Bottling Day -- Priming Sugar Question

[kyoun1e]

Super excited. Moving to bottling today. Think I'm feeling good, but have one nagging question on priming sugar process. I've seen tons of videos and it seems like people are all over the map on this.

Here's what I'm planning on doing:

1. Boil 2 cups of water.
2. Take water off heat.
3. Dump 5 oz priming sugar in.
4. Stir until dissolved.
5. Let cool.
6. Dump into bottling bucket prior to siphoning in beer.

Now a couple questions:

* Water Amount: I've read 2 cups but have seen others do 1 cup for 5 oz of sugar. Which?

* I've seen instructions that have you boil the water with the sugar in it for 10-15 minutes. Unclear if you boil, take off heat, then dissolve or boil, mix in, keep boiling.

* Cooling: Some say cool to touch, others say 75 degrees F. How anal do I have to be with temp here?

* Sugar in Before Or After Beer: Seen some people put it in first or 2nd. Doesn't seem to matter.

Thanks in advance!

 

[kristiismean]

add your priming sugar to 2 cups water, bring to a boil, stirring. once boiling pull from heat. clean and rinse your bottling bucket at this time. after it's sanitized, dump the sugar water into the bottling bucket, it does not need to cool to 75, then start siphoning your beer into the bottling bucket. try to get it to swirl as NOT to add oxygen. (no splashing. If you feel the need to stir, do it nice and slow as you are bottling.

the amount of water does not matter as long as the sugar dissolves.

 

[eadavis80]

I cool my sugar in a little ice bath, but it's probably not needed as 2 cups of water/sugar solution when mixed with 5 gallons of room temp beer won't matter. I would shy away from 5 oz. of priming sugar unless your priming calculator called for that. Most beer styles are between 3-4 oz. for proper carbonation levels. I find this helpful: http://www.northernbrewer.com/priming-sugar-calculator

 

[ncbrewer]

I agree the volume of water isn't critical. 1 - 2 cups, as long as it completely dissolves. Get the water to boiling first to help the sugar dissolve. I take it off the heat for 1 minute before adding the sugar to make sure it doesn't burn on the bottom.

I boil the solution for minutes to sanitize. I don't trust the sugar to be sanitized - microbes could have fallen into it.

I prefer to cool the solution - many don't. Temperature isn't critical.

Gently pour solution into empty bottling bucket. Siphon the beer into it, entering at the bottom, on a tangent. This mixes the sugar solution with the beer.

 

[Revvy]

You're overthinking things... It really doesn't matter if you cool your priming solution or not... Seconds after you dump your 2 cups of liquid into the bottom of the bottling bucket, and start your beer flowing into said bucket, it's going to meet up with 5 gallons of liquid at a much cooler temp... Who do you think is going to have more of an effect on the other, the tiny amount of hot liquid, or 5 gallons of cooler?

It can be boiling, it can be cool, it can be somewhere in between, and it's all going to come out the same.

Two cups of water has always been considered the standard dillution ratio for priming for as long as people have been making beer. Or at least since Papa Papazian wrote the bible of homebrewing in the 70's.

There's probably some mathematical reason behind it that's lost to time, but it probably has to do with there being enough priming solution and the right SG so that every 12 ounces of liquid gets the correct amount of sugar solution in each bottle as it distrubutes throughout the bucket.

Think of the 2 cups as the "Carrier" of the right amount of sugar for the beer. It, dissolved by 5 gallons = x amount of sugar at the right proportion for the tired yeast to easily eat. Plus that's 2 extra cups of liquid that just might mean 1 or 2 more bottles filled.

The standard amount of CORN sugar/to produce 2-2.5 volumes of co2 in most beer styles is about 1 oz/gallon of sugar (table is different- consult the calculator)... that's why most kits come with roughly that amount of it in their kit. To carb to style it may be more or less- the priming sugar calculator above is a good resource, but usually if you look at a style chart, you'll see carbonation as a range between two volumes... and most of it overlaps in the above mentioned 2-2.5 volumes of co2.

You don't need to stir the solution, if you put it in the bottom of the bucket, then flow the beer on top, the motion of the swirling caused by the auto siphon will help distribute it in the beer. If you want, you can add half in the bottom, and the rest when the bucket is halfway filled, but really over the decades I've done it both ways and it doesn't really matter.

Bottling beer is not rocket science, it's not anything to over thing.... the biggest thing is bottling and leaving the beer alone for 3 weeks in a warm place. Just letting the natural process occur.

If you haven't already, look at my bottling stickey... it probably covers everything you need to know... including patience... it's here.

Relax, don't overanalyze it.. as long as priming solution and beer meet, it will all be fine.

 

[Rob2010SS]

So I'm glad I read this. I just bottled my Grapefruit Pulpin IPA from NB 2 days ago, and I've been kind of panicking. I know I over thought the process and Revvy talked about. I boiled the corn sugar in 16 oz of water, let it dissolve, and then I used a cold water bath and brought it down to within 10* of the beer. I dumped it into my sanitized bottling bucket and racked the beer on top of it.

The reason for my panic is unknown at this point. Most likely "Did I do everything right?" What happens if it DOESN'T carbonate in bottles? What do you do then? Is there anyway to correct it?

I was also reading a website that talked about bottling and how home brewers rely on the remaining yeast to carbonate but instead, should add new yeast to the beer to ensure that it carbonates correctly. Any thoughts on that?

 

[Smellyglove]

The amount of water, AFAIK do have something to say when it comes to how equal that solution will dissolve into the bottling bucket.

This is a classic, some bottles overcarbed, some undercarbed due to poor distribution of the solution within the beer.

Some guy on a norwegian forum did some test where he added color or something to the solution. One sugarsolution was made with "little" water, the other with 4 dl of water. He then placed both solutions on a stirplate and the thicker solution didn't distribute as good as the one with 4dl of water.