adding priming sugar question?

when adding priming sugar to each individual bottle, is it best to shake up the bottle after capping, or just leaving it, or does it really matter?..

Not sure, but it's way easier to boil about a cup of water and dissolve the corn sugar in it. Dump this into your bottling bucket and rack the beer on top of it. This gets the sugar evenly distributed.

irunxcjm said:

Not sure, but it's way easier to boil about a cup of water and dissolve the corn sugar in it. Dump this into your bottling bucket and rack the beer on top of it. This gets the sugar evenly distributed.

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This. Or if you don't want to add more water, some take a bit of the beer from the carboy and boil the sugar in that before adding it back to your bottling bucket.

You could also half the priming solution into the bottom of the bucket and midway through racking gently add the other half so that it mixes in more evenly.

irunxcjm said:

Not sure, but it's way easier to boil about a cup of water and dissolve the corn sugar in it. Dump this into your bottling bucket and rack the beer on top of it. This gets the sugar evenly distributed.

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im gonna be doing a single stage fermentation where my brew is going staright from bottling bucket(fermenter) to bottles. so if i dump the priming sugar in and stir it up will there be any problem? how long do i have to wait for the priming solution to condition the beer in the fermenter?

ive heard from some people that this method you may get some flat beers because the priming sugar wasnt evenly distributed...

If you are fermenting in your bottling bucket, and you add the priming sugar to it and stir it up, all of the "stuff" that settled out after fermentation like dead yeast, hops debris, proteins, etc, will be all stirred up again. So, you don't want to do that. Also, the bottling spigot is near the bottom, so it'll probably be plugged up with trub initially. You don't want that stuff in your bottles!

I'd recommend buying a dedicated bottling bucket. Or at least, siphon your brew out of the fermenter to bottle it.

YooperBrew said:

If you are fermenting in your bottling bucket, and you add the priming sugar to it and stir it up, all of the "stuff" that settled out after fermentation like dead yeast, hops debris, proteins, etc, will be all stirred up again. So, you don't want to do that. Also, the bottling spigot is near the bottom, so it'll probably be plugged up with trub initially. You don't want that stuff in your bottles!

I'd recommend buying a dedicated bottling bucket. Or at least, siphon your brew out of the fermenter to bottle it.

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this is my first brew and i want to make this process as easy as possible for the first time. is there really anything wrong with just bottling my beer from the bottling bucket and adding sugar to each individual bottle? is there a noticable amount of sediment that makes the beer nasty when using this method?

You could always get the prime tabs or carbonation drops. This would allow you to evenly dose the bottles and not worry about mixing up the beer with the trub.

zodiak3000 said:

this is my first brew and i want to make this process as easy as possible for the first time. is there really anything wrong with just bottling my beer from the bottling bucket and adding sugar to each individual bottle? is there a noticable amount of sediment that makes the beer nasty when using this method?

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Well, you can definitely do that. You will get quite a bit of sediment, and by adding sugar directly to each bottle, you may get some foaming when you're trying to fill the bottles. (To see what I mean, add a teaspoon of sugar to a beer that you've just poured). You may not have problems, but sometimes adding a solid (like sugar) to a liquid can cause multiple nucleation points.

The sediment will fall to the bottom in the bottles eventually, but most people don't like that much sediment in there. The trub does taste bad, so you're not going to want to drink it.

The easiest thing to do is to siphon the beer to a new sanitized bottling bucket into which the priming solution (sugar dissolved in boiling water) has been added. Then, using a bottling wand fill each bottle. It's actually easier to this than to try to add sugar to each bottle and fill individually. Especially if you don't have an accurate scale to carefully measure the amount of sugar you're putting in each bottle, and having the trub still in the beer since you haven't siphoned.

YooperBrew said:

Well, you can definitely do that. You will get quite a bit of sediment, and by adding sugar directly to each bottle, you may get some foaming when you're trying to fill the bottles. (To see what I mean, add a teaspoon of sugar to a beer that you've just poured). You may not have problems, but sometimes adding a solid (like sugar) to a liquid can cause multiple nucleation points.

The sediment will fall to the bottom in the bottles eventually, but most people don't like that much sediment in there. The trub does taste bad, so you're not going to want to drink it.

The easiest thing to do is to siphon the beer to a new sanitized bottling bucket into which the priming solution (sugar dissolved in boiling water) has been added. Then, using a bottling wand fill each bottle. It's actually easier to this than to try to add sugar to each bottle and fill individually. Especially if you don't have an accurate scale to carefully measure the amount of sugar you're putting in each bottle, and having the trub still in the beer since you haven't siphoned.

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sounds good, i guess i should just try this method then. i have a siphon, i just never used it. how much water and sugar do you boil together to add to the 5 gallon bottling bucket? and i add this priming solution to the bucket and just siphon the beer on top, right? no need to stir or let it sit?

zodiak3000 said:

sounds good, i guess i should just try this method then. i have a siphon, i just never used it. how much water and sugar do you boil together to add to the 5 gallon bottling bucket? and i add this priming solution to the bucket and just siphon the beer on top, right? no need to stir or let it sit?

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I use 2 cups of boiling water for the 5 ounces (by weight) of priming sugar. If you siphon from the primary fermenter, and put the tip of the tubing in a circular manner along the bottom of the receiving vessel, it'll "swirl" to mix. It won't hurt if you want to sanitize a long handled spoon and give it a stir, however. I never stir, but I know some people do.

Be careful not to splash your beer as you siphon it, and fill the bottles. If you have a bottling wand, that is very helpful.

YooperBrew said:

I use 2 cups of boiling water for the 5 ounces (by weight) of priming sugar. If you siphon from the primary fermenter, and put the tip of the tubing in a circular manner along the bottom of the receiving vessel, it'll "swirl" to mix. It won't hurt if you want to sanitize a long handled spoon and give it a stir, however. I never stir, but I know some people do.

Be careful not to splash your beer as you siphon it, and fill the bottles. If you have a bottling wand, that is very helpful.

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how long do you boil the priming mixture for?

About 5 minutes should be fine. You just want to kill anything that is in the water. Don't worry about cooling it off afterwards, just dump it in the bucket and rack on top.

thanks for everbodys responses

I think that sounds like an idea worth trying. You can buy the 'pills' that have pre-measured corn sugar to add directly to bottles. I am going to dose each bottle with the liquid corn sugar/water mix directly to bottles using an eye dropper or the like (need to shop a bit). I have been cooking, pouring to primary, racking to secondary, and racking to the bottling bucket to which i've added the priming sugar/water mix. I have a fine strainer to pour through between the kettle and the fermenter. I want to try using my bottling bucket as fermenter.
My thinking is that, with a one-bucket approach, I don't have excessive trub since I strain out the chunkies, the trub will be nicely settled, and the spigot is a bit off the bottom already.
I am fine with discarding what lays on the bottom of the bucket, and not tipping it to get out that last bottle or two.
Besides fewer steps, my brew is closed up in one vessel til it goes to the bottles... minimizing paths for contamination.
The beer shouldn't 'know' that the priming sugar came in the glass bottle, not in the bucket, I don't think.
I'm pretty new at homebrewing... if this is a bad idea for any reason, let me know, THANK YOU.