Do You Need to Boil Priming Sugar?


Boiling priming sugar before bottling

There is no carbonation in the bottle without priming sugar and yeast, and there are a few ways how one can achieve proper carbonation for their homebrew.

Some homebrewers add priming sugar raw straight from the package, but some homebrewers make a mixture of sugar and water and boil it instead.

Priming sugar doesn’t have to be boiled, but it’s a recommended practice if you want to minimize the odds of the homebrew getting infected and make the sugar easier for the yeast to absorb. So, my advice is to always boil it prior to bottling.

I’ve bothered with this question for a long time and if you are a beginner homebrewer I believe this question bothers you as well.

No one wants to spend all that time fermenting their homebrew only to destroy it at the bottling stage because if you screw at this stage, there’s no going back once the homebrew is bottled. Therefore, let me explain why boiling really matters and when it matters the most.

Why you should boil the priming sugar

By boiling priming sugar and water you kill the possible germs in the sugar, evaporate the chlorine from the water and break down the sugar to the point where it’s easier for the yeast to digest it.

Make sure you add correct amount of priming sugar though, or your brew will end up over or under carbonated.

Better be safe than sorry

If you buy the unopened package of sugar it probably doesn’t contain anything that will infect your homebrew, but even then you can’t be 100% sure. Moreover, if you use the opened package of sugar that’s been exposed to the air, the odds of an infection increase.

Boiling is the only way to rest your mind at ease, but I have primed my homebrew with raw sugar from an unopened sugar package like 5 times till now and have been fine every time.

But as I say, there’s no need to play with the luck, and boiling only takes 5-10 more minutes on a bottling day.

Yeast can break the dissolved sugar easier

Another plus of boiling the sugar is that the yeast can eat the sugar easier because the already dissolved sugar means more room for the yeast to penetrate the space between sugar molecules, so it can break down the chains even easier.

Raw sugar can be a challenge to some yeast because it is highly concentrated in one place, so the yeast needs to work harder with the help of other yeast cells to break it. It’s important to pitch enough yeast for a healthy fermentation, so don’t underestimate it.

How long should you boil the priming sugar?

The boiling of priming sugar is achieved at 212°F (100°C) and you should boil it for 2-3 minutes once the boiling point is achieved.

When you put the mixture on the stove it may take 5-10 minutes for the water to reach the boiling point, so from the moment I put it on the stove and take it off, it usually pasts around 10 minutes.

No germs can survive at 212°F even for a super short duration, so 2-3 minutes is even more than enough to make your solution fully sanitized and it won’t reduce the quality of sugar, nor evaporate too much mixture.

If you keep the boiling priming mixture for more than just a few minutes on a stove it will evaporate too much water which will make it harder for you to judge how much mixture should go in each bottle, or if you add it straight to the fermenter it may make the mixture stick to the walls of the pot.

Remember, you don’t want a caramel!

Should priming sugar be cooled?

You should cool the priming sugar straight after you’ve prepared it because you shouldn’t add hot liquid to your homebrew as it will kill the yeast necessary for second fermentation inside the bottles.

It’s not necessary to cool it to the temperature of the homebrew because in such small quantities it won’t have a big effect, but try to cool it as close to the temperature of the homebrew.

It’s super easy to cool the priming sugar solution because it’s so small amount of the liquid and you can even put it in the fridge.

I simply cover it with the lid I previously used to help it achieve the boiling point as soon as possible and let it cool at room temperature. By the time I am bottling, it passes 15-20 minutes and it’s already cooled.

Final take on

As you can see, there is more than one reason to boil your priming sugar and it’s generally a good practice that can’t hurt you if you know how much sugar to put in a solution and add an equal amount of priming solution into each bottle.

A small number of germs may not even survive in an alcoholic environment full of active yeast colonies, but you never know what you are dealing with.

During my homebrewing journey, I have learned that it’s better to be extra safe for 5 more minutes than to save those 5 minutes and increase the risk of things going in a bad direction.

Laziness is simply a luxury that shouldn’t be taken by anyone who wants to produce good homebrews consistently.

Dino

Hey there, I am Dino, and I enjoy brewing for my friends, family, and myself. This is the place where I share what I have learned, so more people can discover the beauties of the art of brewing. Oh, and remember, drink responsibly!

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