First homebrew.

Something I caught here, and anyone else can sure correct me if I'm wrong, but I've always used Corn Sugar for priming, and to make sure, I don't think that's the same as table sugar. In lighter beers I'll use corn sugar for priming if I want to bottle age, and in darker beers I'll use DME. What I do is boil the water, dissolve the sugar or DME then put it in an ice bath. I'll cool it to a 75F temp and add it. Stir continuously while bottling. This could be a two person job, I use 3 people. My wife stirs, I bottle, and I'll have a guest cap. I use beer as a bribe. Works every time.

 

“Something I caught here, and anyone else can sure correct me if I'm wrong, but I've always used Corn Sugar for priming, and to make sure, I don't think that's the same as table sugar.”

That is correct, they are different. Corn Sugar is dextrose while Table Sugar is sucrose.

You can prime perfectly well using Table Sugar (sucrose), you just use less of it (vs. Corn Sugar) to achieve a given carbonation level.

Cheers!

 

+1 to this. I learned the hard way a few months ago and haven't had any problems (knock wood) since I started doing this.

 

I don't like using table sugar for priming. I'm a DME or Corn Sugar guy depending on the beer for bottle priming. Table sugar (Cane Sugar) gives off a slight aftertaste that I don't like in the lighter Pale Ales and Pils. Corn Sugar is harder to find in stores, if you can find it at all so if you have to use table sugar, just like JackJorzempa said, reduce the amount. I don't know what the reduction is off the top of my head but I know that someone on here would know. (These guys are awesome!)

 

By weight, corn sugar produces about 95% of the carbonation as table sugar does. It's because the corn sugar (dextrose) we buy is the monohydrate form, i.e. some of that weight is water.

 

I'm not joking, even though I could probably be proven wrong. I did two batches of a Pale ale, used the reduction calculation from corn sugar to cane sugar on the second batch because I lost the corn sugar to my son who thought it was snow. The second batch with the cane sugar tasted different and I didn't like it. I did a third batch and this time kept the corn sugar away from my son, and it turned out like the first batch.

Of course, one could argue there was something else going on here, and I honestly wouldn't be able to prove it one way or the other. But if you're saying there is no difference in taste, I disagree based on personal experience and 3 batches of beer. All three beers survived long enough for me to do a side by side.... by side comparison. All three beers were carbonated to the same degree. I, and a couple of friends could taste the difference. This is what I base my theory on.

If we are doomed to argue this point, the worst outcome would be to drink delicious beer while trying to distinguish the difference between priming methods. This fate I gladly accept, and we should all be doomed in this way.

 

How long have you been brewing?

 

7 Years. Started with partial kit beers, went on to all grain about 2 years ago. I don't bottle near as much these days. I have been doing a 3 barrel system for about 4 months now. Haven't bottled a thing since I went to kegs

 

Ouch.

We sell it to local restaurants and tap rooms, as well as supplying our own tap room. We have 44 taps and 4 nitro taps, 4 wine taps, and a canning station. We are about to go to a 12 barrel system but we will keep the 3 barrel and we will be doing special barrel aged beers with the smaller system.

 

We are in Oregon City. I'm not the founder of this brewery by any means. I'm just a helper. I walked in there to check out the brewery and get some ideas for my home brew system. I ended up talking to the brew-master there and was asked to stick around on Tuesdays for their brew day. Now months later I'm part of the crew to brew and do the clean-up. It's just good experience for a home brewer and I've learned a lot. My home brewing has really gone to the next level because of that experience. Lots of stuff to learn though.

 

Patrik,

Your beer needs two things to occur:

• It needs to carbonate as part of the bottle conditioning process
• The bottle conditioning process also permits your beer to continue to mature

Carbonated beer tastes pretty different from non-carbonated beer; the carbonation carries flavor compounds up to your nose which fairly dramatically alters the flavor/aroma perception of the beer.

Please report back in 2+ weeks on how your beer tastes.

Cheers!

 

I agree with Jack. The beer that you are tasting is probably from your gravity sample at room temp, and the beer is still somewhat raw. Some conditioning, carbonation and chilling will probably give your beer an entirely different taste, and hopefully for the better.

 

“…hoppy, somewhat bitter dry beer,”

Sounds like a tasty summer time drinking beer to me.

Patrik, that is a great job for a first brew.

Are you addicted to homebrewing yet!?!

Cheers!

Edit: It would be interesting to see if this beer benefits from some cold conditioning time. Put some (all?) of the bottled beers in the refrigerator for a few weeks (e.g., 4 weeks) and report back.