Jailhose Lawyers: Sanitation and ... !carbonation drops!

[harry_the_face]

In order to keep this thread alive.... Isn't wills yeast the biggest worry? It does like the wort/sugar and it is in the air too?

My thought is that while the tabs could be a contaminant the quantity of contaminants is to low to effect the flavor of the beer.

After all the reason beer was so popular in history is becuase all the water was contaminated but beer could be consumed with no ill effects (well at least not an effect that people didn't want).

 

[FightinIrish]

This feels like a troll started this thread.

 

[kaconga]

I had an infection recently that I traced back to either my bottling wand or the carb tabs. Neither of which I will use again. Carb tabs are neat in their own right but much more of a pain than boiling sugar with water and racking on top of it. I also ditched the bottling wand. All other plastic used on said batch was also used on next beer before I realized the infection and it is fine.

 

[woozy]

I'm becoming more and more convinced sugar is simply an antiseptic.

Which I'm taking to mean I don't need to add boiling water to priming sugar. (My bottling bucket doesn't like 140+ liquids put in it).

No troll. Just *really* curious.

 

[FightinIrish]

No troll. Just *really* curious.

You've argued with just about every response.

 

[JohnSand]

I don't see it that way. It is an interesting and fun conversation.

 

[cullen]

Which I'm taking to mean I don't need to add boiling water to priming sugar. (My bottling bucket doesn't like 140+ liquids put in it).

You probably don't need to add boiling water to priming sugar if you pour the sugar directly into your bottling bucket. However, if you do that you run the risk of having undisolved sugar and a poor mix of sugar in your beer. This, of course, leads to uneven carbonation.

Dissolving the sugar in water first makes for a better mix. Of course, the water (being a particularly good environment for microbes) needs to be sanitized and sugar dissolves more readily in very hot water than in cold. Using boiling hot water, then, accomplishes both. I personally mix my priming sugar with a little water in an Erlenmeyer flask and heat it on the stove until the sugar dissolves. You can let it cool covered until needed.

If you wait until you have already racked a couple of quarts of beer into your bottling bucket before you add your priming sugar solution, then the bucket will never actually get 140+ degree liquid touching it, which eliminates that particular concern

 

[woozy]

You've argued with just about every response.

Of *course* I argued. That's the entire point of jailhouse lawyering. To debate every angle and extract every single letter of the law.

Look. *obviously* carb tabs are sanitary. Of course beer made with carb tabs are going to be fine. Every-one knows that. ... but why?

The purpose of the thread was to find out why and have fun arguing the fine teeth and the nits. In other words, to jailhouse lawyer.

It *is* a game, you know.

 

[woozy]

You probably don't need to add boiling water to priming sugar if you pour the sugar directly into your bottling bucket. However, if you do that you run the risk of having undisolved sugar and a poor mix of sugar in your beer. ....
If you wait until you have already racked a couple of quarts of beer into your bottling bucket before you add your priming sugar solution, then the bucket will never actually get 140+ degree liquid touching it, which eliminates that particular concern

Right. Definitely want the sugar dissolved. But corn sugar (table sugar not so much) dissolves very easily. Also want the the sugar solution to mix evenly with minimum/no aeration or stirring. Adding sugar water and racking beer onto it takes care of the this. Adding the sugar to the beer after a couple of quarts, maybe not so well. (Or maybe just fine. I don't know.) I was adding boiling water to sanitize the sugar and the cup it was in and the spoon I stir it with. And perhaps I was overly worried about "thermal shock". (they could be referring to large amounts of liquids and not 1/2 a cup of boiling water. But then again my bottling vessel is plastic and I don't want to melt or warp it either. Again I don't know.)

If sugar is naturally antiseptic, which I'm sure it is, then i think I'm safe in thinking that I needn't *boil* the water so much as simply warm it up enough to dissolve the sugar, which it will at say, hot from the tap.

 

[cullen]

I find that if I start racking the beer to the bottling bucket, then add the priming sugar solution while still racking the mix works just fine.