Another newbie question on priming

IMHO, I think you'll be fine using 5oz, but if you think you're closer to the extra half gallon, an additional .25oz won't hurt... I'm pretty confident your beer should carb with 5, however. RDWHAHB...

 

5 oz is the typical volume provided for priming sugar by homebrew shops because it can work for most beers, but the exact amount really depends on the style of beer you're making. The volumes of CO2 required for proper carbonation can vary greatly among styles, thus the amount of priming sugar added can vary.

Here is a page from John Palmer's How to Brew. http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter11-4.html
The bottom of the page shows the volumes of CO2 for various styles, and the graph can help with the amount of priming sugar needed based on the beer temperature. The 1st edition is free to read on the web. Since you are a "newbie" the whole book is a highly recommended read.

 

In theory, yes. In practice, it isn't going to make that much of a difference. If you want to get technical, use a priming-sugar calculator. My favorite is here. As is evident it provides priming sugar amounts for all kinds of sugars and takes into account the beer temperature and target CO_2 amount in the carbonated beer.

 

Use this! http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator/carbonation.html Plug in the temp as high as the beer's ever been after fermentation.

5+ oz always comes out too high.

 

I feel that 5oz corn sugar / 5 gal beer (ale) is the top amount I would use for any of my beers.

That being said, I use pretty close to this amount on most of them. However, I adjust for volume, and I use a gram scale. Most of my beers have been slightly under 5 gallons final bottling product, so I've been adjusting the priming sugar accordingly.

I think more important than the exact theoretical amount you choose to use, the actual weight of your priming sugar is the most important consideration. If you don't already have a gram scale, get one. They're cheep. I got mine for $12 almost two years ago, and it's still working fine.

 

So you got less boil-off, meaning you have more beer in the fermentor than expected, correct? I'd keep it at 5oz, you're gonna lose at least a couple quarts between samples and transferring into your bottling bucket. Don't sweat it, it'll still be beer.