Poll about sugar/water priming...

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How do you prime - boil water/no water, let cool/don't let cool

  • Boil water with sugar, let cool prior to priming

  • Boil water with sugar, don't let cool prior to priming

  • No water at all - mix sugar straight in the beer.

  • None of the above


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-TH-

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A discussion on another thread got me thinking about this. I always boil my priming sugar in water then let cool prior to mixing with beer. I read that some do not let cool and even others do not boil with water but rather mix the sugar straight in. I was curious what others do...
 
I don't boil the sugar when I bottle. I use cane sugar cubes, similar to Coopers carbonation drops. Cheap and effective.
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I use the Cooper's carb tabs. The brews I 've done using them have all carbed fine. The couple of brews i tried boiling and mixing sugar have had issues. I'm sure the issues were all of my own doing, but if i can eliminate a chance of my drunk butt screwing something up, I'm all for that. :drunk:

The sugar cubes sounds like a good idea too. How many cubes per bottle do you use? Have you had any issues?

Cheers :mug:

Terje
 
i don't bother cooling...just boil and dump in bottom of bottling bucket. the solution cools fast when the wort gets mixed in and i can't imagine it kills off very many yeasties.
 
i don't bother cooling...just boil and dump in bottom of bottling bucket. the solution cools fast when the wort gets mixed in and i can't imagine it kills off very many yeasties.

+1. I've always done this, and it works well. The beer always cools down the 1qt. or so of hot sugar water. I usually start the transfer first to get the cool beer in the bottling bucket, then gently add the bottling sugar solution. This also evenly mixes in the sugar throughout the batch of beer.
 
i don't bother cooling...just boil and dump in bottom of bottling bucket. the solution cools fast when the wort gets mixed in and i can't imagine it kills off very many yeasties.

+1

It couldn't possibly kill very many. Assuming you mix 2/3 cup of sugar with 2 cups water and your beer is at 65dF, you would have only to add about a gallon to get it down to 83dF. Once you add last gallon of the 5, temp is back down below 70dF. Perfect temp for bottling.
 
The sugar cubes sounds like a good idea too. How many cubes per bottle do you use? Have you had any issues?

Per 12 oz bottle - 1 cube (0.5 tsp sucrose) for low carbonation, 2 cubes (1 tsp) for normal carbonation, and 3 cubes (1.5 tsp) for high carbonation. Works every time. :)

Quite often, I'll bottle a couple of beers with high and low carbonation just to see how it affects the flavor.
 
i don't bother cooling...just boil and dump in bottom of bottling bucket. the solution cools fast when the wort gets mixed in and i can't imagine it kills off very many yeasties.

+googolplex

There is absolutely no reason whatsoever to cool down the priming solution before pouring the beer on top of it. As others have pointed out, it doesn't take much beer to cool it down anyway.
 
I think I will not wait around for the solution to cool anymore - THANKS!

But out of curiosity I checked Palmer's "How to Brew" this morning and found this:

Here's how to make and add priming solutions:
1. Boil 3/4 cup of corn sugar (4 oz by weight), or 2/3 cup of white sugar, or 1 and 1/4 cup dry malt extract in 2 cups of water and let it cool.
 
Per 12 oz bottle - 1 cube (0.5 tsp sucrose) for low carbonation, 2 cubes (1 tsp) for normal carbonation, and 3 cubes (1.5 tsp) for high carbonation. Works every time. :)

Quite often, I'll bottle a couple of beers with high and low carbonation just to see how it affects the flavor.


I use the sugar cubes also with good results (198 cubes per box). However, my math says that 1 cube gives around 2.5 volumes of co2 per 12 oz. bottle at about 70 degrees. If I want less carbonation (like for a bitter) I will use one cube in a 16 or22 oz. bottle.
 
I've always boiled in water and then let it cool because I was concerned about the sugar dissolving evenly in a cold liquid. For the 2 of you who apparently mix it straight in, is this an issue at all? Is there anything more to your technique?
 
...For the 2 of you who apparently mix it straight in, is this an issue at all? Is there anything more to your technique?

Mine gets plenty mixed when I haul my bottling bucket from the garage (where cold crashing occurs) to the kitchen (where bottling occurs).

Racking the beer onto the bottling liquid should mix it sufficiently and don't rule out entropy as a means of mixing. The universe demands that the sweet bottling liquid and the beer being racked on top of it mix until homogeneity is achieved.
 
Mine gets plenty mixed when I haul my bottling bucket from the garage (where cold crashing occurs) to the kitchen (where bottling occurs).

Racking the beer onto the bottling liquid should mix it sufficiently and don't rule out entropy as a means of mixing. The universe demands that the sweet bottling liquid and the beer being racked on top of it mix until homogeneity is achieved.

Just out of curiosity, doesn't sloshing the bucket defeat the purpose of cold crashing?

Also just to clarify - I'm talking about simply mixing granulated sugar into the cold beer in the bottling bucket, not making a solution. Right now I make a solution, let it cool, dump it in the bottling bucket, then rack the beer on top. What I'd like to do if it works just as well is simply rack the beer into the bottling bucket, stir in the sugar (not sugar water/solution/syrup, just granulated sugar), and bottle.
 
