Bottle Carbonation with Brown Sugar?

AGbrewer

AGbrewer

Well-Known Member
Premium Member
Joined
Oct 19, 2018
Messages
473
Reaction score
358
Points
63
Anyone ever done it?

Any reason not to?

Have a Belgian Quad/Dubbel that I'm thinking about trying it with. Definitely wouldn't do it with a Pilsner or the like, but darker beers (e.g. Stout, Porter, etc.) might benefit from that flavor.
 
I've never done it, but you can prime with just about any sugar. I would be surprised if you noticed any flavor contribution though. If you do this, I would recommend bottling a few with regular corn sugar and test it out for yourself.

I'm not sure, but I don't think brown sugar and corn sugar would be a 1:1 swap weight-wise.
 
I think it would be fine although I don’t think you’ll see much flavor difference given the quantity used for priming.

Most brown sugar sold today is plain white sugar with 3-5% molasses added back in.

However, if you use pure molasses for priming it might add some flavor. You will need about 25% more molasses by weight than table sugar if you choose this method.
 
Megary said:
I'm not sure, but I don't think brown sugar and corn sugar would be a 1:1 swap weight-wise.
Click to expand...
Chapter 11 in the Palmer book has a table showing relative fermentability of different sugars for priming.
 
AGbrewer said:
Anyone ever done it?

Any reason not to?

Have a Belgian Quad/Dubbel that I'm thinking about trying it with. Definitely wouldn't do it with a Pilsner or the like, but darker beers (e.g. Stout, Porter, etc.) might benefit from that flavor.
Click to expand...
Don't see why it wouldn't work. The molasses reduces the fermentable sugar slightly, a rounding error.
 
I used turbinado sugar today for my dubbel, that's just what we have for coffee, no other special reason.
For brown sugar I would only wonder about the moisture content affecting the weight, but that just popped in my head, probably not a "thing"
 
I've seen a few recipes that call for brown sugar for priming. Pretty sure Brooklyn brew shop has a couple kits/recipes that do
 
Craigerrr said:
I used turbinado sugar today for my dubbel, that's just what we have for coffee, no other special reason.
For brown sugar I would only wonder about the moisture content affecting the weight, but that just popped in my head, probably not a "thing"
Click to expand...
The "moisture" is molasses. There's not much of it to worry about.
 
I'm sure a recipie I was reading the other day on Westveletren blue (getting all up on my belgians) had Belgian candi syrup as a bottle carb option so id say go on and go forth my friend!
 
Megary said:
I've never done it, but you can prime with just about any sugar. I would be surprised if you noticed any flavor contribution though. If you do this, I would recommend bottling a few with regular corn sugar and test it out for yourself.

I'm not sure, but I don't think brown sugar and corn sugar would be a 1:1 swap weight-wise.
Click to expand...

I think I'm going to take your suggestion about splitting the batch up the different sugars. That idea sounds like a great little experiment that doesn't really require much on the labor side to make it happen. Don't forget that I'm rather lazy, so anything that requires minimal work is very appealing to me.

Only tweak I'm going to add is to do corn sugar, cane sugar, and dark brown sugar. My guess is that the Corn and Cane will be a wash. Who knows about the dark brown sugar. Part of me thinks that the dark brown sugar will get lost in the massive flavors of the Belgian Dubbel/Quad that I made (especially since I fermented at 85 degrees F at one point). Guess we'll find out in a couple months. I plan on bottling it up on Tuesday or Wednesday this week.

I'll be sure to cross my fingers and my eyes so that it comes out good.
 
AGbrewer said:
I think I'm going to take your suggestion about splitting the batch up the different sugars. That idea sounds like a great little experiment that doesn't really require much on the labor side to make it happen. Don't forget that I'm rather lazy, so anything that requires minimal work is very appealing to me.

Only tweak I'm going to add is to do corn sugar, cane sugar, and dark brown sugar. My guess is that the Corn and Cane will be a wash. Who knows about the dark brown sugar. Part of me thinks that the dark brown sugar will get lost in the massive flavors of the Belgian Dubbel/Quad that I made (especially since I fermented at 85 degrees F at one point). Guess we'll find out in a couple months. I plan on bottling it up on Tuesday or Wednesday this week.

I'll be sure to cross my fingers and my eyes so that it comes out good.
Click to expand...
Good chance to see results of the different sugars. Keep in mind that corn sugar is around 42 ppg, brown sugar 44, and cane sugar 46. That's about a 9.5% difference between cane and corn. Not a lot, but you might want to compensate.
 
Bubba Wade said:
Good chance to see results of the different sugars. Keep in mind that corn sugar is around 42 ppg, brown sugar 44, and cane sugar 46. That's about a 9.5% difference between cane and corn. Not a lot, but you might want to compensate.
Click to expand...

I'm glad someone else did the math, cause I probably would have eye balled it!
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Copyright © 2007-2025 Brewer's Friend, Inc. - Send Feedback - Terms - RSS Feed - Do Not Sell or Share My Personal Information

Back
Top