What sugar to use for bottling?

[BrewRock_54]

I have an IPA coming up soon. I got the recipes from Brooklyn Brew Shop book. They say to use honey for the bottling sugar. Does anyone disagree with this?

 

[atreid]

Yes.... Don't use honey unless you know what you're doing. Bad idea...

Use corn sugar (dextrose). Table sugar is fine too (sucrose).

You also have to do calculations relative to the sugar you chose vs desired carbonation level vs volume of beer.

Check out the bottling section on howtobrew.com for instructions.

 

[Mackinturk]

The only thing about honey is that the sugar content isn't always the same. You'll have to figure out how much sugar you need for the amount of carbonation you're looking for, then figure out the sugar content of your honey using the amount per serving chart, then do the math and figure out how much honey you need, usually by weight. A small kitchen scale comes in handy. I used honey with the last batch I bottled and it turned out just fine.

 

[atreid]

OR.... and I'm just throwing that out there... the beginner brewer could just use corn sugar or table sugar... and have reliability with a process he doesn't even master yet...

Just saying... ;-)


(amount per serving charts are NOT a reliable tool)

 

[zachattack]

White table sugar (sucrose) works fine for bottle priming, and is a lot cheaper and easier to have around than corn sugar. You do need less of it, so make sure you consult a priming calculator. And always measure by weight!