Do you Stir in your Priming Sugar?

Yakima 728
Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Do you stir your priming solution and your beer in your bottling bucket?

  • Yes, and I've never had uneven carbonation issues.

  • No, and I've never had uneven carbonation issues.

  • Yes, and I sometimes get uneven carbonation.

  • No, and I sometimes get uneven carbonation.

  • I use Carb Drops/add directly to bottles.

Results are only viewable after voting.
Have done so on the last 4 or 5 batches and everything's been fine. Nice even carbonation throughout the whole of each batch.

Previously I would pour about 1/2 of the priming solution into the bottling bucket then racked the beer onto that, got good swirling action from coiled syphon hose, added the remaining 1/2 of the priming solution after about 2.5 gallons had been racked. Occasionally there'd be a little inconsistency throughout the batch, probably last few bottles would get a denser dose of priming solution so would be a bit more carbed than some of the bottles from the beginning of the session.

Recently just rack onto the entire volume of priming solution and give it all a gentle stir after finishing the syphon. No problem, as long as you don't get too boisterous with the spoon and aerate the beer.
 
Nope. Never stirred, never had uneven carbonation. Dump the priming sugar solution in first, then rack the beer on top of it. Gets a nice swirl that handles the mixing for me.
 
I get the beer in the bottling bucket swirling slightly as I transfer it from the fermentor. I add the the sugar when the bucket is about a quarter of the way full. I will stir slightly just before bottling to ensure that the beer at the bottom mixes with the stuff at the top.
 
I'm always a bit hesitant to start siphoning beer into the steaming hot priming mixture. Should I be cooling the priming mixture first?
 
I stir but my bottling bucket is not really a bucket. Matter of fact it is a 10 gallon el cheapo rectangular tote and that pretty circular action you guys get does not happen for me. I get a train wreck as the wort hits the flat side of the tote.

But it works for so I am not going to try and fix it :D
 
ncorroy said:
I'm always a bit hesitant to start siphoning beer into the steaming hot priming mixture. Should I be cooling the priming mixture first?
Click to expand...

No need. The thermal mass of 5 gal of beer is high enough that the addition of 1 cup or less of hot priming solution is miniscule. Even if you're racking on top of it, the beer will cool down the solution so quickly that it's not worth worrying about.
 
I tried not stirring recently, just for kicks.

I tasted a sample from the bottom via the spigot, then another sample from the top. Noticeable difference in sweetness. So I stirred.
 
ncorroy said:
I'm always a bit hesitant to start siphoning beer into the steaming hot priming mixture. Should I be cooling the priming mixture first?
Click to expand...

Assuming that you have 4 oz of 220 degree syrup and add 8 oz of 70 degree beer, that would give you 12 oz of 120 degree liquid, not enough to kill your yeast for several minutes if at all. You might lose a few cells in the first split-second, but for a normal beer (not aged) you always have way more yeast than you need to carbonate anyway. Many breweries try to get most live yeast out of suspension before bottling to reduce sediment in the bottles.
 
ncorroy said:
I'm always a bit hesitant to start siphoning beer into the steaming hot priming mixture. Should I be cooling the priming mixture first?
Click to expand...

No need. A cup or two of priming sugar solution cools pretty much instantly when you rack the beer on top. You might kill a few yeast at the very beginning, but there are certainly PLENTY left to bottle carb.
 
I usually do a gentle stir after all the liquid and priming sugars are in the bottling bucket. I figure it's insurance! My latest batch, however, which I bottled this past Tuesday, did NOT get stirred. It was due to my own forgetfulness...or Old Timers Disease. Hopefully, the priming sugar ended up evenly distributed throughout the beer. We shall see!

glenn514:mug:
 
Wow. This is much more even than I had imagined. Also, this tells me that 83% of the brewers who responded to the poll never have uneven carbonation.

Not sure how this makes me feel about my unevenly carbonated Dubbel.
 
rayfound said:
...this tells me that 83% of the brewers who responded to the poll never have uneven carbonation. ...
Click to expand...

But it's +/- 8% at a 95% confidence interval, not discounting polling bias (i.e., never is figurative). Don't beat yourself up.

What's more interesting to me are the bayesian stats:

If you stir, chance of never uneven carb:
84% +/-12%

If you don't stir, chance of never uneven carb:
92% +/-12%

Since the confidence interval ranges overlap, cannot conclude one method is superior to the other. That's almost certainly a factor of the small sample size though...need roughly 4x the data
 
It's one of those ridiculous notions that anyone would need to. But if it makes you feel better, more power to you. I never have, and have never had uneven carbonation.

