Dumb Priming Question

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DrewCarey82

"Baron Hardmans" Chief brewer.
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Hi.

I have one of those sugar measures with one end for long necks other end for stubbies.

Do I fill it up to the loop as in where the U shape is and try to have it flat there, or as much as it can hold.

I am desperate to avoid exploding bottles as prior to this I have only use carbo drops but am now going to try castor sugar.

Cheers.
 
Scoop into your bowl of sugar, give it a little shake so its flat at the bottom of the little u shape and pour in the bottle. :chug:
 
nope - just means you may spill it when taking it to the bottle.
 
p.s. - make sure you concentrate though - its very easy to forget where you're up to and put double the amount in.....kaboom! Before I started bulk priming I used to line up the longnecks in rows of 5 x 5 and then literally count 1,2,3,4 and 5 as I was putting it in. Helped my mind keep track of where I was up to.
Cheers
Steve
 
I'd love to bulk prime but only have 4 fermentors and as soon as I bottle one next day its racked from another fermentor and that fermentor filled and so on.

Once I have my stocks up should be fine....

I dont have to make any special adjustments for castor sugar do I?

Cheers.
 
Know what you mean Drew. I always make sure I have one fermenter thats empty for priming. I dont think you would have to make any allowances for castor sugar - never used it. Just used to use plain white cane sugar. She'll be right.
Cheers
Steve
 
i think caster is finer so you get more in a small space?
I think I heard that somewhere.
So you're actually going to overcarbonate with caster sugar.

Why are you using that? It's just more expensive fine sugar.
 
DrewCarey82 said:
I dont have to make any special adjustments for castor sugar do I?

Cheers.
[post="90949"][/post]​

Just remember that you are measuring by volume not weight. Castor sugar is finer than regular sugar so it packs tighter. The same volume of castor sugar is slightly (bout 10-20% from memory) heavier than normal sugar. Don't know whether this will make a diference in practice but it is something to watch out for. If the measure is calibrated for normal sugar you could end up slightly overprimed. If it is calibrated for castor sugar and you use normal you could end up underprimed. In practice it probably doesn't matter.

Cheers
Dave
 
Fair point tangent and airgead......I personally wouldnt worry about it. It would only be an extra 2-3gms difference. Not dangerous at all.
Cheers
Steve
 
What brand should I look for Steve @ the supermarket what do you use?

If others could post there brands as well that would be sweet.

Cheers.
 
DrewCarey82 said:
What brand should I look for Steve @ the supermarket what do you use?

If others could post there brands as well that would be sweet.

Cheers.
[post="90962"][/post]​

When I used to use sugar I just used whatever was cheapest. They are all pretty much the same.

I use dextrose now. Again, whatever I can pick up cheap (coopers at the moment). I was finding trhe priming sugar was giving me a slight cidery tang which dextrose doesn't.

Cheers
Dave
 
i'm bulk priming down to about 140gms of the cheapest white sugar per 22-23L brew

been thinking about Dexy but you need to make allowances for that eh Airgead?
 
Okay so just homebrand white sugar does the trick then?

Cheers.
 
tangent said:
been thinking about Dexy but you need to make allowances for that eh Airgead?
[post="90966"][/post]​

Bout 20% extra from memory but strangebrew does the calc for me anyway :)

Cheers
Dave
 
Airgead said:
tangent said:
been thinking about Dexy but you need to make allowances for that eh Airgead?
[post="90966"][/post]​

Bout 20% extra from memory but strangebrew does the calc for me anyway :)

Cheers
Dave
[post="90972"][/post]​

Oh yeah... and that's 20% by weight not volume :D
 
So just regular homebrand sugar is okay? Is this optimal or would I be better off using raw sugar or another such substitute.

Cheers.
 
yep drew - plain old homebrand does the job. I now bulk prime and have used malt, dextrose, brown sugar.....didnt make any allowances at all for finer granules etc etc... all work great (couldnt tell any difference). Just used normal cane sugar now - its cheaper!
 
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