What happens to priming sugar when bottling?

[Abbas]

During your primary the yeast is rapidly converting sugars into alcohol as well as other byproducts. When you bottle, you add priming sugar right before bottling. Does that priming sugar also convert to alcohol in the bottles along with the CO2?

 

[Smellyglove]

During your primary the yeast is rapidly converting sugars into alcohol as well as other byproducts. When you bottle, you add priming sugar right before bottling. Does that priming sugar also convert to alcohol in the bottles along with the CO2?

Yes, it's just another fermentation, but in the bottle.

 

[Abbas]

Yes, it's just another fermentation, but in the bottle.

So does this mean that the gravity measurements you take earlier in the process are now an inaccurate measurement of the abv? Or is the amount sugar used in bottling process insignificant for the total abv?

 

[Smellyglove]

So does this mean that the gravity measurements you take earlier in the process are now an inaccurate measurement of the abv? Or is the amount sugar used in bottling process insignificant for the total abv?

If you add plain sugar directly to the bottle the ABV will go up. If you mix your sugar with water and boil it to dissolve first, the ABV will be a result of the amount of sugar and water combined, since you dilute the beer with the water, but up the ABV with the sugar.

As far as SG-measurments you'll read the Apparent Attenuation, alcohol is less dense than water, which is the reference.

 

[Abbas]

If you add plain sugar directly to the bottle the ABV will go up. If you mix your sugar with water and boil it to dissolve first, the ABV will be a result of the amount of sugar and water combined, since you dilute the beer with the water, but up the ABV with the sugar.

Well now I feel stupid lol. Idk why I did not come to that conclusion on my own.

 

[Smellyglove]

Well now I feel stupid lol. Idk why I did not come to that conclusion on my own.

For 2.5volumes of co2 I believe it's normal to say that the ABV will go up by about 0.3% if you add sugar directly.

 

[ESBrewer]

Yes, it is a good practice to boil the sugar with small amount of water to prevent contaminations. Thus, you are diluting the beer slightly when you add the sugar solution. So even if alcohol is formed, abv is not going to change too much. It depends on the exact concentration and volume of sugar solution used. And co2 gas (carbonation) is formed as always when there is fermentation going on.

 

[thehaze]

I never considered priming sugar as an ABV concern. If your beer is at 5%, it will still be 5% once carbonated with sugar. Whether is 0.1 or 0.3%, I don't know, but it will not impact the end result in such a way, that you need to make calculations, to take that into account. I am fairly sure nobody really thinks about it much. I know I don't.

 

[ajdelange]

There is actually another thread in this forum which discusses the impact of priming sugar on ABV, in particular, how to prevent ABV from changing when adding priming sugar (answer: add water).

 

[Lefou]

Some sugars are utilized more efficiently by yeast.
Glucose takes less time to be metabolized by yeast than sucrose or fructose. By weight, the amount of alcohol and CO2 gas is very close. One member played the numbers game about 10 years ago.
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/forum/threads/ever-wonder-how-much-co2-youre-making.81303/

 

[ajdelange]

Never saw that. Balling's findings that 2.0665 grams of extract (sugar) produce 1 gram of ethanol, 0.9565 grams CO2 and .11 grams of yeast biomass are usually used by brewers when making calculations of this sort.