Does Sugar need to be cooled before bottling?

[nztayls]

Ok, newbie question here, as that's what I am...

I am getting close to bottling a Belgian Ale that calls for me to boil some Candi sugar with some water, place it it a bucket, then add the ale to it. My question is, do I need to wait until the sugar has cooled before siphoning on top of it, in order for the heat to not kill the residual yeasts that are needed for fermentation, and is it safe to stir the mixture up to ensure the sugar is evenly distributed, or does this risk oxygenating the beer?

 

[CBMbrewer]

I don't think it will harm the beer in any way but thermodynamics say that if you want proper distribution of the sugar throughout the bottling bucket you should cool the sugar solution down to approximately the same temp as the beer.
I Always cool my priming sugar. for the couple of cups that it usually is, sitting in an ice bath for 15 min does the trick. Should be good when the side of the pot feels neither worm nor cold. Just keep the lid on, stir gently but thoroughly.

 

[menerdari]

I never cool my priming sugar, just rack right on top, the volume of beer will quickly cool the sugar slurry. and i always gently but thoroughly stir but make sure you don't splash or draw air down into the beer.

 

[BrewKnurd]

I don't think it will harm the beer in any way but thermodynamics say that if you want proper distribution of the sugar throughout the bottling bucket you should cool the sugar solution down to approximately the same temp as the beer.
I Always cool my priming sugar. for the couple of cups that it usually is, sitting in an ice bath for 15 min does the trick. Should be good when the side of the pot feels neither worm nor cold. Just keep the lid on, stir gently but thoroughly.

Eh, I'm pretty sure that if you position the tubing so that it creates a swirling motion in the bottling bucket, you can overcome the temp difference quite easily.

At least that's been my experience. I used to cool my priming sugar, but gave up on that. Can't say I noticed any difference other than it gave me one less thing to think about on bottling day.

 

[timewasted]

Eh, I'm pretty sure that if you position the tubing so that it creates a swirling motion in the bottling bucket, you can overcome the temp difference quite easily.

At least that's been my experience. I used to cool my priming sugar, but gave up on that. Can't say I noticed any difference other than it gave me one less thing to think about on bottling day.

This has been my experience as well. I just toss it in and let the racking do the mixing and temp adjustment for me.

 

[zeg]

I don't think there's anything to worry about. I usually boil it while I'm preparing other things, then turn it off and let it sit with a lid on for somewhere between 5 and 20 minutes before I'm ready for it. Then dump it in. It's probably dropped below 200 by that point.

So... the fluids will mix pretty rapidly, so when you add your first 2 cups of 70°F (roughly) beer, you will have 4 cups at 135 degrees. When you reach half a gallon in the bottling bucket, it'll be about 100°, which is safe for yeast survival. So you're risking at most the yeast in that first half gallon of beer, or about 10% of the total. Not a big deal.

It's probably even less of a big deal because I suspect that more of the yeast responsible from priming come from the later part of siphoning, when some sediment is inevitably kicked up.

 

[FTG-05]

Agree with posts #3-6. I boil, get my primary bucket and bottling bucket ready, the autosiphon, dump the almost-boiling sugar mix and start racking.

Make sure your racking hose goes all the way to the bottom of the bottling bucket and around the bottom of the bucket a half or more circle to get the swirling affect.