Has Anyone tried using Sugar Cubes to Prime ?

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Bigjack68

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Hi folks! I was wondering if anyone here in brewland had any experiences with using sugar cubes rather than loose sugar for priming carbonation. I just figured tossing a cube(or two) would be easier than spooning the sugar into the bottle. Any insights/experiences appreciated, thanks!!
 
I usually dissolve my sugar in a little boiling water, then add it to the whole batch before bottling. That sanitizes the sugar and gives more even distribution. A whole sugar cube per bottle may been too h unless you're priming bombers.
 
Thanks Racing Ram. I appreciate your help. Kind of underwhelmed by the lack of response...
 
weigh the cube. you want about 2.5 grams of sugar per bottle. google just told me a sugar cube weighs about 3 grams.

so one sugar cube will leave a beer with somewhat high carbonation. if this is to style, go for it. i'd be a little concerned about sanitization
 
If you want a consistent carb level from bottle to bottle and are concerned about sanitization then I would highly recommend adding "x" amount of sugar to a few cups of water, boil it for 10-15 min then add to your bottling bucket. Then rack the beer to the bottling bucket.
 
Thanks Racing Ram. I appreciate your help. Kind of underwhelmed by the lack of response...

Most of us bulk prime, since it keeps the carbonation more consistent. Limiting yourself to a fixed amount of sugar per bottle won't allow you to dial in a specific carb level, but maybe you aren't concerned with that.
 
weigh the cube. you want about 2.5 grams of sugar per bottle. google just told me a sugar cube weighs about 3 grams.

so one sugar cube will leave a beer with somewhat high carbonation. if this is to style, go for it. i'd be a little concerned about sanitization

Well I am going to be using either 16oz or 1 liter bottles so 1 cube would be good for a 16oz or 2 for the 1liter. I'm assuming you were talking about standard 12 oz. bottles...
 
If you want a consistent carb level from bottle to bottle and are concerned about sanitization then I would highly recommend adding "x" amount of sugar to a few cups of water, boil it for 10-15 min then add to your bottling bucket. Then rack the beer to the bottling bucket.

Might try this too... what's the ratio to add? Sorry guys I'm really new at this...
 
Well I am going to be using either 16oz or 1 liter bottles so 1 cube would be good for a 16oz or 2 for the 1liter. I'm assuming you were talking about standard 12 oz. bottles...
It depends how much carb you want

A standardish amount is 2.7 vols. That is 4 ounces (114 grams) per 5 gallon batch. A 5 gallon batch has about 50 12 ounce bottles. 114grams/50 bottles = 2.3 grams per 12 ounce bottle. one sugar cube is approximately 3 grams of sugar. so one sugar cube per 12 ounce bottle will somewhat overcarbed compared to my general standard of 2.7vols CO2 per beer.

you mention 16 oz bottles. a 16 oz bottle is 33% larger than a 12 ounce bottle. we determined above that 2.3 grams of sugar is needed per 12 ounce bottle. 2.3 grams * 1.33 = 3 grams = 1 sugar cube.

So it just so happens that 1 sugar cube is almost perfect for a 16 ounce bottle. It is a little too much for a 12 ounce bottle. one liter is about 32 ounces, so 2 cubes would be perfect for a one liter bottle.

i've never done it, but personally i think using sugar cubes in 16 ounce bottles does kind of make sense.
 
Thanks for the info Progmac. I'll try it out on a 1L pop bottle and let you know what happens. :mug:
 
I usually keg my beer but I also like to stash away a sixer of some of them. I used to use the 1/2 tsp of dextrose in each bottle method but tried the 1 sugar cube per bottle awhile back and the carbonation was spot on. YMMV.
 
Not sure if this topic is related, but no luck yet finding it being discussed. Which beers should be bottled? Which would be fine kegged??
 
Not sure if this topic is related, but no luck yet finding it being discussed. Which beers should be bottled? Which would be fine kegged??
it really doesn't matter. if you have a kegging setup, you can keg everything. if you have something that is very very high alcohol it might not readily bottle condition and you'd want to keg it. generally though, it is merely a preference/equipment available thing.
 
Ok. Thanks for the reply. Can porters and some of the Belgians bottle condition for 3-4 months?
 
I have two brewing buddies that do this all the time and swear by it.
I have not done it but I would think it is not much different than using Coopers fiz drop pills.

I have used those in the past and like the results.
 
Ok. Thanks for the reply. Can porters and some of the Belgians bottle condition for 3-4 months?

Absolutely.

To expand on progmac's answer, a lot of people feel that bottle conditioning is an important part of the style for Belgian beers, so for them it would be sacrilegious to keg a Belgian. But it's entirely up to you and your preferences! If I were making a Belgian blonde or something light I'd probably keg it, a Tripel or something similar I'd bottle it. Just because I wouldn't want to tie up a keg for months while it ages.

Some Belgian-style breweries (ex. Allagash) even naturally carb their kegs.
 
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