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This is my first time brewing and my son didn't do anything to help matters. I was mixing my wort and was putting in the sugar. My recipe called for 1kg which is roughly 2.2 pounds, well lets just say he scared me and I added a little over 3 pounds. I have a very violent fermentation. Is the batch ruined and should I start all over again. I plan on using 22oz. bottles and was wondering home much priming sugar should I use. I'm thinking around a 1tsp. for each bottle.

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The extra sugar will make the beer a bit stronger, but not a lot. I generally add priming sugar to the entire batch, rather than per bottle. It's less work. I boil the sugar in about a cup of water, then add it to the beer to be bottled after racking the beer to another container. I use an average of 1 oz. of sugar for each gal. of beer.

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    +1 If you add the priming sugar solution to the beer be sure to stir well, but gently to avoid oxidation. Myself, I put the priming sugar solution in the bottling bucket before racking the beer into it. I've found that the turbulence from the beer coming out of the siphon hose is enough to mix the sugar solution into the beer. Nov 25, 2011 at 19:36
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    Make sure to do your priming sugar calculations based on your actual batch size, rather than the standard. You will rarely get the exact volume of beer that the recipe indicates, and relatively small changes in amounts of priming sugar can have a large impact on the level of carbonation. Nov 26, 2011 at 13:31
  • I second Dustin on this. Don't assume a volume of wort, measure how much you have before working out your bottling sugar. A graduated fermentor or calibrated spoon with marks on it works.
    – Poshpaws
    Nov 26, 2011 at 16:03
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A lot of sugar will give you cider-y flavors and make the beer taste alcohol-hot, but an extra pound in a 5-gallon batch won't ruin your beer by a long shot. At the very worst you've made yourself a learning experience! I've found some of my mistakes made the best beer.

As for priming sugar, I agree with the others: boil some water with your priming sugar, let it cool a bit. Put that in the bottom of your bottling bucket, then rack (siphon) your beer from your fermenter (bucket/carboy) on top of the sugar. Stir gently with a sanitized spoon and bottle.

How much do you need? There are online calculators you can use to figure it out. Here's one:

http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/priming.html

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