Most of the supposed uneven carbonation threads on here, when you ask the simple question "How long has it been in the bottle?" Usually turns out to be less than 3 weeks...

If you've boiled priming solution and are adding it to the bucket while racking the beer over, it really mixes itself better than most new brewers think it does. It's not like mixing oil and water, you're really mixing two very similar densities that want to go together.

We talk about this at least once a week on here, here's part of a discussion from before the holiday;

Stauffbier said:
Regarding the "stir" debate...

I did a little experiment about a year ago. You can try this too.

Take a cup of water and add your favorite color of food coloring to it. Add a lot of food coloring so that the color is nice and dark. Dump it in a bucket. Rack 5 gallons of clear water from another bucket on top of the colored water with a siphon. This imitates racking beer onto priming sugar. You'll notice that the cup of colored water mixes in with the 5 gallons of clear water very nicely. Give it a try!
Click to expand...

Yup. I don't know why this is so hard for people to grasp.... One of these days I'm actually going to brew an extremely light beer, like a kolsch and tint my priming sugar solution, and get the clearest bucket I can find to use as a bottling bucket, maybe one of those plastic containers from a restaurant supply store, and put 2 or three cameras on the damn thing to have three different angles, and record it mixing, and finally put this damn myth to rest.

It's one thing to be dropping dry sugar into the bucket, and another to be mingling two liquids of nearly the same density.
Click to expand...

Just ignore the bottles for a minimum of 3-4 weeks, let them do their thing, and more than likely you'll be perfectly fine.
 
Revvy, I agree with your general premise, though I do have 3 conditional responses:

1. For me, the marginal cost of stirring (~0) is less than the marginal cost of uneven carb (large) x probability of uneven carb (small, but non-zero); therefore, I stir
2. I have observed stratification in sugar densities when racking. Especially when using a nylon paint strainer bag for hop particles - the whirlpool doesn't work as well. Samples pulled from the spigot have been crazy sweet and samples from the top not so. Yes, I could wait and it'll eventually equalize, or I could stir for 5 seconds.
3. Priming sugar solution is far more dense than water w/food coloring and will mix differently; the stated experiment would be interesting.

So needing to stir, perhaps that is a ridiculous notion. But choosing to stir...not so. IMHO.
 
TyTanium said:
Revvy, I agree with your general premise, though I do have two conditional responses:

1. For me, the marginal cost of stirring (~0) < marginal cost of uneven carb (large) x probability of uneven carb (small, but non-zero); therefore, I stir
2. I have observed stratification in sugar densities when racking. Especially when using a nylon paint strainer bag for hop particles - the whirlpool doesn't work as well. Samples pulled from the spigot have been crazy sweet and samples from the top not so. Yes, I could wait and it'll eventually equalize, or I could stir for 5 seconds.

So needing to stir, perhaps that is a ridiculous notion. But choosing to stir...not so. IMHO.
Click to expand...

Like I said above, if it floats your boats, fine...But my experience with answering bottling questions and getting the feedback stands. The majority of 'uneven carbing threads' on here turning out to be impatience problems, just like every other bottling issue on here usually turns out to be.

*shrug*
 
I started putting my solution into the bucket first then siphoning beer onto it which swirled and mixed. Then as I pulled the hose out, I swirled it more in the other direction. Careful not to splash or aerate and consistent carbing with no additional objects in contact with my beer.
 
nah man, I rack right on top of the priming sugar solution in the bucket, haven't had an issue yet. *knock on wood*
 
Havent read any of this thread yet but,Ive not had uneven carb problems from stirring or not stirring and I stirr only sometimes if I think about it after pulling out the racking tube. I have had overcarb from my poor judgement on some batches and a few infections though.I have caught all of them early and stick them in the fridge,God knows why tonight one of my esb's from last year is overcarbed now,but all I know is that whole batch is going straight to the fridge now. Its also a great beer after warming it and lettin the carb settle.Still very worthy-going all to the fridge to be safe though.
 
I'm always amazed that I get even carbonation, and never stir. Sometimes I've even had distractions interrupt my bottling, and it doesn't stratify. On the cooling issue, to be safe, I boil my priming sugar first, then sanitize my bottles and caps, and then gently pour it into the bottom if my bottling bucket, and finally rack over. It's usually room temp by then.
 
Nomad said:
I'm always amazed that I get even carbonation, and never stir. Sometimes I've even had distractions interrupt my bottling, and it doesn't stratify. On the cooling issue, to be safe, I boil my priming sugar first, then sanitize my bottles and caps, and then gently pour it into the bottom if my bottling bucket, and finally rack over. It's usually room temp by then.
Click to expand...

