Priming sugar dosing

[Cellar_Rat]

Has anyone used brown sugar for priming?

[oliver90owner]

Might as well use DME? I'm too tight to use anything but the cheapest granulated I can get at the time.

RAB

[Cellar_Rat]

good call dimethoxy-beta-hydroxyphenethylamine wood make an excellent addition to beer

[oliver90owner]

dimethoxy-beta-hydroxyphenethylamine wood make an excellent addition to beer

Just the cemical part without any wood would be enough!

Bet not many brewers have heard of that expansion of the abbreviation 'DME'!

Could be dimethylethane ( err, that could be butane?)

[Cellar_Rat]

I have considered using Lyles Golden syrup (because I have some looking homeless) but I cannot work out the conversion factor of millilitres (syrup) to 1 teaspoon (SPGS).

..and I get the feeling it would probably be a sticky mess so haven't tried too hard

[mcblades]

Part y round cellar rats then!!

I'll bring some mushroom soup.
;

[peterj]

A “standard” level teaspoon (the ones you used to get with medicines) holds 5ml. The label of my Lyles Golden syrup states that it consists of 77.5% sugar. So 1 level tsp of the syrup contains (by my reckoning)

5(ml) x 77.5(%) = 3.875

Note:- 1 level 5ml tsp holds approx. 3.16g of granulated sugar (by my actual measurement - 10 level tsp weighed 31.6g)

[oliver90owner]

Yes but. What units? I think you are forgetting that the SG of that syrup is around 1.4, so 5ml will have a mass of around 7g. Now 77% is a tad more than you calculated, I think - something a little over 5g?

RAB

[lockwood1956]

Just the cemical part without any wood would be enough!

I missed this at the time

that's laugh out loud funny RAB

[peterj]

I must admit that working this out was not easy; I too had problems with the “units”.
Working in nice, easy figures, 77.5g sugar dissolved in 55ml would give

= (0.58ml/g x 77.5g) + 55 ml (1g sugar takes up only 0.58ml when in solution)
= 100ml of sugar solution

The SG of this is
= 1000 + 375 x 77.5g / (100ml of soln.) (Sugar gives 373°/Kg/l)
= 1291

Dividing by 20, to get our original 5ml, 77.5g / 20 = 3.875g

[oliver90owner]

Is this '77.5%' weight/weight or weight/volume? A subtle difference.

[peterj]

In the line “= (0.58ml/g x 77.5g) + 55 ml”

The two “g’s” cancel each other out, leaving just the “ml” units.

[oliver90owner]

In the line “= (0.58ml/g x 77.5g) + 55 ml"
The two “g’s” cancel each other out, leaving just the “ml” units.

You are quite right in what you put in the quote above (units in calculations are one of my stronger points).

However the basis of the calculation using 77.5% needs to be taken into account, so the same point remains; is this a numerical percentage (weight/weight or mass/mass) or is it a weight/volume? They are not the same! Without units quoted, one should be able to safely assume this is a simple numerical ratio? ie mass/mass or volume /volume?

I will stick to my assessment (calculation) unless you can provide evidence to the contrary. My honey is around 82% solids (18% water); the density ( and SG) is around 1.4-1.45, but the former having units of mass/volume and the latter being a simple numerical ratio. 5 grams of my honey will contain 4.1g of solids, but 5ml will contain considerably more - 5ml*1.45g/ml*82/100 = 5.9g or 5g*1.45*82/100 = 5.9g.

Either way, my calculation comes out in the correct units. Yours does not or you have made an incorrect assumption. Yes, there we are! 5ml and 5g are not the same at all. That assumption only holds (loosely) for substances such as water, certainly not concentrated sugar solutions! That is why I can squeeze a whole 454g of honey into a jar of volume approx 320ml. At 18% water that means there is over 370g of sugar in that volume.

RAB

[lockwood1956]

so 5ml contains about 5.3g sugar


"about" the right dosage for priming a lager if you want it very fizzy, if using it to prime a beer.....halve the amount

regards
Bob

[peterj]

If you do the calc for the water by your method
= 5ml*1.45g/ml*18/100 = 1.305g water

Adding “your” honey to the water (calculated above) the total weight is (5.9 + 1.305)g

The total proportion of water = 1.305 / (1.305 + 5.9) which is 0.181125 OR 18.1125%, which to me, is pretty dam close to 18%.

(The honey proportion is 1 - 0.181125 = 0.818876 OR 81.8876%.)

Going back to sugar, if you were to dissolve 77.5g of sugar in 55ml (approx. 55g) you would end up with 100ml of sugar solution, NOT 132.5, so your analogy about the honey jar does not hold water!

“That is why I can squeeze a whole 454g of honey into a jar of volume approx 320ml.” The honey already contains the water! The “liquid” part is 82ml & the SG is approx. 1435.

BOB
1 level 5ml tsp contains about 3.16g sugar, enough to prime 1 litre of ale at 1.7 vol CO2, 2 level tsp are about for lagers at 2.5 vol CO2.