h4brewing said:
Thanks for the help allgrain...Yea I have heard that you are supposed to boil with water, I would rather just add the sugar strait though.
You shouldn't do what you'd rather do in this case. You should do as allgrain suggests.
Boiling your bottling sugar in water accomplishes two major things.
1. It kiss off any bacteria and sterilizes your bottling sugar.
2. It allows for even distribution of the bottling sugar through your beer.
If you just add the sugar to your beer and stir, you might not get even distribution. Some of the sugar may not dissolve in the colder mid 60's F beer and will settle to the bottom. The first bottles filled will not have enough bottling sugar (these might not carbonate up at all) and the last bottles filled will have too much bottling sugar (these are potential bottle bombs).
You should also put the bottling sugar solution in your bottling bucket first and then rack your beer on top of it. I don't stir mine, as this might introduce oxygen. As my beer is siphoned into my bottling bucket, it gently swirls around and blends the bottling sugar throughout the beer. You can stir yours if you'd like, but stir gently if you do.
You shouldn't put the sugar directly into the bottles and then fill the bottles with beer. I tried it this way when I first started 30 years ago and no matter how well you think you measured out your bottling sugar, you can't do it well enough by hand to get even carbonation.