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Priming Sugar Experiment Results

If you have been following Brew-Dudes for the past few weeks, you know that as a part of the Brown Porter brew session, we threw in an experiment at bottling.  We had a bag of KreamyX and we wanted to see if it did what it said it would do: increase head formation and retention.

At bottling, we split the 5 gallon batch equally into two bottling buckets.  One had a priming solution made with corn sugar, the other was made with KreamyX.   We bottled as usual and we waited.   Both sets of bottles were placed in the same area for priming.  We tried our hardest to keep everything the same except for the priming solution.

Last night, two bottles were opened up and the contents were placed side by side:

KreamyX vs Corn Sugar - First Sip

KreamyX vs Corn Sugar - First Sip Overhead

KreamyX vs Corn Sugar - Second Sip

KreamyX vs Corn Sugar - Second Sip Overhead

Well, I don’t know what your take is from the photos above but it appears to me that KreamyX produced a fuller head that lasted longer.  The beer with the corn sugar as a priming solution had a nice head too, but the KreamyX outperformed it.

 

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7 Comments

  1. Umberto

    Did you find any difference in the taste or aroma?

  2. I don’t think I can credibly state if there was a taste difference. I wrote to Mike this morning and told him that the KreamyX beer tasted creamier. He wondered what I would say if the product was called TastyX?

    I’m just a marketing-brainwashed robot.

    Knowing that I couldn’t be unbiased and that this experiment was really about head formation/retention, I left it out of the post.

    To be fair, we would have to do a true blind taste test (like, blindfold and all) and report the findings. Not sure if we would do that…but if enough people ask…we will.

  3. LB

    I am ready to perform the blindfolded taste test. We’ll wait until the head falls out a bit and then do it up. How will it perform against the leading brand?

  4. It’s like the Pepsi challenge redux!

  5. Hank

    I’m reminded by our LBS that it only takes 4 things to make good beer: Grains+Hops+Yeast +Water. They go on to mention a Canadian brewery in the late ’50s that added some chemical to improve head retention. After 11 people died they pulled the product.

    Keep it simple …………..

  6. Lee

    I was intriqued with KreamyX too, and went to the Munton’s website to see what was it in. I like to know what’s in the food I eat and in the beer I drink. One ingredient in KreamyX is propylene glycol. The chemical industry says tells us that ingesting small amounts of this chemical is safe but it’s also in antifreeze and brake fluid. I

    t seems if there isn’t a huge discernable difference in the body and head it would be best to stay away from pg. Maybe the incident at the Canadian brewery involved pg, but maybe not. It would be nice to know though….

  7. Fred McGriff

    Better living through chemistry is what I say!

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