Brown sugar primer

[tulleyman]

Has anyone ever used brown sugar to prime the beer for bottle conditioning?

 

[DocScott]

Yep. Always do my pumpkin beers with brown sugar. Use an online calculator to determine how much. Carb works great, you'll need a bit more than dextrose or table sugar by weight though.

Flavor wise, you may get a little molasses flavor from it, but truthfully, I don't notice much.

 

[tulleyman]

How much do you use? And do you use 5g batches. Have you ever worked with molasses?

 

[DocScott]

How much do you use? And do you use 5g batches. Have you ever worked with molasses?

Last year I did a partigyle and had 3 gallon and 2.5 gallon batches which I used 2.25oz (weight) and 1.75iz respectively. In the part for 5 gallon batches I typically use 3.5 -3.75 oz. again, by weight.

You can calculate how much you should use for your batch by using online calculators like www.northernbrewer.com/priming-sugar-calculator or tastybrew.com.

I haven't used molasses personally, but you can. Again, the calculators will tell you how much. I just ran it quick, and for a 5gallon batch with 2.1 volumes of carb bottled at 70*F, you'll need 4.37 oz of molasses.

 

[unionrdr]

Demerara sugar is good for priming too. It's raw cane sugar with a light brown sugar laced with honey sort of flavor. but at priming levels,it only adds a hint of flavor & color to the overall complexity. I used a pound of demerara sugar in my all NZ hopped Maouri IPA. it goes in the fridge this Wednesday,so next weekend we'll se how it smells & tastes.

 

[Oginme]

I have used brown sugar and molasses both in priming. I adjust for fermentable sugars, with molasses having about 78% the fermentable sugar as corn sugar and brown sugar about 98%.

 

[homebrewdad]

I've never used brown sugar myself, but it's very common. Check the priming sugar calculator in my sig, it'll help you figure out how much to use.

 

[tulleyman]

Thanks for all the great posts. I think I'm going to go the brown sugar route and see how my vanilla mint milk stout turns out.

 

[Zuljin]

I'm imagining that maybe brown sugar should be dissolved in something first. I imagine it doesn't dissolve as easily as powered corn sugar. Some people dissolve their sugar first anyway.

 

[25518]

Mmmmm. Brown sugar in stout.

 

[cogsmithsfermentorium]

I used brown sugar in my milk stout and it worked great it took a bit longer to carb but it mas a nice finish now