Is there an advantage to priming with Dried Malt Extract (DME) instead of corn sugar?
In our opinion, there is no advantage to priming with DME. It takes longer to ferment out than sugar, it adds no flavor to the beer, and since you don’t know the degree of fermentability of the DME, you can’t precisely control the carbonation level of your beer. Sugar adds no taste and is reliable. The same ratio will get you the same level of carbonation with high consistency. There is a persistent myth that DME gives you “finer” bubbles, but that’s due to the fact that since it takes longer than sugar to ferment out, there’s more time for the CO2 to go into solution.
