Spray malt for priming

Jane

Hi
Just making a brew of Yorkshire Stonewall Bitter. Smells lovely as I type, infact the whole house smells a bit like a microbrewery as have various ciders on the go as well.
Anyway, been a while since I brewed beer and am a bit out of touch. I use carbonation drops for cider, dead easy and good result, but am sure I read somewhere priming beer was better done with spray malt. I have a bag and wondered how much per 500ml bottle.
Any suggestions please................. :-) Jx

Jane

Oh sorry forgot to ask - will it be ok to use 2 part wine finings to clear a bit of the sediment before I bottle?
Cheers again :-)

HBO_Staff

You can prime with either sugar or spraymalt, the spraymalt will secondary ferment and carbonate your brew in the same way as sugar, and could potentially add a little more flavor and body (although it is such a small amount it probably wont be that noticeable). If you do decide to use finings then this will reduce the amount of suspended yeast in the liquid and will often mean the beer will take longer to carbonate, although it will be clearer in the bottles with less sediment. Most beer refill ingredients don't say to use a finings, if you leave the beer to settle before bottling and bottle carefully often it is not needed

Jane

Thanks.
Can I ask everyone what they use and prefer - normal sugar, priming drops or spraymalt?
Cheers Jane

BUDFORCE

I have been using priming drops with beer with good results, normally put just 1 per 500ml bottle. I used the Coopers drops as they are slightly bigger.

That being said, I am going to switch to brewing sugar soon once my supply of priming drops runs out purley down to cost, if you get a funnel using sugar is just as easy and waaaay cheaper.

HBO_Staff

The cost of drops has increased but the good news is - the all new priming drops will be available soon (hopefully around 3 weeks time) and will be of the same quality - but cheaper

Peat

Am I right in understanding that, spray malt is used in the same quantity (gram for gram) as sugar?

HBO_Staff

When brewing a refill ingredient that asks for sugar to be added you can instead use spraymalt at the same dosage - the advantage with spraymalt is that it contains dried malt rather than just sugar, so it will give your brew more body and flavour. It can also be used for priming bottles but as it is such a small amount per bottle you may not notice much difference. The Cellar Supplies dried malt extract is great and does not go sticky when in contact with air like some other spraymalts do, it also dissolves really well

WierdFish

I usually use normal sugar unless the kit includes priming sugar (Young's do). Also I batch prime so saves all the faffing trying to get the same dose of sugar in each bottle.