Sugar used for carbonation

Is there something special about bottling sugar? I used regular sugar on my last batch and the first one I opened was way overcarbed. Hopefully it was isolated but I'm wondering if I messed up pretty bad on this one.

how did you add the sugar?

Well, "priming sugar" is just corn sugar (dextrose) but not plain old table sugar. I think that there is a difference in the amount you would use, as well as flavor.

I boil 2 cups of water and add 4 ounces corn sugar, and then cool it and rack my beer into it. It's important to mix well without aerating, so I put the tip of the hose in the bottom of the receiving bottling bucket so that it "swirls" to mix well without splashing or stirring.

If you didn't mix it well, it could be that some bottles got more sugar than others.

Or did you add a measured amount of sugar to each bottle?

I used the same 3/4 cup of bottling sugar and 2 cups of water that I've always used. The beer was just bottled a few days ago so maybe that had something to do with it? It was regular sugar that I used and not corn sugar however.

If its not mixed in well with the beer- you will get varying degrees of carbonization.

Ever though of using coopers carb drops?

I'm still bottling via a spigot out of a bucket. I've always just poured the sugar solution in first then poured in the fermented beer and it should mix together pretty uniformly.

Unless somehow regular sugar is lighter than corn sugar and thus floated near the top after it settled? The bottle I pulled would have been one of the last to get filled.

weird- It does happen

I guess it was just a fluke bc the ones I opened today were fine.

senorfartman said:

I used the same 3/4 cup of bottling sugar and 2 cups of water that I've always used. The beer was just bottled a few days ago so maybe that had something to do with it? It was regular sugar that I used and not corn sugar however.

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FWIW, table sugar will give you a higher carb than the same amount of corn sugar


How to Brew has a good nomograph for determining the amount of corn or table sugar to add for desired volumes of CO2

http://www.howtobrew.com/section1/chapter11-4.html

senorfartman said:

Unless somehow regular sugar is lighter than corn sugar and thus floated near the top after it settled? The bottle I pulled would have been one of the last to get filled.

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I have had several times where the last bottle to be filled had some unusual characteristics. Including one that was nearly flat and several that had odd flavors. I don't think this bottle is a good example of the batch.
I think in most beers using corn or cane sugar for priming is not going to make a big difference. Neither adds much flavor and they are used in a pretty small dilution. Dextrose does seem to dissolve faster and has a less chance of detectable flavor but otherwise I doubt it makes much difference. Still I will use dextrose for my bottling because I'd rather not take a chance with that step.
Craig