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Has anybody played around with various sugars when priming / bottling? molasses, honey, maple sugar... Asking since I was listening a podcast about the US history of sugar via http://backstoryradio.org/shows/sweet-talk/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

The podcast historians were kinda saying that Molasses was one of the many factors that influenced the revolution since many of the founding fathers had distilleries, etc.. etc... Anyway, keeping in with the spirit of unrefined, or unprocessed materials; I got two 1 gallon batches I'm willing to experiment with: porter & pilsner.

If anybody has any stories or suggestions as to the quantity and type of sugar (maple, molasses, honey, organic sugar), put them down in the replies as I'm bottling on this wednesday into grolsch bottles.

I've primed with honey before. Waste of honey.

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I started brewing with the Brooklyn Brew Shop recipe book. 90% of those recipes (all 1 gallon) ask you to use honey and I just kept using that method for a long time. But they make no adjustments for carbonation, everything is 3 table spoons. I believe honey is something like 85% fermentable so you'll get a wee bit residual flavours. I've also tried maple syrup which I found too cloying compared to honey and I personally wouldn't recommend it.

I've since switched to table sugar just because I didn't want to be pouring all this expensive local honey into larger batches. Difference has been pretty much negligible. If you want to experiment go for it. But I bet if you did a side by side with honey and table sugar you might have a hard time picking out which was which.

Cheers

today was the day crack one of these open (bottled into 1L flip top). I had put 3 tablespoons of NS honey into the porter 1 gallon batch (I also put in about a tablespoon of full steam coffee). It came out really good. I doubt I'd be able to reproduce my relative success

Couldn't try the pilsner....let just say that some explosion occurred during the process

If you suspect other bottle bombs, get the beer as cold as possible without freezing before opening.

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Congrats on the porter, too bad for the pilsner. Did you use more priming sugar with the pilsner?

RubberToe wrote:Congrats on the porter, too bad for the pilsner. Did you use more priming sugar with the pilsner?

Actually, this was going to be something I was gonna ask someone about activity during fermentation...It was my first time doing pilsner & explosion occurred during the 1st night; here's what I did since I cooked both batches the same day.

I put both batches into 1 gallon jugs for the primary fermentation.

porter - I put in WAY more yeast than suggested - light activity in the airlock (as indicated, came out nice)
pilsner - I put in the appropriate amount of yeast (maybe less) - crazy activity within a few hours - looked liked it was under a running boil. Then about 8 hours later (4:30am) BANG! airlock hit the ceiling. Nice hoppy artwork on the ceiling.

Oh, your air lock clogged. It sounded like you had a bottle bomb from carbonating. Clogged air locks suck so it's best to use a blow off tube instead. Was your fill level high?

More questions:

Were you using a lager yeast with the pilsner?
What was your fermentation temperature?

Note that lagers require a higher pitch rate (around 2x the amount of yeast).

+1 for blow-off tube

RubberToe wrote:Oh, your air lock clogged. It sounded like you had a bottle bomb from carbonating. Clogged air locks suck so it's best to use a blow off tube instead. Was your fill level high?

More questions:

Were you using a lager yeast with the pilsner?
What was your fermentation temperature?

Note that lagers require a higher pitch rate (around 2x the amount of yeast).

Heheh, it must have eventually clogged up after I went to bed. Glad it was only a gallon batch I can't remember the specific yeast I used. The temp was most likely on the upper end of 23-24C. That's one thing I've been noticing lately that I'm probably not doing right.

dean2k wrote:+1 for blow-off tube

can I google image search this from work?

Ya I use a blow-off tube as well until I hit 3 days or minimal bubbling. Nothing wrong with leaving the blow off tube there longer.

Josh

thecyr wrote:

dean2k wrote:+1 for blow-off tube

can I google image search this from work?

No problem! My ghetto fermentation space:
http://www.brewnosers.org/forums/viewto ... 220#p44615" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

dean2k wrote: No problem! My ghetto fermentation space:
http://www.brewnosers.org/forums/viewto ... 220#p44615" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

That works.