Reheating priming sugar

[ChiefIlliniwek]

Hey everyone, I had the worst experience trying to bottle a winter porter last week. I started last Sunday, and it turned out the bag in my supply box that I thought was priming sugar was actually DME. So, no bottling. So I tried to bottle again on Wednesday night, grabbed my clean bottles, and figure out that they're full of oxyclean residue, ugh. Rinsed them out with hot water, still residue, so I soaked them overnight in Starsan, per other threads. That still didn't work. So I tried again this Sunday. I rinsed the bottles out again in a fresh oxyclean solution, scrubbed each with a bottle brush, and rinsed well. I finally got the oxyclean out, so I boiled my water, threw 5 ounces of priming sugar in, and boiled it for 5 minutes.

Well, I had to sanitize my bottles, which ended up taking longer than I expected, and got distracted before I could start bottling. By the time I was ready to throw my priming sugar in, it had cooled down to room temp, about 62 degrees. Not the 70-80 degree temp that the instructions call for. Well, I was smart enough to cover the pot after boiling, so I figured that nothing could have gotten in there. I took the pot back up to the stove and lit it back up to about 80 degrees, which I then dumped in my bottling bucket. Of course after this, I screwed up my siphon, so everything cooled back down to room temperature while I was eating my dinner (thinking that my beer was transferring).

Am I going to have problems with this? Has Murphy's Law won again?

 

[agrazela]

You can prime with DME instead of dextrose, just look up an online calculator for the correct amount. So, did you use the priming sugar in the batch instead of the DME?

Eventually you'll come up with what works for you as far as cleaning bottles and not leaving residue. What was your procedure for sanitizing your bottles?

As long as you pasteurized the priming sugar solution with heat, it really does not matter what temperature it comes to after that.

My biggest concern from your post is, what does "screwed up my siphon" mean exactly...did you manage to maintain good sanitation while getting that straightened out?

Most likely you're going to be fine.

EDIT: for some reason the forum put this reply before your original post?

 

[fuelish]

Seriously doubt you'll have any problems, given you've used standard precautions (sanitization).....as long as the priming sugar solution was boiled (and covered post boil if going to sit), it'll be fine....room temp solution, warm/hot solution, won't make a difference when mixed in with the room temp batch of transferred fermented beer. You should be just fine. Give it a few weeks in the bottles and enjoy. Some folks around here tend to over-complicate a quite simple thing (not pointing at you, by any means, just some folks)....beer making ain't rocket science, for cryin' out loud....sanitization is key, the rest is "fudgeable," to varying degrees

 

[eadavis80]

Yeah, I don't recall in my 15+ batches ever being that careful about the temp of my priming sugar solution. I boil it for 10 and let it sit and while it's cooling, I sanitize bottles and set up my bottling tree. After that, I'll check its temp, but it's almost always below 80 by the time that's done. I bet priming sugar anywhere between 60-90 would be fine. Temps for fermentation and yeast pitching I'm very particular about, but as long as the priming sugar isn't hot to the touch, I think you're fine.

 

[unionrdr]

That's pretty much it with me. As long as it cools down to the touch while getting bottles, etc ready, everything comes out fine in the end. I just keep the priming solution covered while cooling.

 

[ChiefIlliniwek]

You can prime with DME instead of dextrose, just look up an online calculator for the correct amount. So, did you use the priming sugar in the batch instead of the DME?

Eventually you'll come up with what works for you as far as cleaning bottles and not leaving residue. What was your procedure for sanitizing your bottles?

As long as you pasteurized the priming sugar solution with heat, it really does not matter what temperature it comes to after that.

My biggest concern from your post is, what does "screwed up my siphon" mean exactly...did you manage to maintain good sanitation while getting that straightened out?

Most likely you're going to be fine.

EDIT: for some reason the forum put this reply before your original post?

Yeah, afterwards I read that I could have used the DME. I used freshly bought priming sugar.

