For priming bottles, just curious what your experiences have been using the typical corn sugar method vs the krausen (gyle) method illustrated in Papazian’s Homebrewing book?
I tried gyle once. The bottles turned out to be gushers. The problem is that it’s just too unpredictable. You could have gushers one time, no carbonation the next, and perfect carbonation might only come with a combination of experience and dumb luck. You’re better off using corn sugar, or better yet, table sugar. I always use table sugar (regular white cane or beet sugar) because it’s cheap and effective, and I always have plenty on hand in the kitchen cupboard. Use a smidge less table sugar than you would corn sugar. About 5/8 cup for 5 gallons is a good place to start.
I’m not as smart as Dave…I tried priming with gyle 3 times before I gave it up. The carbonation was inconsistent, and even when it was OK the beer was no better than a beer primed with sugar.
The more I search homebrew forums about it, the more I find the vast majority of those why try eventually go back to sugar.
Here’s a website I found, with a remarkable amount of research done about krauesening:
http://braukaiser.com/wiki/index.php?title=Main_PageSearch for “krauesen” and/or “carbonation calculator”.
At the same time, I see a signifcant number of homebrewers who graduate to kegging quickly, which resolves the issue, obviously.
Please keep the opinions coming, though.
