what sugar ???

[Martynhusky]

Okay so been brewing beer at home for around a year, And for those of you who have answered my previous posts, you will know I am having trouble carbonating. ANYWAY, i asked the guy in the local brew shop, and he recommended using brewing sugar, so I brought some. and added it to the fermenting bucket. He never told me it would be that lively
So now I think I have lost around 5-8 pints.
Should I just use this sugar for secondary fermentation? To help with the carbonation?
Basically My Old Man used to brew his own, and said that I could use regular sugar, So that's what Ive been doing.
Does anyone have any instructions (Good Instructions) on how to 1 brew the beer (Ie what sugar to use) 2 how to carbonate the beer,

I am using a boots pressure barrel,.
and buying coopers home brew lager and draft kits.....

Any advice would be greatly appreiaciated.

Thanks

happy brewing :drink:

Spuddy

 

[tubby_shaw]

What level of carbonation are you trying to achieve?
You say that you are brewing coopers lager and draught kits, are you looking to get the same level of gas as a commercial beer?
If so then I am afraid that you aren't going to get it from a plastic keg, they are fitted with a pressure relief valve that releases the pressure at around 10 psi which is not enough to get that level of carbonation
If you want gassy beer you have two options, bottle your beer or get a corny keg that will hold 100psi :thumb:

 

[guyb]

Spuddy, I try to avoid sugar at all - I use two can kits, so you don't add any sugar for the primary brew.
I did a Cooper's Cerveza, and added Cooper's BKE2 (brew kit enhancer 2) i believe this a mix of dextrose (brewing sugar) and dried spraymalt.

Now I only buy 2 can kits - try say a Cooper's IPA with a can of Cooper's Malt (in a tin) - it's more expensive as a resultm- but you get what you pay for.

If I was to do the Cerveza again, I'd use two tins of the Cerveza kit itself.

As for priming, I use brewing sugar at 1/2 teaspoon a pint, I boilsmsome
water and mix in the sugar, and bring to the boil and them let cool in a sterile glass jug, before adding to a secondary and draining the beer onto it from the primary.

I bottle all mine.

As said above, you might be expecting too much from your barrel.

I did use two sugar lumps per litre (bottle) for the cerveza.

 

[golder247]

I would recommend bottling.. absolute piece of cake.. I struggle now with getting a little too much carb going on....

ordinary sugar is perfectly fine... some (many) would argue about the two can kits which are without doubt impressive but I am getting perfectly good results with single can coopers kits and cheap ordinary sugar, perfectly drinkable..

 

[Martynhusky]

tubby_shaw

Basically I just want a little fizz to it, all I seem to get is flat boring beer.
I have had a look into bottling the beer, But just seems to expensive at the moment. I did however have a load of Coke bottles (plastic ones) The worked rely well, but after the second brew, they dont seem to hold any pressure now.

Think I may have to look into a new barrel.

 

[Pipey]

I brew all my one can kits with coopers brew enhancer 2 then bottle with half a teaspoon of brewing sugar mixed with dried spray malt, nice carbonation and all brews absolutely nectar

Brewing

Coopers Canadian blonde
Coopers Australian bitter

Drinking

Coopers dark ale
Coopers heritage lager
Burton bridge summer ale
Geordie Scottish export
Muntons nut brown ale
Coopers Canadian blonde

 

[Muddy Funker]

I was going to say either bottle or get a new keg as maybe yours is leaking?

If you chuck 80g or so of ordinary granulated sugar into a normal 40 pint brew the beer should leave some tingle on the tongue.

 

[bomberns127]

if you are using a 1 can kit, use 1kg beer enhancer instead of sugar
if you are gonna use a 2 can kit you don't need to add sugar to it for fermentation
once fermented wait another week( leave it in the fv airlock protected)
then keg, adding 80 grams of sugar( i boil it for 15 mins in water then cool before adding) if you are going to bottle your brew
then rack off into another fv for 1 more week with a little bottler fitted to it( if poss)
then bottle adding 1/4 teaspoon of basic white granulated sugar to the bottle and the cap the beer
shake to distribute the sugar and leave in a warm place for 3-4 days then move to a cool place for minimum of 2 weeks
this is the way i bottle and keg my beer, simples!
bottling this way produces good co2 within 2-3 weeks in the bottle, the longer its left the better the co2 with minimum rubbish at the bottom of the bottle, but in the keg it takes a long while and its only slightly carbonated which is i think the best way to drink your beer!