Priming

[jimmybobbird]

Another newbie question I am afraid.

I am using coopers tablets for priming - not particualary good as I am using 500ml bottles so I should need 1 1/2 tablets ! My first few brews have been woefully under-headed and assuming everything else is okay I have decided to blame the primer!

So my question is, what can I use as primer for 500ml bottles generally for bitter and lager kits? Can I just use granulated sugar? If so, how much?

If I want to experiment, can I use other sugar products? Again, how much for a 500 ml bottle?

Cheers

Jim

[stitch]

Yep, granulated sugar works fine. I think people generally use about a teaspoon for a 500ml bottle of ale. For lager you'd want it a bit more fizzy - I'm not quite sure how much to use for that.

Other sugar products work too. Honey, spraymalt, liquid malt extract, brewing sugar ... unfermented wort!

[Jocky]

I prefer to work in grams of sugar and batch prime so that I get even carbonation across all my bottles. So I dissolve my sugar in a little boiled water and then rack the beer from the fermenting vat into a bottling bucket which has the sugar water in it, and then bottle from there.

This is a pretty good priming calculator: http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/priming.html

For my 'English' style ales/bitters I like them non-fizzy (like a hand pulled pint from a cask) so I only use about 0.75 grams of sugar per litre. American style ales, lagers require quite a bit more - about 4 grams per litre.

[stitch]

I batch prime too. That way the priming sugar is spread out evenly between all bottles, and I get to use my little bottler, which makes bottling slightly less of a chore.