Mixing priming sugar in beer

damnyankee said:

Hi Guys,

Next Monday, I'll be bottling my first batch of homebrew (extract; 5 gallons).

My directions say to take the priming sugar, boil it, cool it down, and then add to the bottling pail/carboy. My question is, won't the priming sugar be more concentrated on the bottom and ultimately the first bottles to be filled get more priming sugar than the last ones to be filled?

In my mind, I would think each bottle should get injected with the same amount of priming sugar (calculate how many teaspoon(s) of priming sugar/water should go in each bottle), put that amount in the bottle, add the beer, cap, then set aside to condition.

Can you provide some guidance?

Thanks in advance!

DY

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Uneven carbonation is simply a matter of not enough time. The sugar solution integrates itself pretty well when you rack (despite what many new brewers may believe)
BUT, just a tiny difference in temps between bottles in storage can affect the yeasties, speed them up or slow them down. Like if you store them in a closet against a warm wall, the beers closest to the heat source may be a tad warmer than those further way, so thy may carb/condition at slightly different rates. I usually store a batch in 2 seperate locations in my loft 1 case in my bedroom which is a little warmer, and the other in the closet in the lving room, which being in a larger space is a tad cooler, at least according to the thermostat next to that closet. It can be 5-10 degrees warmer in my bedroom. So I usually start with that case at three weeks. Giving the other half a little more time.

Each little bottle is a seperate microcosm, so they will react slightly different to each other. But usually they all will balance out given enough time.

But really with time all the bottles in a batch will carb up...

The 3 weeks at 70 degrees, that that we recommend is the minimum time it takes for average gravity beers to carbonate and condition. Higher grav beers take longer.

Stouts and porters have taken me between 6 and 8 weeks to carb up..I have a 1.090 Belgian strong that took three months to carb up.

I explain this and more, in my blog, here Revvy's Blog, Of Patience and Bottle Conditioning.

Uneven carbonation is simply a matter of not enough time. The sugar solution integrates itself pretty well when you rack (despite what many new brewers may believe)

If a beer isn't carbed by "x number of weeks" you just have to give them ore time. If you added your sugar, then the beer will carb up eventually, it's really a foolroof process. All beers will carb up eventually. A lot of new brewers think they have to "troubleshoot" a bottling issue, when there really is none, the beer knows how to carb itself. In fact if you run beersmiths carbing calculator, some lower grav beers don't even require additional sugar to reach their minimum level of carbonation. Just time.

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s2cmpugh said:

If I decide to mix it, how long and hard should I mix it?

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logan3825 said:

My last batch I poured the priming solution in first then racked on top or it with the hose positioned so the wort would swirl and mix. Well it didn't mix evenly. Well over a month later and some are completely flat while others are fizzier than diet coke.

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Catt22 said:

That is almost exactly the same result that I got. I knew I was screwed when I tasted the last bit of beer out of the bottling bucket and discovered it to be extremely sweet. I think part of the problem was due to not mixing the corn sugar with sufficient water which resulted in a high density syrup that just laid on the bottom of the bucket instead of mixing readily. Next time I will be dissolving the sugar in a quart of water instead of only a pint.

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