Priming sugar

[jettaman]

Hey! This is my first post. Looking forward to some good discussion and learning a lot.

I have a questions regarding priming sugar. I just started a batch in fermentation. I used 1 can of Amber malt extract syrup and 3 pounds of Amber extract powder. Obviously that yielded a lot of fermentable sugars. When I go to bottle it, should I use any priming sugar? Will it be necessary?

Todd

 

[Walker]

yes, it will be necessary. all available sugar will be eaten by the yeast in the fermenters, so when you bottle you'll have to add a little sugar to give the yeast what they need to carbonate the bottles. (rule of thumb is 3/4 cup corn sugar to prime a 5 gallon batch.)

-walker

 

[jettaman]

Thanks! I'm just really getting started. There sure is a lot to learn!

 

[Walker]

read this , if you haven't already.

-walker

 

[brackbrew]

You can also use a cup of malt extract to prime with, if you choose. I've always used priming sugar (corn sugar), though.

 

[The Happy Mug]

Dry malt extract is nice for priming, but it takes longer. You'll notice a difference in the head of your beer. Of course, experimentation is the heart of this hobby.

 

[Lounge Lizard]

Dry malt extract is nice for priming, but it takes longer. You'll notice a difference in the head of your beer. Of course, experimentation is the heart of this hobby.

Which is better for a (I hate to word it this way) good head, corn sugar or DME?

 

[drengel]

probably dme. corn sugar produces kind of an unnatural head in my opinion. the bubbles are large, oddly spaced, just not very uniform. a good head should have uniform buuble size, small, and densely packed. ive been experimenting with my carbonation methods, usin dme, corn sugar, and krausening. oddly, the last batch i used corn sugar on (a nut brown) has a beautiful creamy head that lasts for the whole brew, which ive never experienced with corn sugar before. when using corn sugar, i always take about 4 tablespoons out of the 4.5 oz. bag because i dont like the intense carbonation that a full bag gives. i think its distracting. my preferred method is krausening, which requires alittle extra work, but on the other hand is cheaper (no paying for sugar or dme), and is all natural, and produces great head. for krausening you use your unfermented wort to carbonate the beer. heres the equation -- 12*gallons of wort/last two digits of OG=qts. of wort for priming. so if you brewed 5 gallons, with an OG of 1.060, then it would be 60/60= 1 qt. for priming. just save the wort in a sterilized bottle in the frig until you prime. works great.

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

my preferred method is krausening, which requires alittle extra work, but on the other hand is cheaper (no paying for sugar or dme), and is all natural, and produces great head. for krausening you use your unfermented wort to carbonate the beer.

I'm going to try that on my next batch...pretty intriguing. I believe it was El P and I, or perhaps someone else, discussing krausening a while back. However, the technique we were discussing involves actually starting the saved wort and pitching it when it krausens. It's difficult to know exactly when that's going to happen, much less what the actual SG of your mini-wort is when you pitch it. Your method sounds like it would yield more consistency.

 

[drengel]

yeah its worked great every time. i had a friend who did something really overly complicated like that, im not really sure what the advantage was though. its definitely a little more work to sanitize the bottle and siphoning stuff and do te siphoning, but its produced the best carbonation and head for me than any other method, so im sticking to it--no more experimenting for me.

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

I believe the literature I read indicated that krausening (with a krausening starter) was a "gentler" way to carbonate, whatever that means. I'll try your gyle method next batch. If I'm not mistaken, I think I read that same technique/formula in David Miller's book; I'll check tonight.

 

[Orfy]

I'm going to try that on my next batch...pretty intriguing. I believe it was El P and I, or perhaps someone else, discussing krausening a while back. However, the technique we were discussing involves actually starting the saved wort and pitching it when it krausens. It's difficult to know exactly when that's going to happen, much less what the actual SG of your mini-wort is when you pitch it. Your method sounds like it would yield more consistency.

I believe that was someone’s error in presuming it was the krausen scraped from the wort and used to prime with. It's not it's just the some of the wort (before pitching) saved for the priming. So it's not too dissimilar to using LME or even DME for priming.

 

[Baron von BeeGee]

I believe that was someone’s error in presuming it was the krausen scraped from the wort and used to prime with. It's not it's just the some of the wort (before pitching) saved for the priming. So it's not too dissimilar to using LME or even DME for priming.

No, I've seen a couple of references to saving some wort and then priming it and pitching it at high krausen into the beer for priming. They specifically mentioned the difficulties in determining exactly when to pitch in order to ensure consistent carbonation results. I was interested, but eventually punted due to perceived complexity. I'm going to try just plain old wort next time.

 

[Lounge Lizard]

heres the equation -- 12*gallons of wort/last two digits of OG=qts. of wort for priming. so if you brewed 5 gallons, with an OG of 1.060, then it would be 60/60= 1 qt. for priming. just save the wort in a sterilized bottle in the frig until you prime. works great.

Sounds like a great idea. Wish I could follow the math.

Where is the first 60 in 60/60 coming from?

I see the second 60 is coming from the last two digits of the OG.

If the first figure is the number of quarts in five gallons, there is a lot less than 60. And if you are talking about gallons, there is a LOT less.

Thanks...

 

[Orfy]

12 x gallons of wort, 5 gallons of wort so it's 12 x 5 = 60

so if you had 4 gallons at 1050
it'd be 12 x 4 = 48/50 = 0.96qt (I think)

 

[Lounge Lizard]

12 x gallons of wort, 5 gallons of wort so it's 12 x 5 = 60

so if you had 4 gallons at 1050
it'd be 12 x 4 = 48/50 = 0.96qt (I think)

I get it now... Thanks! The * thingy just didn't compute. The x would have worked better for me.... Maybe I need a beer to wake up... lol

 

[DragonTail]

I use 3/4 of a cup of corn sugar and 1 cup of water for priming. I have also used malt to prime, about a cup and a quarter, and the one cup of water. You can also use any other "sugar": honey 1 cup, maple syrup 1 1/4 cup, molasses 1 cup, brown sugar 2/3 cup, or cane sugar 2/3 cup. Boil for 10-15 minutes, cool (covered), and add to your bottling bucket, rack the beer, bottle and cap.
Cheers,

 

[Biermann]

I realize this thread may be all but dead. . .but here goes. . .what if you took 1 1/4 cup of DME, reconstituted in a quart of H2O, boiled, cooled, and pitched a secondary yeast, wait until High Krauesen, and then use this to prime your beer. .. any thoughts???? I have an AG hefeweizen, and I'm eager to drink the dang thing, and am too impatient to wait for a DME primer to carbonate, and I didn't save any gyle/wort to really do a good krauesen with. . .