Adding priming sugar

Hi All,

I just put my first ever batch of brew into my combination fermentation / bottling bucket (I have the True Brew K6 kit). The ingredient kit I purchased suggests that when it comes time to bottle I should slowly pour priming sugar into my second vessel with the beer. In my case there is no second vessel. I've read to boil the sugar in water and just dump it in but is there a technique involved (stir, don't stir, let cool, etc...)?

Also, the brew shop I went to told me to leave the wort/beer in the fermenter for a week longer than the instructions suggest and that the result would be a "cleaner" beer. Any thoughts on this?

Thanks so much!

-Shred
www.shredshomebrews.com

You may want to get a bottling bucket. Just pouring the sugar/water in the fermenter means stirring up all the trub on the bottom and then having that crud in your bottles.

I'd rack to a bottling bucket, and leave all that trub behind and just siphon off the nice clear beer.

No way around a second bottling bucket? What happens if I stir in the sugar and give it an hour or so to settle before bottling?

Thanks for the help!

Shred said:

No way around a second bottling bucket? What happens if I stir in the sugar and give it an hour or so to settle before bottling?

Thanks for the help!

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the yeast will eat all your priming sugar. Get a bottling bucket its not worth tossing your batch because it sucks to bad to drink.

BTW there are several in here that you just take their advice and do it, then learn why later.

Yooper is one of those. She is the Queen of HBT

^ I would second the above.

grem135 said:

btw there are several in here that you just take their advice and do it, then learn why later.

Yooper is one of those. She is the queen of hbt

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^^ this!

you can always bottle prime, i use a teaspoon of table sugar for a 0,5L bottle, and 1/2 teaspoon (with a little extra) for the 0,33L

Only option you could maybe try aside from investing in a bottling bucket is buying brewers best conditioning tabs, adding them to the bottle then filling them up, but they're expensive as they cost 5.50 on Northern Brewer for 250 tabs and you'll need 144-240 (depending on style of beer and other things) tabs for a 48 bottle batch. A bottling bucket is like 20 bucks tops. And priming sugar is 1.25 a pop. Assuming you use the minimum amount of conditioning tabs, in about 10 brews you'll make your money back on a bottling bucket. If you have to use the maximum it's about 5.

For safety's sake I'd recommend a bottling bucket, they're pretty cheap, and they're awesome. Bottling bucket, bottling wand, and auto-siphon are all awesome tools you should use.

^^^ What he said

It seems unanimous. True Brew's K6 kit is not only imperfect due to the too large, 6 gallon wine carboy (or so I'm told), but also for an inadequate supply of buckets and siphoning equipment. This is all good stuff for the blog though. Thanks to all for your help!!

I wouldn't buy a bottling bucket because it looks like you've already got one, and you don't need 2.
Did you get the carboy with the kit? If so, I would rack this batch into the carboy, clean and re-sanitize the bottling bucket, boil the priming sugar solution and add it to the freshly sanitized bottling bucket, and then bottle as usual. I know this sounds like a bit of a pain, but it is the only way I can see to get relatively clear beer in the bottles.
For your next batch, I would ferment in the carboy (if you got it), or buy a plastic primary fermenter (same as bottling bucket but without spigot) as a fermenter if you don't want to use, or don't have the carboy.
In fact, you may find that you need more than one primary fermenter if you, your family, and guests drink a batch of beer in less time than it takes to ferment.

As regards the recommendation from your brew shop to leave it in the fermenter for an extra week, I don't know what the instructions with the kit said, but leaving it an extra week will never do any harm, and will usually be very worth while. I think they gave you good advice.

To add priming sugar, I boil the sugar in about 2 cups water to dissolve the sugar and add it to the bottling bucket. I then rack the beer on top of the priming sugar solution, and stir very gently to ensure that the beer and priming sugar are thoroughly mixed. Many people say there is no need to stir, and they are probably right, but stirring without any splashing should not cause any problems, and may prevent uneven carbonation caused by unequal distribution of the priming sugar.

-a.

