Home Brew Priming Sugar Calculator

Welcome to the Home Brewers’ Priming Sugar Calculator

Hello, fellow beer brewing enthusiasts! Whether you're a seasoned home brewer or just starting your brewing journey, we're here to help you achieve the perfect carbonation for your homebrewed beer. Our easy-to-use Priming Sugar Calculator is designed to take the guesswork out of priming, ensuring your beer has just the right amount of fizz and flavor.

Simply enter a few details about your brew, and let us handle the rest. Cheers to making your brewing experience even more enjoyable and your beer even more delicious. Happy brewing!

Considerations

• This priming sugar calculator helps a home brewer determine how much of a particular type of priming sugar to use for proper carbonation. For the most accurate estimation, it is important to account for how much CO2 is already dissolved in the beer immediately after fermentation. A freshly fermented beer will contain some dissolved CO2 as a result of fermentation. This priming calculator estimates this dissolved CO2 based upon the beer’s temperature. The amount of this naturally dissolved CO2 is temperature dependent, typically based upon the beer’s fermentation temperature. If the beer’s temperature rises after fermentation is complete, then some of this natural carbonation will be lost, because the CO2’s solubility in the beer will decrease with rising temperature. Thus, for the temperature input, enter the highest temperature the beer experienced after fermentation completely ended.
• For home beer brewers, how important is it to brew a specific beer style to the historically accepted carbonation values as listed in the above drop down menu? This is just a matter of personal preference. Sometimes it's fun to attempt to brew a beer to stylistic authenticity. If you are entering a home brew contest, then paying attention to carbonation levels can be beneficial. On the other hand, sometimes it's just easier to use the 5 oz of priming sugar included with the recipe and call it a day.
• Volumes of CO2 refers to the amount of CO₂ gas dissolved in beer.  Carbonation is typically measured in volumes—a unit that represents the volume of CO₂ relative to the volume of beer. For example, 2.4 volumes means there are 2.4 liters of CO₂ dissolved in 1 liter of beer at atmospheric pressure and 32° F temperature.
• If a fermented beer sits in fermenter with an airlock for a long time, some of this natural CO2 will be lost due to simple gas diffusion. Gas always diffuses from a higher concentration to a lower concentration.
• Whenever a beer is siphoned or racked from one vessel to another, some of this naturally occurring CO2 will be lost due to the physical agitation of the beer.
• We recommend measuring your chosen priming sugar by weight. This priming sugar calculator lists priming sugars by weight, not volume. Volume is not a reliable measurement, because the density of sugars can differ for many reasons.
• When carbonating home brewed beer by priming glass bottles, a best practice method is to check the bottles for developing carbonation every few days. This involves opening the beer, pouring it into a glass and evaluating the carbonation level. Of course, you get to drink the beer, too!  If, on the following days the beer is developing too much carbonation, then you can prevent any risk of exploding bottles by refrigerating all unopened bottles. The cold refrigerator temperatures will force the yeast into dormancy.
• Disclaimer: Always exercise caution when priming bottles of beer. Do no over prime beer, which can result in exploding bottles and personal injury. This Brewer's Priming Calculator is for estimation purposes only. Because carbonation is a function of many variables, some of which are beyond the control of home brewers, we cannot guarantee accuracy provided by this calculator.