Forgot to Stir Priming Sugar!

[Mister_TSquared]

Hey there. I'm brewing a Chinook IPA and today was bottling day. I added the priming sugar/water mixture to the bottling bucket before adding the beer, but...I forgot to stir before bottling. Did I make a mistake that I can't recover from? Am I going to see a big change in carbonation between bottles?

[dannyboy58]

if the priming sugar was in the bucket when you racked your beer in there should have been pretty good distribution of the sugar at least on the first 1/2 of the beers bottled. Some of the later ones may not get much carbonation but they'll still be drinkable. If they're already capped, it's done and you'll get what you get. I wouldn't lose too much sleep over it. Many first time beers aren't drinkable so if that's the only mistake you made you done good kid...haha

[radagast]

Back when I used to bottle, I tried to remember to gently swirl the bucket every 5 bottles or so to keep the sugar stirred up. I just helped my neighborhood bud bottle a batch we brewed for him and we didn't stir at all, or even swirl and he had very nicely carbonated beer. You should be good, just something to learn from for the next batch!

Rad

[voodoo_donut]

Not to be Debby Downer here or the devils' advocate or "that guy" but what's the chance of a Breaking Bad/Hank/ Schraderbrau type bottle bombs incident?

[voodoo_donut]

Same here, we stir every 9 bottles.....but it would be easy to forget.....I think it would depend on the amount of mixing that occurred with racking the beer on top of it.

[WMNoob]

I'm not sure I ever worried about stirring it up and never had a problem. I always figured racking the beer in there mixed it up good enough. Maybe they didn't last long enough to get up to danger level.

[dannyboy58]

Being the manufacturer of more than a few bottle bombs in my early bottling days the thought occurred to me. For some reason I talked myself out of the likelihood but since you mention it...
@Mister_TSquared
You may want to put those bottles in a box minimum, plastic bin with a secure cover of some kind if you have one available. Some sugar will have settled to the bottom, if a few bottles got more than the necessary amount of sugar there is a chance they could over carbonate and explode. They're very dangerous and messy so you want to keep them contained as well as you can. Maybe you won't have any but if you hear an unusual POP in the middle of the night, go check your beers.

[jmck]

It’s been a few years since I bottled, but I’m pretty sure we didn’t stir the bucket at all. We were afraid of getting oxygen in. So we just made sure the racking tube was at an angle so the beer was gently circulated. I was also pretty obsessive about making sure all the sugar was dissolved in the measuring cup.

I don’t recall ever noticing significant levels of inconsistency. (Other than the first few being a little flat due to not giving enough time)

[brew_cat]

I never stirred either but if i did i wouldn't do it every 9 bottles.

[voodoo_donut]

Ten?

[voodoo_donut]

Interesting debate on this topic found here, thoughts and processes all over the board.....and some good ideas.

https://www.homebrewtalk.com/threads/do-you-stir-in-your-priming-sugar.402943

We would stir gently when we did.....not sure i would do that now(last bottling was in 2018).

[dannyboy58]

I haven't bottled in years other than from a tap but I don't see why things would have changed. I only had bottle bombs a few times and if I recall it was when I added sugar solution to beer rather than solution in the bucket BEFORE beer racked in. I don't recall how often during the process I stirred or if I did EVERY time but when/if I did it was so gently as to barely make the beer swirl in the bucket. You guys know how anal i am about oxidation.

We all have and develop our own processes, just offering options to consider. I hate the whole bottling mess personally and got away from it as quickly as I could manage. haha

[brewdvm]

Well, we've all forgotten to do that, so don't feel like you're the only one. Sugar solution tends to sink to the bottom. So there's a pretty good chance you'll have some of the earlier bottles be overcarbonated. There may not be enough sugar to create bottle bombs, although I would certainly take precautions as others have recommended, but you will definitely have gushers when you open some of the overcarbonated bottles up. I recommend putting a bottle in a bowl, crack the cap just a bit and let it depressurize slowly. It will foam out, but not as bad as yanking that cap off all at once, and the bowl will catch the mess. Also, keep the bottles really cold post conditioning.