When to add brewing sugar!? (or spray malt)

[PJHB]

Good evening all, I have just started a home brew after a decent amount of time googling etc. I can't for the life of me ascertain when to add the brewing sugar/light spray malt! I feel like an absolute idiot! I am doing a Cooper's Golden Crown Lager and it mentions needing some sugar but not when to add. Is it at the start or right at the end as a kind of priming/carbonation element? What does the sugar do, increase ABV or help carbonation? I saw a video of a guy doing a lager and rather than adding a little bit of sugar per bottle, he adds it to the whole, is this advisable?

Your advice is really appreciated!

Thanks,
P

 

[yrhendystu]

You add the sugar or spray malt at the beginning and stir it in with the can contents and hot water otherwise your OG will be very low. Yeast converts sugar to alcohol and CO2. This is why you need an airlock to release the CO2.

When bottling you add a little extra sugar to each bottle so it ferments a little more to generate the CO2 to give the bottle a bit of fizz. This is called priming and will bump up your ABV a little too.

I've not done that particular kit but I've done a few Coopers and they've all been nice. What I do is pour as much of the can into the bucket and then pour hot water into the can and stir to get all the stuff off the sides. You'll need oven gloves to move the can if you do it this way. I also put a few 2L bottles of water to chill before starting in order to reduce the temp down quickly once everything has dissolved.

 

[PJHB]

Thank you very much! When you say add a little per bottle, is that literally just a teaspoon (or less/more?) into the bottom of it, then fill beer up? What are thoughts on spraymalt, seems some say it works great and others just say sugar is fine? Really appreciate your time. P

 

[yrhendystu]

A teaspoon should be fine for a normal bottle. Have a look at this calculator.
https://www.brewersfriend.com/beer-priming-calculator/
I've not used spray malt, it's meant to give you a much better all round result. I'll have to try some to see the difference.