Force carbonate or priming sugar????

[Niven]

I've done two batches of beer all by my ownself now(good job Niven, pat on back ;)) The first batch I bottled and the second I kegged and force carbonated. Am I missing anything by force carbonating? It just was soooooo easy and I didn't have to wait two more weeks. Does the beer end up being a little less sweet since the priming sugar isn't added? or is that just used up to carbonate it? Is there less alcohol because the priming sugar isn't there to be broken down?????? and last question, what should I make next:)
Thank you,
Gareth

[beerguy]

The only difference I've ever been able to see is that priming sugar seems to give finer bubbles; at least initially. It seems to be more a factor of how long it sits rather then the type of carbonation. I'm enjoy the instant gratification aspect of keg today - drink tomorrow. :)

How about an American Brown ale? It's a personal favorite of mine and was my first contest winning brew.

[Niven]

hmmmm, do you have a recipe or should I just get a kit? Other then expense, is there much difference between a kit and buying everything separately?
This is actually on my way home from work http://www.brewcitysupplies.com/
How's this one look? http://www.brewcitysupplies.com/6/63.htm?865

[Niven]

Or this one http://www.brewcitysupplies.com/6/410.htm?865
Sounds interesting :)

[beerguy]

I'll have to see if I can dig up the recipe - I haven't made it in a while. It would likely have to be adapted. I brew, all grain, in 10gallon batches.

[MWehr76364]

Where did you all get your kits from? I am considering ordering a deluxe kit from Home Brew Heaven and bottling up some Death By BarleyWine beer.

[Niven]

My old roommate got his locally, then he passed it off to me for my birthday. I would look around locally as I would think the glass carboy would be expensive to ship.

[stereomandan]

I've never tasted a difference as far as taste goes. For me, I've used the priming suger mainly because I haven't wanted to spend the money on the equipment for forcing carbonation. Plus, I like that it's kind of old school to bottle it.

I imagine that it won't be long before I go the easier route, since there are a lot of benefits to it.

Dan

[vapovick]

force carbonation is the way to go. Sugar does not belong in beer,
barley, hops water and yeast !!

I force carbonate and the beer is great. I will chill the keg first, once the temp is low I put about 10-15 psi in the keg and roll it on the floor, put it back in the fridge and wait about 3 hours, let the pressure off, then put 10-15 psi back on it, roll it. repeat until I go to sleep, wake up , drain the 10-15 off and put 2.5-3 psi on and BAM ! your having a cold one w/ breakfast !

I have also done the gyle method of reserving a certain amount of unfermented beer before adding the yeast. I keep it in a flask with a lid in the fridge, then when I bottle I add the "gyle" to the now almost done fermented beer and cap it. this does away w/ the nasty priming sugar which should never go into beer anyway..

see my page I have a gyle.lxs calculater to tell you how/much/temp etc.


http://superfly42024.tripod/links

[vapovick]

sorry that was supposed to be http://superfly42024.tripod.com/links