someone is telling porkies about the carbonating amounts

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lazylizard

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someone is telling porkies...



when carbonating .. the 2 kits I have used it would seem have underestimated the amount of sugar needed to carbonate the bottles. they both said use '1/2 level teaspoon of sugar per pint'

but when using the brewers friend saying I should I use 2, 4g sugar lumps per litre and the recently packet of carbonation drops (at just 3 grams each) I purchased quoting ' use 2 drops for 750 ml bottle.

there seems to be a mismatch here, I use 1 litre bottles to lesson the work of cleaning etc.. so what exactly is the right amount here? my last Geordie beer with 1 sugar lump of 4g in each bottle doesn't seem to have any fizz at all..

i know im new at this but confused here to be honest.. via the conflicting instructions
 
For most of my brews I use 125g of sugar for 23L batches, this is 2.2vols. this equates to 5.4g per liter.

I would guess most home brewers would use less priming sugar than me for English styles. So, in my opinion the ballpark is between 3.5g to 5.5g of sugar per liter.
 
"1/2 teaspoon" and "sugar lump" are just estimates when carbonating since they probably won't match up perfectly to the carbonation level requirement for a specific style. For most people, that is just fine. I only ever notice if it's way over carbonated or way under.
To be exact, you'd use a beer calculator for carbonation to get the specific amount of sugar per batch. I don't think it will happen often that it's exactly the amount of a sugar lump or 1/2 teaspoon measurement per bottle, for example.
The total weight of sugar, found by calculation, is divided amongst all of the bottles to be filled (1l, 500ml or 330ml). Of course, dissolving the total sugar amount in some liquid and then mixing that in the beer would be the easiest way.
For bottle priming, as mentioned above, it's going to be an estimate for the style and good enough.
 
I use a kitchen measuring spoon set and for english bitters and stouts, use a level 1/2 teaspoon. For IPAs and cider i use a level teaspoon. All for 500ml bottles.
Always seems about right
 
Hmm... I would consider most of my beers to be lightly carbonated but I use 1/2 a heaped teaspoon to get that in a 500ml bottle. Lightly compared to most shop bought beers that is.

Also of course teaspoons do vary in size!
 
1/2 a level teaspoon is a average amount per 500ml up a little for lagers and wheat beers and down a little for ales/bitters/stouts. Don't forget carbonation is subject to temp as well but you will not go far wrong with 1/2 tsp
 
TBH, you are better off batch priming. Saves time faffing around, filling dozens of bottles with tiny amounts of sugar. 3/4 of a cup is the standard amount for an awful lot of recipes. However, there are 3 different types of cup measurement; US cup, UK cup and metric cup. In reality, when you see a recipe with cup measurements, you can be almost guaranteed that it is for US cups. But there really isn't a massive amount of difference between the 3 types and for homebrewing purposes, 3/4's of any cup will suffice.
 
Just to note - teaspoons come in all shapes and sizes.

Thats why i specifically said i use a set of measuring spoons. As not only are they a proper unit of measurement, but they are deep with a solid round lip meaning you can actually do a perfectly consistent 'level' and none of this heaped / about right / near enough measurement. measuring_spoons_stainless_steel_dexam.jpeg
 
Nicks90 said:
Just to note - teaspoons come in all shapes and sizes.

Thats why i specifically said i use a set of measuring spoons. As not only are they a proper unit of measurement, but they are deep with a solid round lip meaning you can actually do a perfectly consistent 'level' and none of this heaped / about right / near enough measurement.View attachment 21716
Click to expand...

Yep. One of these and a funnel. I don't find it a faff at all.
 
I use a set of these, helps when weighing out hops also.
 

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My advice to anyone who is not sure about carbing amounts is use to the Brewer's Friend calculator, which gives enough room for manouevre to cover most tastes and beers
https://www.brewersfriend.com/beer-priming-calculator/
And when you have a few brews under your belt you will then have good basis to decide what suits you best.
We are all different. After many years of brewing I have now settled on about 3.5/4.0g per litre table sugar for nearly all beers which some would describe as nearly flat but it suits me fine.
 
I do 5g per 500ml bottle - sometimes more depending on the style but I generally prefer lager type beers - cold with more fizz.
 

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