# First home made beer in years. Got a question



## Hunt (Aug 22, 2014)

I am making my first beer in well over 4 years and i am trying to remember when its ready to add priming sugar and how much sugar to add. The directions are rather vague on this part of the process Its a hefewizen made from only LME. Right now its been in secondary for about 2 weeks and im getting 1 bubble every 2 min or so. Not seeing a change on the hydrometer at all but the bubbling concerns me. The last beer i made ended up so over carbonated it would fill the mug with just foam and take 20 min to settle down enough to drink.


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## francois_du_nord (Aug 22, 2014)

If your reading is staying constant on the hydrometer, you should be at finishing gravity. Any idea where you started, or how many lbs of extract you used (I think you mean liquid with your abbreviation?).

If you are down around 1.015 or less, I'd say you are done fermenting. 

What does the beer look like? Is it clearing and yeast floculating? That will be another sign that fermentation is complete, as the yeast is floculating because it is out of food. 

A decent prime would be 3/4 cup corn sugar if you are bottling, 1/3 that if kegging. But cold liquids hold more dissolved gas than warm, so if you are pretty cool already (<60) you might be half way carbonated and could reduce the amount of prime. Years ago I had a table that told you how much dissolved gas was in beer at various temps, thus you could hit your style with carbonization, but that was back when I was on my game. 

Now I'm just a beer hasbeen, and a beginner wino. 

Best, Fran


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## BernardSmith (Aug 22, 2014)

What was your starting gravity? Does the recipe you used have an expected finishing gravity? If so, how close are you to that gravity? Was the only malt you used LME? No specialty grains? They would likely increase the final gravity. Did you add sugar or DME? Sugar will reduce the final gravity
The bubbles may be the CO2 being expelled from the liquor because of changes in air pressure or ambient temperature. 
As to the amount of priming sugar you should add that depends on the volume of your batch (I make single gallon batches - so I don't assume you made 5 gallons). Typically 1 oz of priming sugar per gallon is sufficient. Two weeks conditioning in the bottle.


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## Hunt (Aug 22, 2014)

The starting gravity was 1.050 now it's 1.012 the recipe sheet called for 1.016 the temp is 72 degrees. All that was used was 7 lbs of liquid extract for 5 gal


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