Priming sugar

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penguin69

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When you boil and fissile the priming sugar, should you drop the temp down to the beer temp ? Can you just leave it hot and put it the bottling bucket and add the beer?
Thanks
 
You should cool down the priming solution a bit...after its boiled, I usually let it sit for about 20 or 30 minutes while I clean my bottles
 
You should only have about a cup of water to dissolve the sugar so it doesn't take long to cool. A few minutes on the stove with the heat off is enough.
 
I boi 2C of water to get a thinner solution. I think it dissolves easier. A cup of sugar & a cup of water makes a simple syrup. Too think imo.
 
Awesome. Thank for the help. I cooled my first batch but not the second.
 
I boi 2C of water to get a thinner solution. I think it dissolves easier. A cup of sugar & a cup of water makes a simple syrup. Too think imo.

"Tomato, Tomahto" Sugar "solution" is sugar "solution". Once its in the water its just a matter of preference. I use 1 cup of water and 3/4ths cup of corn sugar.
 
I've quit cooling my sugar solution. I start the beer racking to the bottling bucket and when I have an inch or 2 of beer in there I pour in the hot priming sugar solution. A pint of hot water in 5 gallons of cool beer won't change the temperature much and the few billion yeast cells I kill don't make much difference in the amount of yeast left for carbonating my beer.
 
This isn't just interpretation nor pronounciation. Equal amounts of sugar & water will be thicker than 2 to 1. I just prefer it thinner. Heavier solutions don't necessarilly cool faster due to increased density.
 
I've quit cooling my sugar solution. I start the beer racking to the bottling bucket and when I have an inch or 2 of beer in there I pour in the hot priming sugar solution. A pint of hot water in 5 gallons of cool beer won't change the temperature much and the few billion yeast cells I kill don't make much difference in the amount of yeast left for carbonating my beer.

With the tiny amount of water that is used for priming, there really isn't enough energy to damage your yeast population overall. Letting it sit and cool isn't required but at the same time, it's not going to hurt anything. After all were only talking about a cup of solution give or take.

If you are worried about the heat, then I would suggest adding the boiled sugar solution to the bucket before racking beer into it. Give a few swirls and the cool bucket and the tremendous surface area that it contacts will zap the energy from your priming sugar almost immediately. Then just rack on top of it.
 
It really doesn't matter how you add it, within seconds of it making contact with the beer you're racking into the bucket, it's going to be cooled down. It's really ONLY a matter of personal process, it doesn't harm the beer to add it directly boiling, warm, or cold....It's ONLY about preference.

As to amount two cups is the standard. I even use that amount when priming 2.5 gallon batches. It just seems a good amount of liquid to boil and disperse into the beer.

Even when using an alternative sugar, like for example some liquid syrup of some sort (for example date palm mollasses) if you calculate the amount of sugar in the liquid, and how much you need, say 3/4 of a cup, I take that and add it to enough water to make 2 cups of priming solution, then heat it to sanitize it.
 
I guess I should've said I start with 2C of water in the sauce pan. I wind up with a bit less,but still the better part of 2C said & done. My reason comes from cooking. In that light,equal amounts of sugar & water make whatis commonly called simple syrup. A base for making syrups for pancakes or desserts. Or as a base for sweet sauces. Also the start for making caramel. My daughter is a chef,& I got that from her.
I made that statement since in post #3,it was worded like,"you better do it this way or...". More than one way to skin a mule.:mug:
 
I guess I should've said I start with 2C of water in the sauce pan. I wind up with a bit less,but still the better part of 2C said & done. My reason comes from cooking. In that light,equal amounts of sugar & water make whatis commonly called simple syrup. A base for making syrups for pancakes or desserts. Or as a base for sweet sauces. Also the start for making caramel. My daughter is a chef,& I got that from her.
I made that statement since in post #3,it was worded like,"you better do it this way or...". More than one way to skin a mule.:mug:

Yeah, I think part of why the books recommend starting with 2 cups is because we know it will end up being less than that when all is said and done. If we begin with 1 cup and boil that then besides what you said about the concentration being higher, there's less of it to disperse into the beer.
 
That's basically it,yeah. I just think starting with 2C will make dispersal easier than it would be otherwise in light of my cooking experiences. The last few days have been full of those experiences. A bit like freddy flameout today. Started my day with a cascade pale ale instead of coffee. Quiet in here,so my thoughts were more in line...
 
You should only have about a cup of water to dissolve the sugar so it doesn't take long to cool. A few minutes on the stove with the heat off is enough.


I made that statement since in post #3,it was worded like,"you better do it this way or...". More than one way to skin a mule.:mug:

Unionrdr, Surely this isn't the post that you interpreted as "you better do it this way or..."??
 
i've quit cooling my sugar solution. I start the beer racking to the bottling bucket and when i have an inch or 2 of beer in there i pour in the hot priming sugar solution. A pint of hot water in 5 gallons of cool beer won't change the temperature much and the few billion yeast cells i kill don't make much difference in the amount of yeast left for carbonating my beer.

+1
 
don't overthink this one. 2c of water, however much sugar you need to match style, boil for a couple of minutes to kill any possible bad stuff, pour it into the beer. It'll be fine. Save your angst for really important things (e.g., it's been 48 hours and my airlock hasn't bubbled yet...) ;)
 
Unionrdr, Surely this isn't the post that you interpreted as "you better do it this way or..."??

Saying "you should only have a cup of water..." came off sounding that way to me. Like it'll take too long to cool if you don't use X amount.
 
Saying "you should only have a cup of water..." came off sounding that way to me. Like it'll take too long to cool if you don't use X amount.

Ha! No that's not what I meant. I was just showing that with the small volume that we're discussing, to cool or not is not really an issue. Sorry for the confusion.
 
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