I've always boiled in water and then let it cool because I was concerned about the sugar dissolving evenly in a cold liquid. For the 2 of you who apparently mix it straight in, is this an issue at all? Is there anything more to your technique?

MrNate, I just drop 1 cube in each bottle and then fill the bottle. I have tried several different ways to prime before bottling and using the cubes is by far the most consistant and easiest way for me. I use a Better Bottle with the racking valve for a primary and bottle straight from that, the bottling wand fits right inside the valve. Sometimes I will rack to a second Better Bottle and let things settle for a couple of days if I think it would help the clarity, but usually I bottle right from primary. It also works well for when I make odd size batches.
 
Just out of curiosity, doesn't sloshing the bucket defeat the purpose of cold crashing?

No, I cold crash to get all the yeast to flocculate to the bottom of the fermenter. Then rack the clear beer off the yeast cake and into the bottling bucket. I never get any sediment in my bottling bucket so sloshing it is irrelevant.

Also just to clarify - I'm talking about simply mixing granulated sugar into the cold beer in the bottling bucket, not making a solution. Right now I make a solution, let it cool, dump it in the bottling bucket, then rack the beer on top. What I'd like to do if it works just as well is simply rack the beer into the bottling bucket, stir in the sugar (not sugar water/solution/syrup, just granulated sugar), and bottle.

Ah, never mind then.
 
No, I cold crash to get all the yeast to flocculate to the bottom of the fermenter. Then rack the clear beer off the yeast cake and into the bottling bucket. I never get any sediment in my bottling bucket so sloshing it is irrelevant.

Oh, I see. Makes sense.
 
I use the sugar cubes also with good results (198 cubes per box). However, my math says that 1 cube gives around 2.5 volumes of co2 per 12 oz. bottle at about 70 degrees. If I want less carbonation (like for a bitter) I will use one cube in a 16 or22 oz. bottle.

Problem here is that you don't drink it at 70 degrees, so you'll have less than 2.5 volumes, you need to calculate at the serving temp.
 
After THOROUGHLY cleaning the kitchen and while my bier bottles are in the dish washer's dry cycle I pull out my bier and equipment. As soon as the botttles are dry I place 2 boilers on the stove, one with caps and one for the sugar. By the time I have all my equipment/bottling bucket sanitized etc. my sugar water is usually cool! Works out just fine, but I can't imagine that small amount of hot liquid could do any damage if the occasion arises where I have to dump hot liquid into the bier!

Hmmmm sugar cubes that's intersting!

Schlante,
Phillip
 
Problem here is that you don't drink it at 70 degrees, so you'll have less than 2.5 volumes, you need to calculate at the serving temp.


Using the nomograph in Palmers book (p.113) and working backwards it is the temp of the beer when you bottle. Example: A line from 4 ounces of corn sugar drawn through 2.5 volumes of co2 goes to 70 degrees.

Below the nomograph Palmer says, "To use the nomograph, draw a line from the temperature of your beer through the volumes of carbon dioxide that you want, to the scale for sugar".
 
I have been boiling and cooling, but I might just start pouring the beer on top of hot sugar water now. I get the idea that the sugar water is going to cool very quickly, and the fact is that it can't be killing too many yeasts before it's cooled down.
 
I have only bottled two 5 gal batches thus far. 1st time was an amber and I forgot to cool the previously boiled water/corn sugar solution. The amber had it's own problems (too sweet, my fault) but it was evenly carbonated.

The second batch was a Sierra PA clone that was much more like what I was shooting for (yeah!) but I've found extreme fluxuations in the carbonation. Considering how I would box capped bottles as I completely them, it's safe to say that one 12-pack would be 12 bottles that were filled in order. I found I had one 12-pack that contained over carbonated bottles, compared to the other 12-packs. I believe it was the 1st set of bottles filled, so it consisted of the beer from the bottom of the bottling bucket. I poured into pint or even 22 oz glasses and watched them fill with foam (3/4 foam). The aroma was fantastic seeing that the overcabonation was driving the aromatics out.

For this batch I had boiled the corn sugar in water and then cooled in an ice bath. It may have even been cooled below the temp of the beer I was racking from the fermenter (which was around 66-67°). I started the siphon and poured in the priming solution slowly along the side of the bucket right away, so it was in there before 95% of the beer had been moved. I did not swirl or mix, I simply relied on the beer ciming in from the siphon to mix with the solution.

Would the temp of the priming solution being too cold cause it to sit at the bottom of the bottling bucket despite the beer being siphoned? If so, it would explain why the first bottles I filled were overly carbonated in the end. (all bottles were then stored together in the same closet, experiencing the same temps (mid-upper 60s) for carb'ing and conditioning.

I'm bringing this up now because I will soon have my bavarian hefe ready to bottle, and am considering not cooling the solution if it will mean a more even distribution of the priming sugar
 
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