I brewed my very first batch of beer a couple of weeks ago. In all of the excitement, I failed to fill my fermentation vessel all the way to the 5 gallon mark. I am guessing I may be less than a half of a gallon short (about 1" below the mark on a 6 gallon carboy). My question is: Do I have to adjust my priming sugar to accommodate this small difference when I go to bottle?

Howdy,
Welcome to the world of brewing. The amount of priming sugar you use for bottling is by no means an exact science. That said, I would still try to use proportionatly less sugar when you bottle. The reason is that is you use the full amount of sugar with a smaller batch, you could get beer that over carbonates and there is a danger of bottles starting to break. I just had a one gallon jug burst for this exact reason. Good luck in your brewing and keep us posted on how things turn out.
Matt

Thanks. Will update you with my results.

I would say you have a couple of options. One is to "dilute" it slightly when you add the priming suger to bring it to the five gallons and know you carbonated it absolutely perfect (it's a kit, i assume). The other is to follow Charlie Papazain's advice: "Relax, don't worry, have a homebrew". Chances are, this minute difference in volume will not affect the carbonation level enough for you or anyone else to notice. However, if it's making you worry, then adjust until you don't worry (either the amount you're consuming, or the amount you're making... ).

If you know the desired volume for your CO2 then there are free priming calculators out there. I used one when I did a 1 gal batch and it worked like a charm.

http://www.brewheads.com/priming.php

I decided to scale the sugar down in this scenario. I ran my dilemma by the owner of my local brew supply shop and he asked me about my gravity measurements. I told him they were spot on at approximately 4.5 gallons. He suggested adjusting the sugar so I did. I hope I did the conversion correctly. I had a 5oz pre-packaged dextrose and took 2 table spoons out. Crossing my fingers.

Another question - I have read about substituting dry malt extract in place of the sugar when bottling. Anyone ever do this? I would like to hear about pros and cons.

I've used DME in the past. I know you have to slightly increase the amount used (not sure the exact conversion). It does take longer. At room temp, you need at least 3 weeks. The yeast doesn't seem to process the malt as quickly in this environment as it does the corn sugar. The pro is you can feel confident that you've made an "all malt" beer, but I personally couldn't taste/tell a different.

Well, I'm sitting here at the computer enjoying my very first bottle of homebrew (pale ale) and I gotta say that it turned out way better than I expected. This is a trial 3 weeks after bottling. The brew is packing a little palate punch and I look forward to mellowing out in the next couple of weeks.

I removed two table spoons of corn sugar out of my 5 oz packet to adjust to my batch size and the carbonation was fine.

The creamy, off white head was gigantic when I poured it. Is that from extra corn sugar? The clear, amber body has a spicy clove/cinnamon flavor I am not familiar with in a pale ale. Also, very bitter and a bit acidic/ astringent with a long duration after each swig. I am chalking it up to a young brew and am definitely not complaining. Again, I can't wait to give it some more time to mature.

The brewing bug has sunk it's teeth into me. I'm heading to my brew supply store this week to start working on another batch (I actually have a nut brown ale bottled that will be ready at the end of the month). Thanks for your support so far.

Welcome to the obsession part of the hobby! A lot of those flavors will mellow with time. Although, a lot of pale-ales have a pretty strong bitterness from the hops.

Congrats on a successful batch!

congrats miguelito, sounds like you're on the way now. that first beer makes it all worth while, now it's just a matter of finding your perfect brew, i've been trying for quite a few years and i'm still fine tuning mine.
gary

Thanks guys!

Gary - I dig your brewing set up! I look forward to setting up my own home brewpub eventually.

I use 1oz dextrose per gallon I plan to bottle. I have also used and prefer Carbonation Drops. I add one to a 12 oz bottle and 2 of them to the 22 oz bottle. They work great but they are pricey.