Why are you amazed that you get even carbonation?:confused: Is it only an act from God or miracle without stirring it,that you get even carbonation?
 
When I first started bulk priming I'd boil up my dextrose solution, cover it and cool it before dumping it into the bottling bucket. Then I'd rack to the bottling bucket trusting the swirling action to evenly mix the priming solution throughout the beer. Went fine the first couple of times but then I got a batch with uneven carbonation. From then on I started giving the primed beer a gentle stir once it was all transfered to the bottling bucket. No problems so far.
 
Priming sugar, coiled hose to get a good swirl. then when I pull out the hose I give it a mellow swirl with the hose for about a minute. Never had an uneven batch.
 
jonmohno said:
Why are you amazed that you get even carbonation?:confused: Is it only an act from God or miracle without stirring it,that you get even carbonation?
Click to expand...

I sit in my room, imagine beer, and my glass is full of carbonated beverage.

No, I'm a kid when it comes to this stuff. Drives my engineer-minded dad crazy. What I'm saying is that this is one of the things that I am pleasantly surprised by-- I never stir my priming sugar in, and I always get even carbonation. I like the way that it mixes in evenly without any effort on my part. Revvy explained it in a previous post, that the two liquids are of similar consistency, so it makes sense they would combine so easy. I never thought about it in those terms.

I remember watching an instructional video online, by Sam Adams for home brewing, a few years ago, and Jim Koch has this giant whisk in his hand. He pours some corn sugar right on top of his finished beer and starts whisking away like the Swedish chef. I'm yelling at the computer, stop, you crazy man! Of course, he couldn't hear me. Interesting method old Jim had there.
 
I stir. I also transfer my beer to my clear Cooper's bottling bucket before priming. It is marked in liters and I'm confident about quantity to within about .25 liters... About 1 cup. Knowing exactly how much beer I'm carbonating makes my carbonation levels highly predictable. If I want 2.6 vols instead of 2.4 vols (my usual level for most ales) I expect to able to tell the difference.
 
Revvy said:
It's one of those ridiculous notions that anyone would need to. But if it makes you feel better, more power to you. I never have, and have never had uneven carbonation.

Most of the supposed uneven carbonation threads on here, when you ask the simple question "How long has it been in the bottle?" Usually turns out to be less than 3 weeks...

If you've boiled priming solution and are adding it to the bucket while racking the beer over, it really mixes itself better than most new brewers think it does. It's not like mixing oil and water, you're really mixing two very similar densities that want to go together.

We talk about this at least once a week on here, here's part of a discussion from before the holiday;



Just ignore the bottles for a minimum of 3-4 weeks, let them do their thing, and more than likely you'll be perfectly fine.
Click to expand...


With all due respect... the water/food coloring test is apples-to oranges. The test, which you have proposed once, that needs to be done is dyed-priming syrup mixed with Pale beer. But who wants to have to deal with 5 gallons of Green beer??? I guess if I get an infected batch, I will try this before dumping it.


Also, you seem to assume I'm bringing this up for the regular reasons: my 2-week old beer isn't carbed. No. I mean, yes, but it's more like 7-week old and some are perfect, some are not so much carbed. It could be something else, or it could be mixing - I am trying to collect data on what the community does. (I also have a quad at 3 weeks that is still TOTALLY FLAT.... but I am not panicking on it for another month+)


Anyway, I continue to give it more time. It is PROBABLY going to be fine.

Keep voting!
 
I have never had a problem with uneven carbonation, using corn sugar, corn syrup, honey, molasses, or DME, I use the same process with all, put the mixture in the bottling bucket and rack the beer into the bucket, it has always worked for me, maybe your problem could be the rest of your process, including your conditioning.
 
Had my first fairly overcarbed homebrew last night, the only one in the batch so far. Up til now very even carbonation with no stirring. This particular batch I wasn't careful about making that "swirling action" with the siphon. I may give a gentle stir from now on as I don't think it would be harmful in any way and might give me a little peace of mind.
 

Similar threads

D
Mini keg priming
Replies
20
Views
865
Drunken Monkey
D
R
Priming sugar
Replies
7
Views
265
redrocker652002
R
B
How much priming sugar?
Replies
17
Views
736
mac_1103
mac_1103
C
First Time Adding Priming Sugar to Bottling Bucket
Replies
23
Views
967
day_trippr
day_trippr
S
Confectioner's sugar used as priming sugar
Replies
4
Views
489
summerpig
S
BrewSwag 300

Latest posts

Back
Top