Making priming sugar solution in bulk?

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drummermattie02

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Making bottling go as smoothly as possible is important to me, as it is one of my least favorite parts about brewing (I know, kegging solves some of this, and trust me, it is not far off). I already bake my bottles in the oven w/ foil over the mouth so that I can keep a store of sterilized bottles ready to go, and I was recently thinking about how much time I could save by not having to boil/cool my priming sugar mix every time.

Does anyone out there make a large batch (say, 1 gallon) all at once, store in a sanitized container, and then measure out the appropriate amount when it comes time to bottle?

Are there any foreseeable problems with this method that I may be missing?

At a rate of 2c of priming solution per 5-gallon batch, 8 batches of priming sugar for the work of one is pretty attractive to me.
 
I would think that it could work, but it would be more difficult to gauge the exact amount of sugar you are adding. If you are trying to carb to a certain style, you might have trouble...
 
if you were to add a specified amount of suger to a specified amount of water then you would have a solution with a known solution say 8oz dextrose per 2 cups of water then you would just have to shake the container and measure out 2 cups of water of the solution. So 64oz sugar per gallon. To adjust for certian styles you just need to know that there are 4oz sugar per cup of solution. You will also want to keep the solution in a santized container probably in the refrigerator just to be safe
 
That seems like a lot of work. Why are you trying to make it so much harder than it is?
Slap a pan on the stove, pour in water and sugar, heat and pour into bottling bucket.
 
Yeah I'm with Nurmey. I feel it is easier for me to just measure out a bit of sugar on my scale at bottling time, than to make a bunch of solution and then worry about contamination and whatnot.
 
drummermattie02 said:
Making bottling go as smoothly as possible is important to me, as it is one of my least favorite parts about brewing (I know, kegging solves some of this, and trust me, it is not far off). I already bake my bottles in the oven w/ foil over the mouth so that I can keep a store of sterilized bottles ready to go, and I was recently thinking about how much time I could save by not having to boil/cool my priming sugar mix every time.

Does anyone out there make a large batch (say, 1 gallon) all at once, store in a sanitized container, and then measure out the appropriate amount when it comes time to bottle?

Are there any foreseeable problems with this method that I may be missing?

At a rate of 2c of priming solution per 5-gallon batch, 8 batches of priming sugar for the work of one is pretty attractive to me.
Click to expand...

A couple of suggestions for time savers. Don't worry about baking your bottles and then putting foil over the lid. Just rinse out really well when you pour from them, and then air dry.

Come bottling day, mix up a batch of sanitizer in a ~15 gallon tub, soak your bottles, and while they're soaking, make your sugar solution.

IMO, the extra work to make a "sterile" bottling solution outweighs boiling a pint of water w/ 3/4 cup of sugar on bottling day while the bottles are soaking.
 
Yeah, I think baking your bottles is a time waster.

And your priming solution would start to ferment if any wild infections took hold.

Just star san the bottles for 30 seconds..do NOT dry them, and there's absolutely no need to cool your cup of sugar water for priming. 8oz of 200F water will change 5 gallons of beer by about 1 degree...rounded up.
 
malkore said:
Yeah, I think baking your bottles is a time waster.

And your priming solution would start to ferment if any wild infections took hold.

Just star san the bottles for 30 seconds..do NOT dry them, and there's absolutely no need to cool your cup of sugar water for priming. 8oz of 200F water will change 5 gallons of beer by about 1 degree...rounded up.
Click to expand...

Thanx for the tip on not cooling the priming sugar/water. That'll save some time for sure. But...

I tried to not "fear the foam" for the first time during my last bottling session, but everytime I went to fill a bottle with a bit that still had a bit of foam, the bottle would foam over by the time it was 2/3 full! It was pretty frustrating to have to let the bottle sit open for half an hour before the foam died down and I could finish.

Any advise?
 
Are you mixing the star san right? Mine foams, but not that bad.

regardless, get a bottle tree, so the bottles can drip free a few minutes.
you can also get a tree with a santizing spritzer on top that'll shoot just a little star san or iodiphor in the bottle...enough to wet it long enough to sanitize basically.
 

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