This is my second home brew. My first home brew was a LME kit, which as of today is one week into fermentation. Today I purchased my first DME, which consisted of 5lbs Muntons plain extra light and 1lb Muntons plain light, grain, and 5 different types of hop union. I'm going for a dry/hoppy IPA. My questions are: Do I need a priming sugar? The kit I used in first brew came with one. Do all of brews need priming sugar? Does this seem adequate for a 5 gallon brew? I know this is probably a beyond rookie question, I am just eager to brew and learn from mistakes as I go. (hopefully not that many though)
Assuming you are bottling, priming sugar is a must as the yeast will need something to create co2 in the bottle. Table sugar works great for this, just look up some priming sugar calculators online. Without seeing the whole recipe it is hard to say, but this does look adequate to me. Hang in there the first couple don't always come out as hoped...but they certainly can come out good.
Thank you for the response. Ill look up the priming sugar calculators. Since I know everything is closed on Sunday using regular sugar will work perfect. I drove over an hour just to get my ingredients. I was given this recipe, but I assume my inexperience just let me forget the priming sugar. I know my first batch will not be coming out well, because I have noticed no co2 has been releasing through the airlock. I know this takes time and I am eager to learn from my mistakes. Just a tad bit impatient. As for the recipe, it was the above mentioned DME, along with 5 (1oz) bags of hops from Hopunion (Cascade, Crystal, Columbus, Centennial and Citra) I haven't begun yet, plan on brewing tomorrow. My plan is to add hops in ten min increments.
You can also get conditioning tablets. Its like little rock candy if you will that you drop into each bottle then just bottle on top of it...
You don't need the priming sugar until you bottle, presumably a few weeks after you brew. Was there ever any CO2 being released? Did you look in the fermenter to see if there were any visible signs of fermentation? Have you taken any gravity readings?
ten minute increments, well, it would work, but perhaps a tweak... with those five hops, I would use the columbus early (60) and add the rest late. perhaps like this: columbus 60 cascade 15 centennial 10 crystal 5 citra flameout/hopstand 15 minutes or you could combine them and weigh them out for many, many ways of hopping. but with purely ten minute increments, you'll lose quite a bit of flavor potential. late hops = better flavor IMO and if you haven't yet, grab a copy of how to brew.
One thing that seems to a reoccurring theme is not figuring our the volume before figuring out the amount of sugar you need. I used to do the same thing when I started. Don't just assume you have 5 gallons.
