A friend recently asked me about priming sugar for bottle conditioning beer and the following is my response. I share it here for your continuing beer education.
Brown sugar would be ok for priming. The goal is to have the living yeast consume sugar in a sealed container, a byproduct of which will be CO2. Any sugar will do, though the type of sugar will effect the time it takes to carbonate and contribute additional flavors. The "problem" usually is in the yeast, not the sugar.
In a highly attenuated* beer, the priming sugar will be the only food left for the yeast, which will result in lower carbonation and perhaps will take longer to produce what you want. In a beer with low attenuation, you will end up with lots of carbonation, quickly.
For bottle-conditioned homebrews, think about a low attenuated beer, like a wheat beer or perhaps many of the Belgians - lots of carbonation. And then think about a low attenuated beer that's been sitting for a while. Not only does it have the priming sugar, but it (the yeast) will continue to eat the residual sugar left in the bottle. Pop the cap - boom!! I've had a few like this, especially the last few beers of a given batch.
The great thing about a beer that ages for several weeks or months before bottling, like my raspberry sour, is that it has almost no residual sugar left, meaning the addition of priming sugar at bottling will practically guarantee that carbonation will not run crazy as it continues to condition.
*Attenuation - the degree to which the yeast consumes sugar during fermentation
Better Drinking
Monday, April 07, 2008 at 3:00 PM
Bottle conditioning beer
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