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Author Topic: Tap a Draft Priming  (Read 2806 times)

Offline tttman

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Tap a Draft Priming
« on: January 26, 2012, 08:08:18 pm »
I want to prime my 5 gallons in the style of London's Boddingtons or Fullers London Pride.  Instructions call for 2.75 oz., but of course the beers I mentioned don't have as much carbonation as Americans are used to.

How much priming sugar?  I will use cane.

Offline morticaixavier

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Re: Tap a Draft Priming
« Reply #1 on: January 26, 2012, 10:44:17 pm »
are you bottling? or kegging? one thing to keep in mind is that some you can't really get a cask conditioned effect from a bottle. in a keg you can use beer gas instead of  straight co2 to do a  nitro Guinness type pour. but 2.75 oz sugar to 5 gallons will produce a fairly restrained carbonation assuming the beer doesn't already have a ton of co2 still dissolved from fermentation. search on line for carbonation calculators and you should be able to find something that will give you your answer more exactly but 2.75 sounds pretty good for a british style ale.
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Offline euge

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Re: Tap a Draft Priming
« Reply #2 on: January 27, 2012, 12:48:16 am »
Weigh your sugar. Measuring cups don't cut it. It'll be between 3-4oz of cane sugar if you are priming at 70F.

There are calculators out there or equations that'll tell you how much. Here's one I sometimes use: http://tastybrew.com/calculators/. YMMV
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Offline malzig

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Re: Tap a Draft Priming
« Reply #3 on: January 27, 2012, 06:08:33 am »
I generally consider 2 volumes of CO2 to be towards the very high end for British styles, which is what 2.75 oz of cane sugar would give you.  I would, more usually, limit it to 1.5-1.8 volumes, which would be 1.5-2.3 oz in 5 gallons.  Just be aware that that is a somewhat subtle level of carbonation and might seem flat to someone used to US bottled beer.

I use a tap-a-draft as well.  If you leave a beer with a low level of carbonation on the tap-a-draft, it will continue to absorb CO2 due to the pressure used (when the canisters are full) and gradually become more carb'ed over the course of a week or two.  If you are drinking the beer, the pressure will drop after a few pints or so and that shouldn't be an issue.