Shred said:

It seems unanimous. True Brew's K6 kit is not only imperfect due to the too large, 6 gallon wine carboy (or so I'm told), but also for an inadequate supply of buckets and siphoning equipment. This is all good stuff for the blog though. Thanks to all for your help!!

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Just checked your blog, does your current fermenting bucket have a spigot on it? If so what you can do is after you fermented for about 3 weeks (or 2 if you're impatient) , send it over to your carboy (obviously before doing everything be clean and sanitized and be careful about splashing when you rack) and let it sit there for a week, clean and sanitize your bucket then after the week in the secondary you rack it back to the bottling bucket with the priming sugar already at the bottom.

Though for the ease of use I'd probably still buy a bottling bucket.

Yeah, the fermenting bucket has a hole in the lid for the airlock and also has a spigot. I thought about racking it to the carboy, but the guy at the brew supply place said that it wasn't good to have a 6 gallon carboy for 5 gallons of beer. I suppose in this case it doesn't matter because the bucket is 7.8 gallons anyway.

Any thoughts on this? The instructions with the kit are pathetic. Would I put the airlock on the carboy somehow? Ultimately, I think I'll just end up with another bottling bucket, but I want to understand how and why things work... I've got some catching up to do in my "Complete Joy of Home Brewing" book

The idea (as I was told, maybe this is mumbo jumbo) is because in secondary you're having less fermentation going on you want almost no headspace because there will be little yeast activity to eat up the oxygen you could ruin your beer. That's the idea. Now will it ruin the beer? Who knows.

You could also try (to work on your siphoning skills) just buying a fermenting bucket, racking the beer over there, quickly clean and sanitize your bottling bucket and rack it back. THough I guess the positive to having a fermenting bucket with a spigot is maybe you don't have to siphon? I mean you'll leave whatever is below the fill line in the bucked but if it's placed at the right height that may not be a problem.

As far as the carboy, there should be a bung for it. It looks like a big plug with a hole in the middle that should seal your carboy and fit your airlock.

I actually just ordered an auto siphon and another bottling bucket. I suppose it can't hurt to have these on hand and at some point I'll probably want to do more than 1 brew at a time. I had a $25 off offer to Monster Brew included in the kit. It covered everything but $8 shipping.

So after racking to a bottleing bucket is it necessary to stir the beer with the sugar water? Or does the mixing already happen when siphoning?

BansheeRider said:

So after racking to a bottleing bucket is it necessary to stir the beer with the sugar water? Or does the mixing already happen when siphoning?

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What's recommended in books I read is you put the cooled carbonation syrup in the bottling bucket and if you can get your siphon tubing below that syrup if you can, and that way you really eliminate the oxygen risk and you are also mixing it up.

hoppyhoppyhippo said:

What's recommended in books I read is you put the cooled carbonation syrup in the bottling bucket and if you can get your siphon tubing below that syrup if you can, and that way you really eliminate the oxygen risk and you are also mixing it up.

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Sounds difficult.

just let your raking hose kinda coil around the bottom edge of your bottle bucket a little, that makes the beer whirlpool in your bucket mixing with the priming sugar solution in the bottom.
I still carefully stir to make sure its mixed but that's me. YMMV

BansheeRider said:

Sounds difficult.

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It's not, if it doesn't fit perfectly it's no big deal. Just like poster above me said, lay it flat and make a whirlpool. That's basically what you're trying to do as well in my method. I know people who stir, but why not just let the beer do the work for you?

The book I'm reading, "The Complete Joy of Home Brewing" says just to add the priming sugar/syrup to the bottom of the bottling bucket and siphon the beer right in. That being said, anything more than that (i.e. whirlpool idea) should be more than adequate to mix. If I'm not mistaken, the reason you don't want to stir too much is because it will add oxygen.

And it can disturb the nastiest that will inevitably still transfer via siphoning etc. that have settled to the bottom. The less you have to do with beer the better is a rule I found helpful. I've read the Complete Joy of Homebrewing and How to Brew , and it's interesting that even those books don't really agree 100% on everything, and then compare it to things people do on here, or just normal people who brew and you get a variety of information, some more right than others but in the end about all they agree on is cleaning and sanitation is of the utmost importance and hot and cold break are very important.