Priming and carbonization

Brewing processes and methods. How to brew using extract, partial or all-grain. Tips and tricks.

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zeno
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Priming and carbonization

Post by zeno »

Not to flood the board, but is 4oz. the universal standard for priming? I've also seen 4.7 oz. listed.

Reason I ask, my carbinization in my first 2 batches has been pretty weak.. Any suggestions?

I bottle right now, BTW.. Might try that Tap-A-Draft next.. too poor to keg..
dartedplus
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How Much is 4 oz

Post by dartedplus »

how much is 4 oz, 3/4 cup??? I usually use between 3/4 to 1 cup of corn sugar. I dont know how many oz that is though. I just finished what I had in my tapa draft. I will bebottling my irish red tomorrow (I hope) and will be putting 6L in the TAD. I usually do that after I have primed the entire batch and then wait 2 weeks for it to condition. I know I can force carb it right away, but I prefer to condition my beer first.
Ed
fitz
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4 oz is

Post by fitz »

4 oz is supposed to be between 3/4 to 1 cup depending on individual sugars. The style you are brewing is supposed to determin the amount of priming sugar you use, and the amount of carbonation you will get. How do you know the carbonation is weak. The reason I ask this is some think carbonation and head retension is the same, they are completely different. if you like more carbonation you can increase the priming sugar slightly, but make sure that is what you need if you just don't have the head you want, try to clean your bottles with salt. Detergents kill head. 4 oz is a standard for a lot of beers too much priming sugar, and you'll think it is chinese new year. the bottles will sound like .22 cal shells going off. I also boil my priming sugar in a little water or beer before adding it at priming. It helps get the priming sugar evenly distributed.
zeno
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3/4 cup

Post by zeno »

3/4 cup.. sorry.. oz. is an odd choice of measure for that I guess.. So would recomend I use up to a cup if I want more carbinization?
zeno
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definately carbinization

Post by zeno »

As I'm a new brewer, I havn't yet started worrying about the head.. My problem is that the beer is flat.. I have been using 4oz. thus far.. 2 weeks at room temp... 3 days to 1 week in the fridge afterwards...

I mostly try for american style brown ales and a few mild english porters.. the porter was worse than the brown.. almost completely flat..

Are there certain areas I should look at and keep in check to better controll the carbinization?
Team Beer
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Priming

Post by Team Beer »

What type of sugar are you using to prime, Corn sugar or dry malt extract ?
zeno
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corn sugar

Post by zeno »

are there more benifits to using dry malt extract?
dartedplus
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tired yeast

Post by dartedplus »

I had a problem with a couple of batches where my yeast was just pooped. So once I foind that my beer was flat, I opened all the bottles and added a little dry yeast (like 10 granules) and added about 1/8 tsp of sugar and recapped. In most cases, after about a week I had well carbonated beer.
I dont know if this wil help, but its better than pouring a whole batch. Try it with a couple of bottles and see what happens
Ed
Monkey Man
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Careful

Post by Monkey Man »

A long time ago in a galaxy far away I used to bottle. Be aware of two things
1) If you have beer in a secondary for over a month it is a good idea to add yeast at bottling time, especially for high flocculatiing yeast- I believe whitelabs and wyeast publish their flocculation "rates."
2) Be careful when boiling the sugar in water that you don't boil it too long. One time I wasn't paying enough attention to what I was doing and I crystalized the sugar. You know you've crystalized the sugar if the water is brown. I didn't realize it at the time, but the yeast will not consume the crystalized sugar, thus no carbonation.
Salut!
Nate
Team Beer
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priming

Post by Team Beer »

Not really any other benefits but if you usually need to use more dme than corn sugar.
ChrisinSalem
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Re: priming

Post by ChrisinSalem »

Team Beer wrote:Not really any other benefits but if you usually need to use more dme than corn sugar.
Any idea how much more?
I'm brewing a 4 gal in a 5 gal carboy and want to try dme instead of sugar.
Thanks.
Chris Cardona
A life without faith is merely an existence.
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