I originally cleaned/delabeled this batch of bottles on the day I brewed. I used the first run of water from my IC into a large tub with powdered oxyclean in it. Roughly 1/2 scoop to probably 10 gallons of water. I let the bottles set while I got the wort into the fermenter, and then came back and cleaned the bottles. I don't remember rinsing them, so I'm going to assume that I didn't. I also made a mistake and stored them sideways in a different tub. This is the second time I've cleaned bottles this way, but the first time I let them drain upside down overnight. To sanitize, I rack Starsan through my bottling cane into each clean bottle and then dump it back into the bucket, then drop it upside down onto a fast rack until all of them are sanitized. I do this right before I bottle.

As for my siphon, I think I'm probably fine there. I accidentally left my bottling cane on the end after sanitizing, so the wort never transferred. I had lids loosely covering both the bottling bucket and the fermenter. It was only exposed for an hour or so while I ate dinner and watched Walking Dead.

 

[ChiefIlliniwek]

Seriously doubt you'll have any problems, given you've used standard precautions (sanitization).....as long as the priming sugar solution was boiled (and covered post boil if going to sit), it'll be fine....room temp solution, warm/hot solution, won't make a difference when mixed in with the room temp batch of transferred fermented beer. You should be just fine. Give it a few weeks in the bottles and enjoy. Some folks around here tend to over-complicate a quite simple thing (not pointing at you, by any means, just some folks)....beer making ain't rocket science, for cryin' out loud....sanitization is key, the rest is "fudgeable," to varying degrees

Yep, I'm thinking I'm fine, just wanted a little reassurance. I haven't seen any threads on reheating sugar here on the forum, so I figured I'd ask. If I'd let it sit uncovered, I think I would have tossed it. The 2 cups of water I boiled the sugar in can't make a major difference in the temperature of the 5 gallons of beer, as long as it wasn't boiling hot when I dumped it - which it wasn't.

EDIT: Although now that I think about it, I didn't sanitize the lid that I used to cover the pot. It was clean, but not sanitized. Ooops. I'm just going to say it won't matter on this batch, and make a mental note to sanitize the lid next time.

 

[m00ps]

You'll get you bottling process down eventually. It took me a number of tries to get it down to a methodical process that doesnt take an entire evening. Do you have a bottling tree? Getting one of those made my life so much easier than I figured it would.

 

[ChiefIlliniwek]

You'll get you bottling process down eventually. It took me a number of tries to get it down to a methodical process that doesnt take an entire evening. Do you have a bottling tree? Getting one of those made my life so much easier than I figured it would.

I went with the fast rack tray, since it would be easier to store in my closet when not in use. I need to get a couple more of them. It's also much easier to transport up and down the stairs when loaded, since it only has 24 bottles on it.

 

[m00ps]

I went with the fast rack tray, since it would be easier to store in my closet when not in use. I need to get a couple more of them. It's also much easier to transport up and down the stairs when loaded, since it only has 24 bottles on it.

nice...but can it do this??
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f19/did-anyone-else-string-lights-along-their-bottle-tree-507599/

 

[ChiefIlliniwek]

nice...but can it do this??
https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f19/did-anyone-else-string-lights-along-their-bottle-tree-507599/

LOL! I talked my wife into only doing two Christmas trees in our house this year. An 8 ft and a 5'. Last year we had a little 2' in the basement that I talked her out of this year. I may have to convince her to let me do a third tree next year...

 

[QuercusMax]

When I was bottling, I would always just pour my near-boiling priming sugar solution into the bottom of my bottling bucket, then start racking the beer on top of it. Never noticed any particular problems doing it that way.

 

[ChiefIlliniwek]

This is an old thread, but I wanted to update this after finally cracking open a couple of these brews over the last week or so. The carbonation has been a little lighter than I would have liked, but I also conditioned slightly colder (probably about 60 degrees) than recommended. So, apparently, there are no major issues with reheating a priming sugar solution (as long as everything is sanitary).