Priming Sugar for Bottle Conditioning

In a few days time I'll be ready to bottle my first brew. I won't be transferring the beer from my primary fermenter to a secondary, but bottle conditioning my brew.

When it comes to priming sugar, is it necessary that I boil the sugar before adding it to the bottles? Or can I just add the sugar straight in without boiling it!

Also, if I am boiling it, what's the best way of getting it into bottles?

Thanks.

Yes boil your sugar for about 10-15 minutes, cool then transfer to your bottling bucket. Rack beer from your primary onto the priming solution in the bottling bucket. Put tube on angle so the beer mixes well with the priming solution. Then use a syphon tube with bottle filler to get beer into the bottles.

What type/kind of priming sugar are you using?

Dextrose

Dry or liquid?

Hmmm... I'm not expert but I add it dry -- no boil. What is the advantage to boiling?

brewbama said:

Hmmm... I'm not expert but I add it dry -- no boil. What is the advantage to boiling?

Click to expand...

Mixing in water and boiling sanitizes the solution reducing the risk of infection.

NewWestBrewer said:

Yes boil your sugar for about 10-15 minutes, cool then transfer to your bottling bucket. Rack beer from your primary onto the priming solution in the bottling bucket. Put tube on angle so the beer mixes well with the priming solution. Then use a syphon tube with bottle filler to get beer into the bottles.

Click to expand...

^^
And if you don't know how much priming sugar to add, there are online calculators out there to figure it out or use a program like beersmith.

So, these calculators... How much water do you boil with? It isn't clear. My instructions with my beer kit say that I should just spoon 2ml of priming sugar per bottle.

I'm confused.

You can bottle prime, but that's a pain in the neck (especially for 5 gal batches) and it's too easy to get inconsistent carbing if you don't scoop exactly the same amount intot each bottle.

It's much easier to use a bottling bucket if you have one. Boil 1-2 cups of water with priming sugar. Dump into the bottling bucket and carefully rack your beer onto the sugar. if you get a little swirl going, it mixes the priming sugar into the beer.

Bottle from the bucket. Each beer has the same amount of priming sugar now. Use a calculator to find out how much sugar for the desired carb level.

I don't have a bottling bucket so I'm going to bottle prime. How does that work?

Bottle priming works. I did it a few times when I when I first got started.

But man, carefully scooping sugar into all those bottles gets old.

It's definitely worth it to get another bucket. I got a free food grade bucket from a local soap making shop and drilled the hole myself. A buck or so for the spigot, 99 cents for the PVC elbow dip tube, and a spring loaded bottle wand attached to the spigot by a short piece of tubing for another couple of bucks. Worth every penny

Look for the bottling thread by Revvy... It might be stickied.

There's also those sugar tablets, I think they're made by Muntons. Less control over carb level but great if you don't have a bottling bucket in which to mix sugar.

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