To Prime (sugar) or Not? Kegging

[Balto]

Just did a search on the subject and still can't find what I'm looking for.

Do you add primary sugar to your bottling bucket before siphoning it to a keg?
Is there a big difference in carbonation with the sugar added?

"This will be forced carbed in a refrigerator."

1 Some say add the whole amount sugar
2 Some say use 1/2 the sugar
3 Some say don't use any sugar

If I don't use the sugar I'm going to just go from a fermenter to the keg and force carb.

 

[mikeysab]

I've been wondering the same thing lately. Like you said, there are different things out there. You stated that "This will be force carbed in a refrigerator. What does that mean? If you're force carbing, there's no need to add sugar. If you're naturally carbing, you need to add sugar. I've been told to add half the amount of priming sugar if naturallyl carbing. If you have a co2 tank on hand, then it doesn't really hurt to do this, since you could always just make up the difference in carbonation with the tank. It's up to you to decide how you're going to carb.

 

[BarnsleyBrewer]

What Beer are you brewing at the minute?

For ale and bitter,i use half a pint glass of table sugar, filled to the top with boiling water, let it cool and add it before siphoning.

 

[keesh]

I've been wondering the same thing lately. Like you said, there are different things out there. You stated that "This will be force carbed in a refrigerator. What does that mean? If you're force carbing, there's no need to add sugar. If you're naturally carbing, you need to add sugar. I've been told to add half the amount of priming sugar if naturallyl carbing. If you have a co2 tank on hand, then it doesn't really hurt to do this, since you could always just make up the difference in carbonation with the tank. It's up to you to decide how you're going to carb.

His question I think is that if conditioning or force carbing has different carbonation. I would say probably not, but I have no idea. It is possible that bottle/keg conditioned beers have a better mouthfeel but that is not my expertise. My hypothesis would be the pressure of the CO2 in the keg (leading to more CO2 in solution) is the key factor. The temperature also effects how much CO2 stays in solution.

The reason kegging is superior, besides ease of use, (I don't keg yet, but this is my understanding of it) is that you can control the pressure a lot more easily, so you can achieve the proper carbonation levels, which can lead to better mouthfeel and avoid over/under carbonation which can happen when conditioning naturally.

http://sdcollins.home.mindspring.com/ForceCarbonation.html

Check this out, I just found it through google.

 

[BrewingRugger]

It depends on how fast you want your beer ready. if you use corn sugar you are going to wait the two weeks just like the bottles, but if you use CO2 your beer will be ready to drink in hours to about a day. If you are going to use corn sugar I would put it straight into the keg that way you don't have to sanitize and transfer twice, giving a chance to pick up an infection. I force carb with CO2, and I am drinking that beer in about two to three hours.

 

[Piratwolf]

I believe the other down side to naturally carbing a keg is that the refermentation, while small, does produce a sediment that can make your first few pints cloudy.

EDIT: if you look under the Bottling/Kegging forum here, there's a sticky with tons of useful info. That's my homework for this weekend b/c I'm about to keg my first batch!

 

[GreenDragon]

Yeah I don't like the floaties that priming sugar causes. Co2 all the way for me.

 

[Balto]

I'm thinking I'll go this route.