Priming sugar - What to use

[singlespeedsteve]

Hi all,

Just after some advice on what sugar to use for priming.
I've completed a few kits now and have migrated on to AG brews with some AG kits and have recently ventured into recipes and ordering grain. I currently have a raspberry wheat beer in secondary FV which has been in with the raspberries for about a week now and the colour is amazing.

One thing I've always struggled with is any sort of head retention and the beer always being quite fizzy. Some of this will be down to the kits and some, I assume, down to the priming.
I've usually batch primed with Wilko's brewing sugar but I wonder if that's the right stuff to use.
After reading some posts from around the web I'm thinking of using normal sugar but is there something better to use? What's the general consensus?

One of my last brew, a honey porter from St Peter's, was quite flat as I primed each bottle and must have missed one or two so I added a carbonation drop and sent a fountain into the air before I could get a lid back on so I won;t be doing that again....

Thanks
Steve

 

[terrym]

The type of priming sugar has nothing to do with head retention. All the sugar does is provide something for the yeast to chomp on to generate CO2 with a small amount of alcohol as a byproduct. Personally I only use table sugar, cheap readily available and predictable.
If your beers struggle to retain their head you should look elsewhere. It could be anything from dirty glasses to not enough maturing in bottle. Also commercial brewers and homebrewers often use torrified wheat to aid head retention, so now you are doing AG that would be easy to try especially since TW needs mashing with a diastase containing grain as it has none of its own.

 

[singlespeedsteve]

Thanks Terry,

It would make sense that the priming has little to do with the head given all we go through to get to the bottling stage.
In that case I'll just use normal sugar in a batch prime.

Will also check the bottles to make sure they're clean in case that's an issue

 

[terrym]

Thanks Terry,

It would make sense that the priming has little to do with the head given all we go through to get to the bottling stage.
In that case I'll just use normal sugar in a batch prime.

Will also check the bottles to make sure they're clean in case that's an issue

It's not so much the bottle it's the glass you pour your beer into. Any grease or detergent residue on the glass itself could kill the head on your beer quite quickly. I wash and rinse beer glasses separately and have a dedicated glasses cloth with which to dry them.

 

[AlanHarper]

When I was able to "aquire" from the cafe at work - Starbucks and laterly Costas, I used to grab a handfull of sugar packets. After a while I had eventually enough to use one per 500ml bottle for priming my cider.

I'm sure it would work for beer too hehe. It was all so useful to have a constant amount for each bottle - no need to measure out each one - already done for you.

 

[MrRook]

I think most brewers use corn sugar which works fine, but you can use anything that's fermentable. I've used corn sugar, table sugar, dme, and honey. Other possibilities are dark brown sugar, turbinado sugar, demerara sugar, agave syrup, brown rice syrup, molasses, coconut sugar, fruit juices,and maple syrup.