Adding priming sugar to fermenter before kegging

Hi all,
New to brewing and preparing to start kegging. Have a Witbier from an ingredient kit that has been fermenting for 6 days now. Plan on kegging and force carbing it. Can I dissolve the priming sugar in a couple cups of water and toss it in fermenter? If I do this what would be the pros and cons? Thanks!

Why?

You can, all that would happen is the yeast would go to work on the additional sugars and you'd get a slightly stronger brew.

Also, "tossing" it in the fermenter risks the introduction of oxygen to the beer which could lead to oxidation.

If you are going to force carb the beer there is no need to add priming sugar.

Thanks for the info! I thought I read that oxidization takes time. Wouldn't the fermenting priming sugar quickly replace the oxygen introduced in the few seconds it would take to add with new co2? Since the recipe accounts for the addition of the priming sugar as part of the end result I just wanted to make sure it really wasn't needed.

The recipes do not account for the addition of priming sugar as part of the end result. You can always leave out the priming sugar addition if you are going to force carb. The abv is calculated using only the grain/adjunct additions.

Ok cool! Thanks. I'll leave it out. Prob save a couple days of fermentation that way too? Sooner I get to try out my keezer I just finished the better!

Albus said:

Ok cool! Thanks. I'll leave it out. Prob save a couple days of fermentation that way too? Sooner I get to try out my keezer I just finished the better!

Click to expand...

It'll save more than a couple of days! Priming the keg with sugar works well to carb it up, but it'll take a couple of weeks at room temperature to carb up. Force carbing is usually complete in the kegerator in a week or 10 days!

I'd wait until the wit is 2 weeks old, and if completely done fermenting and relatively clear, then keg it! It won't be clear, because wits are hazy from the wheat, but when you take out a sample it shouldn't have "floaties" in it- that's what I mean by "clear". Anything still suspended in the beer will fall out in the keg, but could clog up your diptube if you have lots of stuff still in suspension, so you don't want to rush it too much!

Albus said:

Ok cool! Thanks. I'll leave it out. Prob save a couple days of fermentation that way too? Sooner I get to try out my keezer I just finished the better!

Click to expand...

I think you're confused on what priming sugar is used for. If you're going to bottle your beer, you add the priming sugar to your bottling bucket and rack your your fermented beer on top of it. The yeast eat the priming sugar and produce enough co2 to naturally carb your beer in the bottles. No need to use it of you're going to force carb.

i don't think he was going to try to carb with it. i think he was just going to put it in the fermenter and let it... ferment. just for the little bit of extra fermentables it has.

to the OP, just save it. its not gonna go bad anytime soon. you can always use it later when you are gonna bottle something.

Like rycov said i was thinking about the minimal fermentables the priming sugar would add. I have bottled before and understand how natural carbonation works. I was hoping to get thoughts on using it as a fermentable rather than for carbonation. Sounds like not worth adding it

Albus said:

Like rycov said i was thinking about the minimal fermentables the priming sugar would add. I have bottled before and understand how natural carbonation works. I was hoping to get thoughts on using it as a fermentable rather than for carbonation. Sounds like not worth adding it

Click to expand...

yeah. not really adding any flavor, not much abv either. just save it for future use