Priming sugar amounts

[lowtones84]

Hello everybody,

I'm going to be packaging an English mild, half of it into soft plastic cubitainers that can only hold 1.2-1.4 volumes safely. I always use northern brewer's online priming sugar calculator, but the numbers seem a little odd to me.

My system works with 4 gallon batches. So for 1.2 volumes of carbonation with 4 gallons it recommends .57 oz turbinado, but recommends .62 oz of corn sugar or table sugar. This seems a little backwards to me. Doesn't turbinado sugar have more unfermentables by weight than corn sugar?

I've never used the cubitainers before so just want some feedback before I mess something up. I don't want them to spring a leak but don't want the beer to be flat either.

Thanks all!

 

[MindenMan]

I personally think the Priming calculators are odd at best. The "temperature" of the beer question I feel is misleading. I am not picking a fight here, so no challenges are welcome. For a mild, of which I have made many, I use 0.75 oz of table sugar per gallon to prime as a general rule, and it is not uncommon for carbonation to take three weeks in the bottle. That said, English milds are generally between 1.2 and 2.0 volumes of CO2. For many, a "lighter" style ale will be carbonated slightly more than a "regular" ale to add mouth feel. I realize you are not using high pressure vessel cubitainers, so everything I said may be irrelevant at this point.

 

[lowtones84]

Yeah, I agree that the priming calculator is a little odd. I've definitely gotten lower than expected carbonation at times, especially when using turbinado sugar (because it's what I keep in the house). Like you said though, I can't really prime above 1.4 volumes in these. I'm bottling half of the mild, but to keep things simple the first time I'm going with the same amount of carbonation in the bottles. If it ends up being a little disappointing I will know for next time.

Anyone else have good resources for calculating priming sugar?

 

[lowtones84]

Maybe these calculators don't work so well for low volumes. I've checked several online and they're all giving me around .6 oz for 1.2 volumes, but 1.3 oz for 1.5 volumes. So twice as much priming sugar for .3 more volumes? Seems a little off...