Bottling prep - making priming solution the night before

[stdean]

Good idea or bad idea?

To save time with my bottling in the morning I'm thinking of boiling the priming solution the night before.

I can then store it in my fridge in a sanitised container.

Or am I just running the risk of infection in order to save myself 20-30 mins?

 

[kombat]

You'd probably be fine, but why risk it? How much time does it really save? Are you perhaps waiting for the solution to cool back down before racking your beer onto it? If so, don't bother. I boil mine just long enough to dissolve the sugar, then I pour it into the bottling bucket and immediately begin racking beer onto it. Yes, it's still hot enough to kill yeast, but it's such a small amount that the first few ounces of beer will quickly cool it down to a safe range, such that there is more than enough living, healthy yeast in the rest of the beer to carry out bottle conditioning. This isn't just a theory, it's how I do it, and it's worked fine every time I've done it.

Make it the first thing you do on bottling day. Step 1: Pour water in pot, put on stove on high heat. While it's heating, pour Star San into the bottling bucket and swirl it around. Weigh out the priming sugar. Line up the bottles. Run some sanitizer through the siphon and bottling wand. Pull up a chair. Lift the fermenter into position. By now, your water should be boiling. Turn off the heat, mix in the sugar, dump the Star San from the bottling bucket, pour in the sugar solution, and start racking.

 

[ArthurDigbySellers]

Personally I would just do it the day of. Boiling and cooling 2 cups of sugar solution doesn't take too long and I typically have that going while I am getting my other stuff sanitized so there is no time wasted. I really doubt it would introduce an infection but I would hate to take the risk at the final part of the brewing process.

 

[stdean]

I'm mostly just trying to save the time I spend waiting for it to cool.

Thinking about it, you're prob right. Not worth the risk, especially so close to the finish line.

 

[unionrdr]

Yeah, I don't think it's worth the little time saved. I boil 2C water to add the priming sugar to for a couple minutes. Then stir it all together, cover, & let cool a little bit while getting the bottling bucket ready.

 

[broadbill]

I'm mostly just trying to save the time I spend waiting for it to cool.

Thinking about it, you're prob right. Not worth the risk, especially so close to the finish line.

I've never waited for it to cool: 1-2cups of 212F water isn't going to matter when added to 5 gallons of room temp beer

 

[b-boy]

I add the hot sugar water first, then rack the beer over top of it. It cools it and mixes it at the same time.

 

[phug]

Same here with adding it to the bottling bucket while still hot. The bucket will suck some of the heat out of it and racking the beer one will take care of the rest. As a benefit, since it stays hot longer before hitting the beer, less chance of carrying over an infection.

 

[dstockwell]

I boil the sugar and dump in small sanitized jar, pop on lid, pop in fridge the night before - no problems.

 

[stdean]

I hadn't thought of adding it hot.

I don't have a bottling bucket, so I bottle straight from fermenting. I usually let the solution cool then pour it in, while giving it a gentle stir.

I'm cold crashing as well, so I would presume the lower temp would eat up a lot more of the heat when I add it.

 

[phug]

That could work. Do you have an extra carbon or bucket that you could bottle out of?