Alternative to sugar for conditioning

[Intruder1800]

Hi all

Well my first ever home brew a Wilkos Cerveza is all but finished after 2 weeks in the FV. I'm going to syphon it into the pressure barrel tomorrow but I don't want to use sugar. I'm looking to use either honey or maple syrup but I'm unsure how much to use, is it like for like quantity (85g) or a different ratio?

Thanks
Neil

 

[LeithR]

Hi there,
If you have a copy of "How to Brew" 3rd edition by John Palmer then look at table 13 on page 111. It gives you all the details for priming with different sugars and honey etc...

 

[Intruder1800]

Hi there,
If you have a copy of "How to Brew" 3rd edition by John Palmer then look at table 13 on page 111. It gives you all the details for priming with different sugars and honey etc...

Unfortunately not at the moment

 

[Will12283]

I wouldn't put the cerveza in a pressure barrel, I learnt the hard way that you can't get enough pressure to carbonate the lager.

Believe me it's hard drinking 40 pints of flat lager, your better off bottling it.

 

[Runwell-Steve]

Why don't you want to use sugar? Such a small amount will have no bearing on the flavour.

If you do decide to use the pressure barrel you need to add the sugar/ other fermentable give it a couple of weeks in the warm to produce plenty of CO2 then transfer it somewhere very cold for a few weeks for the CO2 to be absorbed into the liquid. Then keep it cold. Preferably in a fridge. It won't be lager fizzy, but should be drinkable. Bottles are definitely better for lager or stainless steel kegs.

 

[Intruder1800]

This is why I joined the forum to learn and hopefully avoid mistakes. I wasn't aware that it's not really suitable for the barrel so thanks guys and I'll take everybody's advice and bottle it.

 

[daf]

Bottle some in plastic bottles (1l tonic water for example), then you can test carbonation of the batch by squeezing!

 

[dennisdk2000]

I bottled my last few brews using DME, and I'm telling myself that the result is better than when I've used maple syrup or honey. I
The beers are less fizzy and have better mouth feel - or so I tell myself! Could just be that I've adjusted the amount of bottling sugar I add.

Dennis

 

[daf]

As priming sugar is solely to add carbonation, DME would work better but only because being finer it is easier for the yeast to break down and turn into CO2. Thing is, both DME and syrup are not pure sugar so using those won't get as 'fizzy' as if you used dextrose.

But then I just bung in half a heaped teaspoon of caster sugar in each bottle and it works fine!

 

[dennisdk2000]

I followed a carbonation table to give the proper level of carbonation. It gave amounts for using various sugar types. I suspect the main difference is that the recipes I've been using tells you to add more sugar than needed. I might do a side by side comparison next time - if I remember!

Dennis