Boiling Bottling Sugar

I've never heard anybody talk about this, but it's something I've been doing lately. Essentially all the directions I have indicate that I should boil the bottling sugar first, and then rack the beer from the fermenter into the bottling bucket on top of the sugar/water solution.

My question is this, does the temperature matter? I've started waiting until the sugar/water is nolonger boiling, and rather down to around 100 degrees. Seems like it could be a complete waste of time if the small amount (2 cups) compared to the total beer volume doesn't end up really causing problems for the yeast.

Eh, it's a debated thing. I wait till its cooled off/down to room temp, but if I didn't, I wouldn't be worried. I'm sure it may affect the yeast in the first few cups of beer that come out, but there will be plenty enough yeast left in the beer to carbonate etc.

IMO I don't think it really matters, adding the cool wort (aka proto-beer) to the hot sugar-water will cool things down enough to not bother the remaining yeasties...

However I did notice I was getting some VERY subtle off-flavors in my beer when I dumped the boiling sugar-water into a bucket and then siphoned on top. Maybe that was because the bucket was new and the hot liquid was getting some flavors out of it? Now I add the sugar solution after I've transferred some wort into the bucket first. Paranoid? sure, why not, it's my beer! :cross:

- Mike

Rip said:

Maybe that was because the bucket was new and the hot liquid was getting some flavors out of it?

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Good point, I wouldn't want to risk it. I just cool my sugar mixture down in the sink. Takes like 2 minutes lol

DavidSteel said:

Good point, I wouldn't want to risk it. I just cool my sugar mixture down in the sink. Takes like 2 minutes lol

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How do you do that? I've tried running cold water on the pot and other things, usually I just dumped it into the bucket since it's got more exposed surface area that the tiny pot I use to boil it.

FWIW, I always boil the priming sugar solution first and let it sit to cool down while I'm sanitizing the bottles and things. It's usually still warm when I'm ready to rack, but not too bad. Pouring it into the cool bucket at that point takes it down to a reasonable temp.

If you put your recently boiled priming sugar solution in your bottling bucket and siphon beer onto it, you won't harm a darn thing. You will have the solution evenly mixed as the finished beers siphons in and a couple of cups of hot solution will have a negligible temperature change.

RDWHAHB

DilvishTheDamned said:

How do you do that? I've tried running cold water on the pot and other things, usually I just dumped it into the bucket since it's got more exposed surface area that the tiny pot I use to boil it.

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Put the top on the pot, fill the sink with ice (from the freezer) and cold water. Move the pot and water around a few times. It's only like 1.5 cups of water, so it doesn't take long