worth priming with brown sugar?
worth priming with brown sugar?
just put down wassa's chocolate mahogony porter.Just wondering if it's worth priming it with brown sugar instead of dextrose?
I've primed a porter with brown sugar, and had no problems. But I've since read an article that was saying that the fermentables in brown sugar aren't distributed evenly, which theoretically could produce some bottle bombs. I didn't want much carbonation anyway, so even if brown sugar was 100% fermentable (and I believe the average is actually about 60%), then I still wouldn't have gotten bottle bombs, just because I didn't use much at all. Unfortunately, I've no idea how much the distribution of fermnetables can vary.
So I guess it comes down to whether you want to risk some beers being undercarbed and some overcarbed, and of course how much sugar you intend to use to prime as well.
But to be honest - and this is what I plan to do for next time - I think it'd be better to chuck some brown sugar in at the start of the brew, and prime normally. I reckon you'd need more brown sugar than what you'd use to prime with to get a decent effect.
Hope this helps.
So I guess it comes down to whether you want to risk some beers being undercarbed and some overcarbed, and of course how much sugar you intend to use to prime as well.
But to be honest - and this is what I plan to do for next time - I think it'd be better to chuck some brown sugar in at the start of the brew, and prime normally. I reckon you'd need more brown sugar than what you'd use to prime with to get a decent effect.
Hope this helps.
