Sugar or not?

[jacetheace]

I am just in the process of brewing my second barrel of extract beer.
My first barrel was a stout and I did not add sugar to the pressure barrel, so it was mainly flat.

I am right in thinking if I add sugar when I rack to a barrel, that there will be more carbonation?

TIA


Jace

[DaveyT]

Hi Jace
That's the general idea, yeah. You can various amounts for whichever level of carbonation you want. There are tables and software available to tell you how much to add for required results. I've used about 60g of dried malt extract with 250ml water. I've also used half a cup of honey with a cup of water. I've never used sugar so I'm not sure about that.
I'm under the impression that dried malt extract is superior in terms of end result, but there's all sorts of opinions out there. I'm new to this game and would welcome any other opinions about it.
I bottle my beer so I'm not sure when you'd add the priming solution.

Hope this helps
DaveyT

[jacetheace]

As far as I know half a tea spoon of sugar per bottle is about right (well according to my home brew book).
So I was thinking of adding sugar to the barrel for the secondary fermentation...but I am not sure using sugar is a good idea.

[TheLastSuppa]

Sugar is a good idea. It will start fermentation just enough to pressurise your barrel and carbonate your beer. 50-80g is enough dissolved in 1/2 pint of hot water. This will be enough for the first half of the barrel, but you will have to force carbonate with CO2 for the second half usually.

I've tried with spraymalt and white sugar and can't tell any difference.

Hope this helps.

[jacetheace]

Thanks for the advice

[DaveyT]

I popped open a bottle of my first use of DME for primings and it was as flat as kipper's piss.
Not sure if the rest will be the same, but I think I didn't use enough. Probably up it for the Summer Lightning I'm bottling tonight.

[EoinMag]

I popped open a bottle of my first use of DME for primings and it was as flat as kipper's piss.
Not sure if the rest will be the same, but I think I didn't use enough. Probably up it for the Summer Lightning I'm bottling tonight.

How long did you leave it to prime? It tends to take a bit longer to prime when using DME, but 3 weeks will get you there normally.

[DaveyT]

It'd been four weeks so into the fifth now. I've stuck them in a fridge now. Will this stop any further carbonation?

[EoinMag]

It'd been four weeks so into the fifth now. I've stuck them in a fridge now. Will this stop any further carbonation?

Hmm 4 weeks shoudl have been sufficient to carbonate even with DME. The fridge won't stop it, it'll just slow it severely.

[DaveyT]

I'll get some quality assurance done this weekend and see what the crack is. I only put half in the fridge (as you'd expect with 23l) so I could try one from each lot to compare. It might take a couple of comparisons for a fair and equal trial...