Cooling priming sugar

[boser37]

I've brewed 3 beers all of which have turned out ok. My dogfishhead 60 clone is the only really good one. That is the only beer I allowed my boiled priming sugar to cool before adding it the bottling bucket. Everything I have read says to boil the sugar in a cup of water and then add it to the bottling bucket. Is it important to allow the boiled sugar mixture to cool to a normal pitching temp (68/75 degrees) or can you add the warm mixture to the beer before bottling? Just trying to pinpoint and clean up some mistakes I've made. Thanks!

 

[DSorenson]

I believe that the priming sugar needs to be matched approximately to the temperature of your beer before you add it. Thermal shock can kill yeast, and since we're not done with them yet, I think that's a bad idea. I'm not sure that has anything to do with the reason your 60 min clone turned out the best, but it could. The volume of primer being added would quickly be practically negated by the volume of acceptable temperature beer you're adding it to. This means that the yeast wont be working on the sugars in hot temps, which would otherwise mean off flavors.

The best way to pinpoint mistakes is to describe what flavors are present in the other beers you have that you don't like. That will give us a better chance of trouble shooting.

 

[unionrdr]

I dissolve my priming sugar in 2C of water that boiled a few minutes. I do this in a SS sauce pan. After stiring till it goes clear again,I cover it & let it cool down to where it's luke warm. I may just let it sit till it's within 10 degrees of beer temp to keep'em healthy like I used to. I'm starting to think that's why my beers carbed up so fast back then. One more piece of the puzzle?! Solved the capper problem anyway.

 

[Varmintman]

Nah you are dropping at most 2 cups of hot liquid into 5 gallon container. Just by the time you start to rack the beer on it I bet it is tons cooler and then you add that 2 cups to 5 gallons of beer it is pretty much a fart in a whirlwind. You are not going to raise the temp of the beer enough to measure most likely or hurt the yeast.

Just do not forget the sugar. 2 cases of flat beer is not much fun

 

[unionrdr]

Yeah,I know people talk in terms of volume. but the initial amount of beer mixing with it could wind up killing some of the yeast. I'm getting anal from my beers not quite carbing up like they used to.

 

[homebrewdad]

Chilling the sugar mixture is completely unnecessary. Yeah, you might kill a little yeast in the first couple of seconds, but physics tells us that the hot portion will lose dangerous heat levels rapidly.

2 cups @ 212 degrees + 2 cups @ 65 degrees = 4 cups @ 138.5 degrees.

2 cups @ 212 degrees + 4 cups (1 quart) @ 65 degrees = 6 cups @ 114 degrees.

2 cups @ 212 degrees + 16 cups (1 gallon) @ 65 degrees = 18 cups @ 81.3 degrees.

2 cups @ 212 degrees + 80 cups (5 gallons) @ 65 degrees = 82 cups @ 68.6 degrees


And for the record, pouring the sugar mixture into your bucket chills it by a good 20-30 degrees already. So in all actuality, your heat is less than what I've listed above.

Relax. I've never chilled, and never had a batch not carb up perfectly.

 

[Tinhorn]

I stopped chilling it also and no issues with carbonation that I can tell in end product

 

[Tupperwolf]

Chilling the sugar mixture is completely unnecessary. Yeah, you might kill a little yeast in the frst couple of seconds, but physics tells us that the hot portion will lose dangerous heat levels rapidly.

This