notice until this morning that it calls for adding the priming sugar or DME to the secondary, letting it sit for 14 days and then bottling.

Anyone out there tried this method?

 

[Evan!]

No. The directions are wrong. The reason you add priming sugar is to induce a new small fermentation in the bottle. That produces co2. Since the bottles are capped, the co2 has nowhere to go, and thus gets dissolved into solution---which is how you get carbonation.

So, if you add the priming sugar in secondary, you'll get the new fermentation, but the co2 will just offgas through the airlock and all you'll get is a slightly more alcoholic beer and no carbonation in the bottles.

You should add the priming sugar into the bottling bucket when you bottle.

 

[Evan!]

By the way, welcome to the forums, i see that that's your first post!

 

[Ecnerwal]

Sounds nutty to me. All the gas will go out the airlock, and nothing will be left to carbonate bottles with after 2 weeks. I'd ignore the nuttiness and just prime and bottle in the usual manner.

 

[terrigus]

No. The directions are wrong. The reason you add priming sugar is to induce a new small fermentation in the bottle. That produces co2. Since the bottles are capped, the co2 has nowhere to go, and thus gets dissolved into solution---which is how you get carbonation.

So, if you add the priming sugar in secondary, you'll get the new fermentation, but the co2 will just offgas through the airlock and all you'll get is a slightly more alcoholic beer and no carbonation in the bottles.

You should add the priming sugar into the bottling bucket when you bottle.

I thought it sounded weird. The only thing I can think is that that alcohol % for this beer is listed as 6.5% so it's calling for adding the priming sugar and /or DME to the secondary to do the alcohol boost and then using priming sugar again for bottling.

 

[Saccharomyces]

I thought it sounded weird. The only thing I can think is that that alcohol % for this beer is listed as 6.5% so it's calling for adding the priming sugar and /or DME to the secondary to do the alcohol boost and then using priming sugar again for bottling.

Still a little strange, for a 6.5% beer I wouldn't go adding the sugar to the secondary. Trying to squeeze another 2% out of a 12% barelywine... maybe.

Good luck