Do you Stir in your Priming Sugar?

[Nomad]

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.

 

[jonmohno]

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.

Why are you amazed that you get even carbonation? Is it only an act from God or miracle without stirring it,that you get even carbonation?

 

[DaNewf]

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.

 

[TriageStat]

Priming sugar then rack, no need for stirring

 

[fergyrock]

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.

 

[Nomad]

Why are you amazed that you get even carbonation? Is it only an act from God or miracle without stirring it,that you get even carbonation?

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.

 

[eric19312]

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.

 

[rayfound]

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.

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!

 

[fbold1]

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.

 

[Malty_Dog]

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.

 

[TyTanium]

Updated stats:

Unconditional probability of never having uneven carb:
81% +/- 8% @ 95% confidence

Conditional probability of never having uneven carb, given stirring:
81% +/- 10% @ 95% confidence

Conditional probability of never having uneven carb, given NOT stirring:
81% +/- 12% @ 95% confidence

Still large error ranges with only a handful of "sometimes" responses, but so far, there is no statistical correlation between stirring & uneven carb.
n=100

 

[rayfound]

Updated stats:

Unconditional probability of never having uneven carb:
81% +/- 8% @ 95% confidence

Conditional probability of never having uneven carb, given stirring:
81% +/- 10% @ 95% confidence

Conditional probability of never having uneven carb, given NOT stirring:
81% +/- 12% @ 95% confidence

Still large error ranges with only a handful of "sometimes" responses, but so far, there is no statistical correlation between stirring & uneven carb.
n=100

Yay for science. Ty, this is awesome. Thank you for the statistical analysis.

maybe your problem could be the rest of your process, including your conditioning.

I agree. Mixing is just one possible variable. Other things that might have more impact:

Cold Crashing
ABV
Conditioning temp (a little on the low side, mid/high 60s)


So far I am leaning towards it being probably fine to not mix. Mainly because The poll, and Ty's analysis shows the statistics on it are pretty even. (With a terribly small sample size, as a small caveat)

 

[itsratso]

i have a similar question for you guys. i have better bottles, so if i could just pour in my sugar on top of my beer at bottling time and not stir up the sediment, i could just bottle straight from the carboy's spigot. i would think that pouring the sugar solution on top of the beer and letting it filter down through it would mix it enough? i mean it's sugar for gods sakes, you would think it would have pretty even dispersion after a short time, right?

 

[bazowie]

I would still err on the side of using a secondary, or like I do a Third Carboy and stirring as I transfer, then bottle.

 

[ArkotRamathorn]

I stir, but thats a combination of a couple factors.

First home brew was very unevenly carbonated, I had 2 bottle bombs, a couple that were basically flat (but were actually pretty tasty in a way). Granted the bombs may have been a gusher infection.

Next I don't transfer to a bottling bucket for bottling, this is purely a factor of space, I may be able to swing a second bucket for bottling, but I would be more likely to start fermenting 2 batches at once instead of transfer to bottling buckets. First batch I poured the priming solution in and just bottled it. I'm sure if I used a bottling bucket I would achieve even carbing, but for now I just give it a quick stir, I already have the starsan solution for my bottles mixed up, so I just throw a long spoon in to sanitize give the beer a quick swirl while pouring in the solution and thats it. It's really no sweat off my back.

 

[Jeepinctbrewer]

nah man, i rack right on top of the priming sugar solution in the bucket, haven't had an issue yet. *knock on wood*

x2!

 

[petey_c]

Rack onto my priming solution. The only times I had uneven carbing issues was when I used Cooper's carb tabs.