PRIMING

Priming rates are determined by the amount of CO₂ a particular style of beer should have, i.e. the amount of bubbles or fizz. For example German wheat beer has more fizz than an English ale. The beer gas is measured in Volumes of CO₂.

Beer Style	Volumes of CO₂
British-style ales	1.5 - 2.0
Porter, stout	1.7 - 2.3
Belgian ales	1.9 - 2.4
European lagers	2.2 - 2.7
American ales & lagers	2.2 - 2.7
Lambic	2.4 - 2.8
Fruit lambic	3.0 - 4.5
German wheat beer	3.3 - 4.5

Calculating The Desired Priming Rate

As your beer has been fermenting CO₂ has been bubbling through it. This gas has disolved into your beer and it has become saturated with CO₂. The amount of gas trapped is dependant in the temperature of the beer, i.e. the colder the beer the more gas. Consequently this must be taken into consideration when calculating your priming rate. We only need to add the necessary volumes of CO₂ to that already existing is the beer to reach the desired amount.

Temp °C	Volumes of CO₂
0	1.7
2	1.6
4	1.5
6	1.4
8	1.3
10	1.2
12	1.12
14	1.05
16	0.99
18	0.93
20	0.88
22	0.83
24	0.68
26	0.60

Priming Sugar	Gms/Litre
Dried Malt Extract	5.3
Liquid Malt Extract	5.6
Honey	5.6
Dextrose	4.6
Sugar	4.0

Example: Calculate the dried malt extract required to prime 23 litres of British Ale

Target Volume of CO₂ = 2.0

Beer temp 20°C therefore saturated CO₂ = 0.88

2.0 - 0.88 = 1.12 Volume of CO₂

1.12 x 5.3 = 5.9gms/litre

or for a 23litre brew: 5.9 x 23 = 135gms