Priming sugar

[marc777]

I'm new to home brewing and find this site a wealth of information.

The brewing books I've seen say to dissolve priming sugar in boiling water before adding the wort.

The kit that I have now says stir the pack of included priming sugar into the priming tank with no direction to boil first. Since it's in the kit, I'll follow those instructions. Just curious.

 

[VaNewbieWRB]

I'm a new brewer. And your on the right track checking here. The guys who monitor this board are a wealth of information. I just started using corn sugar for carbonating. The method I use (that I got from this board) is to dissolve the corn sugar in one cup of just barely boiling water. Stir it well, until the corn sugar is dissolved. Let that mixture cool for a few minutes. Add it to your bottling bucket. When you add your beer, make sure that the beer kind of swirls around the sides of the bucket to ensure a good consistent mix and proper carbonation. Works excellently for me.

 

[Revvy]

There's no way in hell I would do that. Whoever wrote those instructions was clearly high. 1) Stirring something like that in risks oxydation. 2) A dry ingredient such as sugar will barely dissolve in solution, it will more than likely fall to the bottom and never mix- boiling it in water DISSOLVES it an allows it to better integrate it with the other solution. 3) adding dry to wet where there's co2 present may create nucleation sites which may cause the beer to bubble over and you might lose some, and make a mess. 4) And the most important thing, BOILING the solution Steralizes it and insures that the person who filled the little bags hadn't wiped his ass and not washed his hands, therefore infecting your beer. Seriously that's the most important part, making sure the solution, or anything you add to the beer is sanitary.

I doubt you will find anyone on here who will say to do it that way. Just go with the boiling the sugar in a couple cups of water and add it to the bottling bucket. Stick with what you read in the books.

Read my bottling tips sticky for things to do CORRECTLY, and to make bottling easily....

 

[Revvy]

I'm a new brewer. And your on the right track checking here. The guys who monitor this board are a wealth of information. I just started using corn sugar for carbonating. The method I use (that I got from this board) is to dissolve the corn sugar in one cup of just barely boiling water. Stir it well, until the corn sugar is dissolved. Let that mixture cool for a few minutes. Add it to your bottling bucket. When you add your beer, make sure that the beer kind of swirls around the sides of the bucket to ensure a good consistent mix and proper carbonation. Works excellently for me.

This is exactly the best way to do it!

 

[FloppyKnockers]

Since I keg, I only bottle a few beers out of the batch. To carbonate those bottles I just add 3/4 tsp. per bottle of table sugar. I don't bother sanitizing the caps, funnel, spoon, or sugar. I trust the alcohol in the beer that the yeast worked so hard to make will kill any unwanted infections. It's only when I full batch bottle do I dissolve sugar in water first and even then I only heat the water enough to dissolve the sugar.

As far as just sprinkling the sugar in.... Jury's out on that one. It might work, it might not. I think I'd still pre-dissolve it.

 

[VaNewbieWRB]

I have no doubt that you have waaay more experience brewing than I do. No doubt about that. How about politely telling me what I'm doing wrong? No need to be rude about it.

One of the things I like about this forum is being able to tap into the knowledge of more experienced brewers like yourself. Again, you guys are a wealth of information. If you don't want to share what you know, then why be so critical of other newbies? If its not right, then recommend to the poster what he should do. I just wanted to impart a good experience I had with this group.

 

[mightynintendo]

I have no doubt that you have waaay more experience brewing than I do. No doubt about that. How about politely telling me what I'm doing wrong? No need to be rude about it.

One of the things I like about this forum is being able to tap into the knowledge of more experienced brewers like yourself. Again, you guys are a wealth of information. If you don't want to share what you know, then why be so critical of other newbies? If its not right, then recommend to the poster what he should do. I just wanted to impart a good experience I had with this group.

I don't think you're doing anything wrong. The original and best response to this post was not directed to you, but to the OP.

 

[marc777]

Fellas:

I certainly didn't intend on getting into a brew ha ha with this question. I do appreciate all the info. The kit directions came from one of the big well known commercial sellers. I did call them and ask this specific question. The response was that their testing showed that the non-boil procedure worked best.

 

[mightynintendo]

Fellas:

I certainly didn't intend on getting into a brew ha ha with this question. I do appreciate all the info. The kit directions came from one of the big well known commercial sellers. I did call them and ask this specific question. The response was that their testing showed that the non-boil procedure worked best.

Interesting that you called and got this answer. But what were they testing to arrive at this conclusion? And what methods did they use to conduct this test? The most obvious question I have is: did they test this method under unfavorable conditions such as contaminated bags? My guess is probably not. They probably tested (assuming they're telling the truth) under sterile labratory conditions. They may not have even run a test that involved opening a sealed bag at all.

It's important to remember the kits want to give instructions that are as user friendly as possible. This helps them sell more kits. And their testing probably did indicate something positive, but without seeing their testing methedology, discussion, and results, it's insufficient to blindly follow their directions. I don't know what their more favorable results even are. What's more favorable? Did it make their penises get permanently larger? You came to this forum with a question and the answer, the correct answer, contradicts their instructions.

 

[Mexibilly]

Fellas:

I certainly didn't intend on getting into a brew ha ha with this question. I do appreciate all the info. The kit directions came from one of the big well known commercial sellers. I did call them and ask this specific question. The response was that their testing showed that the non-boil procedure worked best.

I would advise that you follow your gut on this issue.
If it tells you to dump the sugar on top and try to incorporate it thoroughly, by all means, go for it.
What you will get when you ask a question here is either a definitive answer based on a huge wealth of knowledge, or you'll initiate a conversation that will yield multiple approaches and an opportunity for all involved to share and learn.
I don't measure the water. I put about enough, maybe 1 or 1.5 cups in a sauce pan, bring to a boil, stir in the sugar until its dissolved, boil about 5 minutes, dump it in the bottling bucket, rack the beer with the hose at the bottom creating a bit of a swirl, then I give it a brief and very gentle stir bottom to top.
If you dump it on dry and stir it in per the manufacturer, please share your results. I'd be afraid of mostly under-carbed bottles and possible gushers/bombs.

 

[Mismost]

This post has nothing to do with priming sugar.

years ago, I went to a seminar put on by Zig Ziegler. We discussed letters, emails, and the spoken word...and how confusing it can sometimes be. Often the real meaning was totally missed. Letters and emails and forum posts are always a little flat...there is no vocal inflection, it's easy to read YOUR OWN EMOTIONS into them. We need to be careful about that.

Ziegler gave the following spoken example of how saying the exact same thing can mean completely different things depending on the vocal inflection (in caps) used.

I did not say you BEAT your wife. (maybe you only smacked her on the butt once or twice)

I did NOT say you beat your wife. (I didn't say that at all)

I did not say you beat YOUR wife. ( maybe you beat somebodies else's wife)

I did not you beat your WIFE. (maybe you beat other family members)

So, even speaking face to face, it can be hard to communicate exactly what you really mean to say. Without the vocal inflections, it's even easier to mistake the meaning in a forum post.

That said, VaNewbie, calling someone a ******** just ain't playing nice. Remember the Thumper Rule from Walt Disney's Bambi movie...." If you can't something nice, don't say nothing at all". Those are good words to live by even if they were spoken by a cartoon rabbit 40 years ago!

 

[EcuPirate07]

When I first started one of my kits said dump and mix into the beer, this caused mostly undercarbed beers. Save yourself the headache and never do that.

 

[VaNewbieWRB]

I apologize Revvy I completely mis read your response. I thought you were replying to me and not the OP. Again my apologies to all

 

[dstockwell]

I use the priming sugar calculator for table sugar, EZPZ..