question about bottling sugar...

After you boil the bottling sugar with water and dump it into the bottling bucket is there anything else you need to do to make sure the sugar mixers with the entire batch of beer? What is the full purpose for the bottling sugar? Just for Carbonation?

to mix the sugars, you should stir it in the bottling bucket for a min or so, if you don't, some of the bottle will be carbonated to hell, some will be flat (found this out the hard way). and yes, the sugars is for carbonating the bottles

I give the occasional stir with the auto-siphon rack, just to make sure things are equally distributed. Very little alcohol is added with the priming sugar. Alternatives include dme, honey, sucrose, molasses, any fermentable sugar

if you are pouring the priming solution in first, then racking the beer on top of it, you don't need to do any extra mixing. however, if you racked the beer in first, you will need to sanitize a stirring spoon and mix it gently (don't want to introduce any o2 at this point). and yes, the purpose of the bottling sugar is to carbonate the beer.

Corner_House said:

to mix the sugars, you should stir it in the bottling bucket for a min or so, if you don't, some of the bottle will be carbonated to hell, some will be flat (found this out the hard way). and yes, the sugars is for carbonating the bottles

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I have not had this problem. The way the beer comes out of my siphon tubing it creates a slow whirlpool and evenly mixes everything. That being said, it can't hurt to gently stir.

brettwasbtd said:

I have not had this problem. The way the beer comes out of my siphon tubing it creates a slow whirlpool and evenly mixes everything. That being said, it can't hurt to gently stir.

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i made the mistake of adding it last and not stirring

Sometimes I don't mix... sometimes I do.... They always come out the same. However, you should ALWAYS add the priming sugar mixture BEFORE you add the beer. The flowing (usually whirlpool action) of siphoning will mix the two. If you added sugar afterward, you may have issues with uneven carbing.

What is the full purpose for the bottling sugar? Just for Carbonation?


Yeah, just like when the yeast are eating all the sugars in you wort and your air valve is bubbling like crazy for a few days. You add new sugar and cap the bottles. The bubbles can't escape out of the air valve and it carbonates your beer.