Adding priming sugar directly to bottles

Domino sugar cubes will get you to about 2.4vols with 1 cube per 12oz bottle. I keg most of what I brew but this works great for the occasional bottles that get filled.
Just drop a cube in the filled bottle and cap.

 

I've used 1/2 teaspoon per 12 oz bottle in the past with good results. It's "close enough". If you find carbonation is too high or too low on one batch, you can use a little more or a little less the next time.

 

You could always make the prescribed amount of priming solution, portion it equally between bottles, and then go from there.

 

I've been considering this method for my next NEIPA bottling attempt -- and bottling straight from primary -- to reduce the risk of oxidation and color change (only one attempt so far, and it went brown after a month). Seems straightforward, as long as you know how much liquid you have after boil and mix everything up extremely well. I already have syringes for use with acids, so there's just the added time factor of sanitizing the syringe(s) and dosing each bottle.

There's also this thread on the AHA forums that is a twist on this method of priming.

 

Carb/fizz drops are just sugar...how can they be so controversial?

 

I often add priming sugar(regular cane sugar) directly to the bottles and have had consistent results. I use 1/2 teaspoon to get around 2.5 volumes. A little more or less depending on the style.
For your IPA, I'd use slightly less than 1/2 tsp, just eyeball it. Sanitize your bottles like normal and just drop in the sugar, I use a small funnel.

 

Let us (me?) know how it goes. I have a bit of time before my next IPA and am interested in your results/how easy the process is.

 

@HelloMyNameIsHuman, have you had a chance to try this yet?

I bottled an Imperial Stout tonight and -- as a bit of practice before trying it on style that might really depend on it like a NEIPA -- used this method of syringe-dosing my bottles and filling from primary. The process was extremely easy, and added 10 minutes to the process. Actually, once I'm done cleaning, I'll be it will come out even since I don't have to clean a bottling bucket or that extra length of hose between primary/bottling bucket.

Anyway, I took the precaution of preparing extra solution to make sure it was easier to pull the priming solution into the syringe, which I think was worth the extra 5g of corn sugar. The first few bottles took a bit as I got the hand of grabbing the syringe from a bowl with sanitizer in it, filling the syringe to 5 ml (I made my own calculations here, will reduce to 3 ml/bottle next time as long as the sugar dissolves), grabbing a bottle, dosing it and returning the syringe to the sanitizer, etc. As with general bottling, it became a rhythm and I was done before I knew it. I'm pretty much an expert at filling a syringe to 5 ml, to boot!

I'll follow up to let everyone know how it went when I try the beer in 2-3 months. Well, let's be honest: I'll probably try one in a few weeks and check carbonation levels "for science".

 

How did syringe filling bottles turn out?

 

Great! I've achieved really consistent carbonation and it doesn't add time to bottling day -- instead of waiting for the sugar to mix and reach equilibrium, I'm just dosing bottles as I go to fill them. I'm also diluting the beer less as for my 2.5 gallon batches, I end up boiling ~2.5 ounces of water to create the priming solution vs. a full cup of water.

 

Ok I'm going to give this a shot, I really hope this works. I'm going to use C&H sugar cubes but it is the same weight of sugar so should be equivalent. Fingers crossed.

 

I don't believe that C&H cane sugar cubes weigh 2.291 grams per cube like Domino Dots technically do. I think C&H cubes may weigh twice that amount.

PS: On my scale Domino Dots weigh in at 2.31 grams. There are 198 cubes in one pound.

 

C and H cubes are about 3.6 grams each.

 

I hope he read this post otherwise.......BOOM!

 

Not necessarily. He'd be looking at about 3.5 volumes, give or take, depending on residual CO2 from fermentation. That's not going to explode a standard 12 oz homebrew bottle, unless it is defective or damaged.

 

A C&H cube likely isn't going to fit through the neck anyway.

 

I hope not. I still remember the first time I blew one. It sounded like a shotgun and what a glorious mess!