Stupid bottling question, but double checking...

[RobWalker]

I'm gonna bottle up my spiced ginger ale today or tomorrow. just checking I've got the process right like every other anxious newbie -

soak bottles in sanitizer? I have Brewer's Sanitizer powder and Sodium Metabisulphate. Which is which?

After that it's bottle, add 1/2tsp sugar for carbonation, cap, and leave for a few weeks to bottle condition. that should be simple enough.

 

[RedGuitar]

I personally prefer to mix my sugar in with the beer to get even distribution of sugar. My process:

Sanitize bottles using Beer Brite.

Dissolve corn sugar in warm water. (I want to say it's 1 cup of corn sugar for 5 gallons, but that's off the top of my head and I very well could be wrong.)

Pour sugar water into bottling bucket.

Rack beer into bottling bucket gently; i usually lay my tubing at an angle so as to make the beer swirl as it's going in. In my mind, this aids in distributing the sugar evenly.

Then, bottle and cap.

 

[nos33]

my process is,
soak clean bottles in non sented bleach for 30 minutes,
rinse out and move to my dishwasher,
have dishwasher set for high temp dry
while they are sanitizing in dishwasher, boil 1 cup water with .8oz of corn sugar per gallon
let the water cool. ( I usually throw a couple ice cubes in there to help cool faster)
pour mixture into bottling bucket.
rack beer on top and slowly and i mean slowly stir it into the beer.

Bottle, wait 4 weeks and enjoy

 

[TotemWolf]

Read this. It will answer just about everything and then some.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/f35/bottling-tips-homebrewer-94812/

 

[unionrdr]

Bulk priming def works the best. I boil 2C of water,measure priming sugar on a digital scale I got at Super Wallmart for $20. Priming sugar is measured by weight,not volume. Liquid is measured by volume.
Mix priming sugar with boiling water off heat till it clears again. Then place pan in cold water/ice water till it cools down to 70-75F. I then get a couple inches of beer racked into the bottling bucket before slowly pouring the the priming solution into the surface of the swirling,rising beer. Then stir gently 12 times to make sure it's mixed.

 

[dancness]

I just boil the pint of water with the priming sugar for 15 mins. You really want to boil it for 15 mins to kill any wild yeast or bugs that might be in your priming sugar. Then after 15 mins I just dump it in the bottling bucket and rack the beer right on top of the solution. You're not gonna kill all your yeast with a pint of boiling water because you are mixing 5 gallons of room temp beer into it.

In other words, I don't even bother cooling the priming sugar solution at all and I've never had any issues.

As for the bottles, I soak them in PBW for a couple days. Then right before bottling I spray a few sprays of Starsan in each bottle.

 

[unionrdr]

If you properly store your priming sugar,you don't need to chance some small amount of caramelization boiling it. It's not needed,ime. The boiling water will be hot long enough to kill anything that might be present. So you don't need to boil the heck out of everything.
Nasties fall downward not crawling all over looking for things,they're airborne. I Prefer to cool it down 1st,since My beers are only slightly hazy. I don't leave anything to chance. boiling liquid takes a fair amount of cool/cold liquid to kill the excess heat. Don't want dead yeast in my bottles. Even a little bit.