Slightly Amateur Sugar Question

I would boil, turn off heat, add sugar & stir to dissolve well then cool and add to bottling bucket.

Not dissolving the sugar could lead to uneven distribution of the priming sugar in the beer and uneven carbonation of bottles.

 

Why? ...the carb drops are just sugar and already dosed for 1 bottle of beer

 

Have you had bad experience with the carb drops as the reason you want to switch to corn sugar?

If you want to use the corn sugar, the main reason for boiling it is to make certain that any bugs that you might get from your measuring equipment are killed, and the boiling also insures that the sugar is well dissolved in the water.

I base the amount of water that I use on how much beer I have. If your recipe is for two gallons and you can determine that you are a pint short, then use a pint of water for your priming solution. I take the approach that the larger the amount of water I use, the thinner the solution will be, thus it will mix more easily and more consistently throughout the beer to help insure the same amount of sugar gets into each bottle. I even stir the beer a few times during bottling to make certain that the heavy sugar solution has not settled out of the beer. Otherwise you'll have inconsistent carbonation among your bottles, and uneven mixing of the sugar can give you bottles that are over-carbonated with a risk of having gushers, plus you'll have some flat beer.

 

Just enough water to cover the sugar and then boil and dissolve. Also, you don’t have to wait and cool. Your beer will take of that when you siphon it onto it. @Mothergoose03 gives some good advice on keeping it mixed well, but stir carefully, you don’t want to introduce any excess oxygen. Good luck!

 

I have found that the volume measurement of sugar is usually not the same as the weight measurement on the NB calculator. My beers were never carbbed correctly until I bought a scale and started using priming sugar by weight instead of volume.

 

Do not ever weigh way non liquid by sight. Stick it on a scale and weigh it.
Second the rest of the advice. But, a little more water is better than a little less when it comes to solution. You want it to remain in motion while you are racking over it. So, make sure your hose is long enough to get to the bottom of your bucket and let it swirl on in over it.
Doing a liquid charge for the batch instead of carbonation drops for each bottle saves a step in a fairly labor and time sensitive process. It also prevents being an idiot and forgetting.

 

Mr Beer is like 1 gallon, right? 0.24 cups corn sugar is way too much. You can use regular table sugar with the same results. Just use a scant 2 tablespoons per gallon or per 10 bottles. Boil it with a few ounces of water -- I do this in the microwave -- cool then add to the whole batch just before bottling and blend well.

 

Two gallons.

 

Oh, okay, then 0.24 cup corn sugar sounds about right actually. Use more scant amounts for cane sugar compared to corn sugar, probably like 0.20 cup. FWIW, I have bottled >130 batches since 1999.

 

Use a priming calculator such as the one at Brewer's Friend. Don't feel compelled to use corn sugar because you will have approximately the same results with ordinary table sugar. Weigh your sugar if you can rather than using measuring cups, as others have suggested. Dissolve your sugar in boiling/near boiling water as others have suggested. Add dissolved solution to beer. Give it a gentle stir for 10 seconds with a sanitized spoon. Wait 15 minutes for sugars to distribute in the volume of liquid. Bottle.

 

Corn Sugar is something I would never measure by volume, but to get the same CO2 potential by weight...

1 unit Corn Sugar ~= 0.91 units Cane Sugar

 

Volume measurements have always worked fine for me. I understand the concerns, and by & large, I don't think they matter much.

 

MrB standard batch size: 2.125G (8L)
LBK's MAX batch size: 2.4G (9L)

 

Corn sugar is more better than carb drops and table sugar is more better than corn sugar.
The reason why table sugar is more better than corn sugar; table sugar costs less and is readily available.

Bring 1/2 cup water to a boil .... turn off the heat ... add sugar ... turn on heat ... stir until dissolved ... boil 3". Cool to ~100°F ... add to bottling bucket. Rack beer from fermentor to bottling bucket ... stir quietly ... start bottling.

Sugar would not fully dissolve. Bottled beer would not carbonate fully. Home-brewer would have a sad.

 

According to Mr. Beer, "The LBK makes 2 gallons of award-winning beer every time you brew." I guess the extra 0.125 gallons must be the shitty portion. I'm speaking in the context of the Mr. Beer ingredient kits here. I'm aware that the LBK itself can be used to make beer with better ingredients, and should do about as well as any fermenter that's open to O2.