Priming Sugar? Why do they give you 5 oz and recipe says use 3.5 oz?

[NWAustin]

I've made two batches of brew and followed the instructions diligently. In each pre packaged ingredients box they provide 5 oz of priming sugar. Both recipes called for 3.5 oz of priming sugar to add pre bottling. Both of my batches have been flat for the most part. Some bubbling, some carbonation but not a whole lot.

Looking for advice as to how much priming sugar to use. Use the whole 5 oz provided? Is there a formula to follow to determine the amount of priming sugar? Why in the hell does the recipe call for 3.5 oz, provide me with 5 oz and result in a flat beer?

 

[Hoppy2bmerry]

Many of us use this Homebrew Priming Sugar Calculator
there are variables such as temperature that have some effect on the amount of sugar you’d use, and styles vary as well.
Also giving it enough time to condition and storage in the right temp is a factor.

 

[KeizerBrewr]

I batch prime and use a priming sugar calculator. I use the Northern Brewer calculator. I've never had an issue with carbonation this far. Priming individual bottles is a pain. Just boil a pint or so of water, add the specified amount of corn sugar or whatever you're using to prime to the freshly boiled water, let cool, pour into you bottling bucket, stir gently and we'll. A side note; measure your priming sugar by weight, not volume.

 

[Coastalbrew]

They send 5 oz of priming sugar because that is a standard pre-packaged amount that is often used with 5G batch sizes and it makes it easier to send the pre-packaged portion. You can use as much or as little of that as you want depending on how much beer you have to package and how much carbonation you want.

There are a variety of factors that come into play with carbonation. The first is style, some styles of beer are less carbonated than others. Next is volume to be packaged, and then there is fermentation temp. You need to know what was the highest temp the beer got to during fermentation to use a carbonation calculator. The temp determines how much co2 is in the beer at packaging, which determines how much sugar you need to achieve the carbonation level you want. I use the priming calculator on Brewer's friend and get good results with that. I also transfer the beer into the bottling bucket before adding the priming sugar, so I can see exactly how much beer I'm bottling so I can assist the carbonation level correctly.

You have to let the beer sit in the bottles in a warm place for a couple of weeks in order for the yeast to do it's work before chilling the beer and sampling. Some beers will carbonate faster, but 2-3 weeks is a good rule of thumb.

 

[D.B.Moody]

I think they call for 3.5 oz. because that's the approximate weight of 3/4 a cup of corn sugar which is the old rule of thumb for bottling. Of course I measure by volume because I have no way to accurately measure 3.5 oz, of corn sugar. "Relax, don't worry, have a home brew," as the master says.

 

[Jezwald101]

Hi all.whoops . Messed that up during bottling. Going by volume instead of weight which is about half or less. Came out fine anyways just not much head on the beer. So does this mean the hops are also measured in oz of weight? Like 1oz of cascade hops.

 

[VikeMan]

So does this mean the hops are also measured in oz of weight? Like 1oz of cascade hops.

Yes. Hops are measured by weight.

 

[Jezwald101]

Thanks Vikeman. Guess I'll need a scale for ingredients by weight then.