Priming Sugar Calculator
Calculate the right amount of priming sugar for bottle carbonation. Supports corn sugar, table sugar, and DME.
How It Works
When you bottle beer, the yeast needs a small amount of fermentable sugar to produce CO2 and carbonate the beer in the sealed bottle. The amount of sugar depends on several factors:
- Beer volume — more beer requires proportionally more sugar.
- Desired carbonation — measured in “volumes of CO2.” Typical ranges: 1.5–2.5 for ales, 2.5–3.5 for lagers and Belgian styles.
- Beer temperature — warmer beer holds less residual CO2 from fermentation, so it needs more priming sugar to reach target carbonation.
- Sugar type — different sugars have different fermentability. Corn sugar (dextrose) is ~95% fermentable, table sugar (sucrose) is ~100%, and DME is ~70%.
The calculator uses the residual CO2 formula: CO2_residual = 3.0378 − 0.050062×T + 0.00026555×T², then multiplies the CO2 deficit by the appropriate sugar factor per liter of beer.