Bottle Priming Widget 1.0

Desired volumes CO2:

Beer temperature:

Beer volume:

Priming ingredient:
AA: Apparent attenuation (see below)

Residual CO2 in beer = volumes.
Priming sugar needed = .

You can save your default settings: Save Defaults

Volumes of CO2 is a measure of how much carbonation is in beer. "2 volumes" indicates that the CO2 in 1 liter of beer would actually occupy 2 liters if it were brought to a temperature of 0°C and 1 atmosphere pressure. Scroll through the list below to determine the ranges of carbonation suitable for the various styles of beer:

Volumes of CO2 by style:

Upon completion of fermentation, a certain amount of CO2 remains in the beer. This amount of "residual CO2" depends upon the temperature of the fermentation. An ale fermented at 65°F will have 0.9 volumes of residual CO2 while a lager fermented at 50°F will have 1.2 volumes. To get the same carbonation in these two beers would require different amounts of priming sugar.

For the same weight, the various priming sugars generate different amounts of CO2. To add one volume of CO2, you need to add priming sugar at the following rates:

Priming Ingredient		Attenuation		grams/liter
Priming Ingredient		Apparent	Real	grams/liter
Cane or table sugar (sucrose)		-	100%	3.82
Corn sugar (glucose/dextrose)		-	100%	4.02
Dried malt extract (DME)	Munton & Fison	75%	60%	6.8
	Northwestern	70%	56%	7.2
	Laaglander	55%	44%	9.3

Please note that DME varies in its fermentability. Some example brand names are given with their approximate apparent attenuation (AA) values. Typically, DME has an AA of 70% to 75%, with the notable exception of Laaglander brand at 55%.

Caution

Please exercise caution in using the results from this calculator. If the amount of priming sugar recommended seems excessive then use common sense and only use the amount you're accustomed to using, because it's quite likely you made a mistake when entering your numbers. Too much priming sugar or bottling a batch of beer that is not done fermenting can cause exploding bottles! Also, some bottles are capable of holding more pressure than others, so don't carbonate bottles to higher pressures than the beer that came in them. This information is provided "as is" and the author assumes no liability for the use of the results from this calculator.

More Information

This widget is based on information from the following articles, for which I am indebted to the authors:

A Primer on Priming by Mark Hibberd
Dave's Preferred Priming Procedure by Dave Draper
Brew By The Numbers by Michael Hall (Zymurgy, Vol. 18 No. 2, Summer 1995)

Note: The priming rates used here differ somewhat from those mentioned in Hibberd's and Draper's articles. For instance, Draper measures volumes of CO2 using 20°C as the reference temperature instead of 0°C as in Hall's article. I'm using Hall's convention here.

Go to the introductory page for a downloadable version of this widget.