Priming with DME

[PapaWood]

Never tried it, search didn't come up with much info. How do you recommend it?


Priming:
1 and 1/4 cup M&F extra-light DME

I'll need to buy a secondary or borrow one for this, so id like to siphon straight from secondary to bottles. Would I add the DME to the secondary, give it a gentle stir and then bottle?

Any need to boil it?

Thanks,

Todd

 

[ChrisKennedy]

Why? Sugar is so much cheaper and consistent.

 

[PapaWood]

Its what the recipe calls for. Magic Hat #9 Clone.

 

[Yooper]

Well, you boil it in a couple cups of water, and then cool it. But I would NOT bottle from the secondary. There are a couple of reasons- one is if you boil up your priming solution and then cool it and stir it into your secondary, you will stir up the trub and all the stuff that settled out during the clearing. The whole point of using a clearing tank ("secondary") is to clear up the beer and allow that stuff to settle out. Mixing it together again is not recommended.

Also, it's hard to maintain a siphon and a bottle filler and keep the siphon above the trub when it gets low.

It's easiest to boil your priming solution, and pour it into a sanitized bottling bucket and bottle from there.

 

[PapaWood]

Cool I will try that instead. Also, recipe doesn't say or not if i should ferment with the hops, what ya guys think?

Thanks.

 

[Yooper]

What do you mean "ferment with the hops"? Do you mean when you pour the wort into the fermenter, should you stain them out? If that's what you mean, it doesn't matter at all. Some people strain to have less crud in their fermenters, some don't. It all settles out to the bottom, and when you rack, you siphon from above all the trub anyway. I usually strain (with a sanitized strainer), but it's not necessary.

 

[Scotty_g]

Other than hops, you really want to make sure anything you put into the beer after the boil is sterile/sanitized. That's why you boil your priming sugar or DME, hit whole fruit with campden tablets, etc.

You may get a little more flavor out of DME than sugar (not sure...), but if you use sugar to prime you violate the Reinheitsgebot (if you care--DME may be against the rules too).

If you use DME instead of sugar, you need to use more. I primed a batch with an equal volume of DME (no sugar on hand) and it came out flat :-( The 1 1/4 cup looks fine (and I've seen it in several books).

 

[PapaWood]

Awesome info again. I didnt strain it last time, but ill do it this time. Recipe looks pretty good to me.

Magic Hat #9 Clone
OG: 1.051 IBU 25
FG: 1.011 SRM 13 5.1% Alc/Volume

Crushed Grain:
1/2# 60oL crystal Malt - Steep for 20M @155o

Extract:
5.5# M&F light DME
.5# M&F wheat DME

Hop Schedule:
1.5oz Tettnanger 60m
1/4oz Willamette 15m
1/4oz Cascade 15m
1tsp Irish Moss 15m

Yeast:
Wyeast 1056 American Ale

Add to secondary:
3oz Apricot beer flavoring

Priming:
1 and 1/4 cup M&F extra-light DME

Thanks.