Different priming agents

[Tim Roettiger]

Hi All,

I was wondering what different priming agents people have experimented with for bottle conditioning. I mostly use dry malt extract, but have used sugar and molasses with good success.

Recently I tried maple syrup. The jury is still out on that. Has anyone else tried it?

How about other priming agents?

Cheers,

TIM

[Shawn, the Beer Philosopher]

I've only ever used corn sugar, so I don't have experience with other primers. Frankly, I haven't trusted them to provide enough fuel for the yeast to do their work in the bottle. I'd be interested to hear others' experiences too!

[Jake]

I've used light DME for heavier beers and corn sugar for lighter fare. I was under the impression that DME will give you a creamy malty head, whereas corn sugar will give you more of a crisp highly carbonated result. However, I haven't really tested this in a controlled setting (ie. same beer, different priming agent.) It would be an interesting experiment to split a batch at bottling and try a number of different priming agents. Has anybody here tried that before? I'd be interested to hear how it went.

[DiscoFetus]

I've used honey in the past, but mostly dextrose. I recently switched to sucrose and had equal success. Palmer has a conversion chart or two on his site, and in his books. I've been looking into priming with it again for a lager recipe I'm preparing. It imparted a nice subtle honey flavor. We steeped it in some 180 F water for like an hour to sanitize it first. I honestly don't remember how much we used so I'll have to check the priming ratio again.

[Barry Steel]

glucose tablets , work fine , normal sugars works too , I would LOVE to try maple syryp ... good idea !

[Tim Roettiger]

Hey All, Just to update: The maple syrup appeared to work just fine. I used it to bottle a lager. The beer was great, with a slightly fruity taste, a bit like Steinlager. The head was pure white and very dense. The beer did not have a distinctly maple character, so any effect the syrup had on final flavor was subtle.

Cheers, TIM