NEWBIE: Do I need brewing sugar for bottling?

[edgee]

Hi,

I'm completely new to home brewing. Have my first ever FV on the go now with a Young's Lager pack bubbling away. One of my questions is, when bottling up, I'm meant to put sugar in.. Does it have to be brewing sugar or can it be a granulated sugar?
Would it still be BETTER with brewing sugar? I may have to deal with having quite a bit spare if it will still be better!!

 

[Hammy71]

Sugar is sugar. At least for your purpose. Most use corn sugar (brewing sugar as you say), but regular old table sugar will work. Here is a neat link to tell you how much you will need.

http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/priming.html

 

[TyTanium]

^^ seconded

It's such a small amount that the flavor contribution is negligible, certainly so between corn sugar & table sugar. I use table sugar exclusively because it's cheap and already in my kitchen.

 

[Felixio]

The link states that you can use DME for carbing the bottles as well. What does that do to the flavor profile?

 

[Hammy71]

The link states that you can use DME for carbing the bottles as well. What does that do to the flavor profile?

I've never tried it, but books and testimonials on here say that it creates smaller bubbles in the beer. Not sure how much, if any, flavor you will get from such a small amount of DME. Especially if you use the lightest variety you can find.

 

[amandabab]

About a year ago I started bottling 1/2 my batches with cheap table sugar as a test.
Now I only bottle with table sugar.

 

[edgee]

Brilliant, thanks for the help. And another 1kg of brewing sugar for my next lot then

 

[Tupperwolf]

As mentioned the sugar doesn't matter. Just use the correct amount based on one of the online calculators. You can use DME as mentioned, but I've read that it will leave a krausen ring in the bottle necks.

 

[ChshreCat]

Different sugars need slightly different amounts. If you search on here you can find the conversions some folks have posted. I've seen them around before. Basically, if you use the right amount you can use any sugar, even honey. I know some folks will even use frozen juice concentrate for fruit beers. You just have to know how much sugar is in each oz/gm and calculate accordingly.

It was long said that using table sugar would give your beer a "cidery" flavor but experience has pretty much tossed that on the large pile of debunked "common knowledge".

 

[boscobeans]

1 Kg for the next lot ????

That's a lot of sugar. You will only be using a small amount per gallon, somewhere in the 30gram or 1 ounce per gallon.
Check out an online priming tool to figure out the amount of sugar depending on the type of sugar, the style of beer and the amount of carbonation you are aiming at.

bosco