Sugar Cubes for Priming bottles

[Scot_beer]

Anyone had any experience priming bottles with sugar cubes? I am thinking using one cube per 500ml bottle to prime a Wilko cider kit? Will it work?

 

[terrym]

I assume you can a insert cube into the bottle. :hmm:
Next what's the weight of a sugar cube? If in doubt weigh 20 cubes and then divide the all up weight by 20 to find out. If the weight of the cube is the required weight of priming sugar then go ahead, it may just take longer to dissolve compared to granulated sugar.

 

[Fil]

Its an expensive way to prime bottles, if you dont have a funnel you can roll up a tube of a4 paper and open one end up before applying some tape to hold it and everyone has a teaspoon, a level teaspoon is 2.5-3g and heaped is circa 5g.. Check your teaspoons with a £5 set of drug dealers scales if necessary..

also i doubt you will find sugar cubes you wont have to ram through a bottle neck, loosing a varying mass depending on just how many edges you shave off in the process..

 

[terrym]

Check your teaspoons with a �£5 set of drug dealers scales if necessary..

And when you have found a teaspoon that suits your brewing needs best, take it out of circulation and keep it for brewing and nowt else.

 

[nigelnorris]

I use almost nothing else. Different brands don't vary all that much. 3.8g - 4g is about the norm. Glass bottles have different thickness necks which can cause issues, but cubes go easily into PET bottles, the plastic is thin and so the gap is plenty wide enough.

4g is quite a lot of sugar mind, you'll get a lot of carbonation and will be pretty much forced to cool them to fridge temp before opening else too much foam. So perfect for cider, lager, american style IPAs, anything you want to drink fizzy and cold. No good for ales and the like, I revert back to a plastic half-teaspoon for them.

 

[RichieBeer]

if using the (half) teaspoon method. Would caster sugar dissolve more quickly?

 

[nigelnorris]

if using the (half) teaspoon method. Would caster sugar dissolve more quickly?

Doesn't need to dissolve, the yeast will find it anyway. Even a whole sugarlump sat at the bottom of the bottle will be gone after a few days.

 

[LarryF]

I've always used a measuring spoon, funnel and butter knife to level it off. 1/2tsp into 500ml bottles for dark ales and stouts and 1tsp into 600ml bottles for lagers and lighter ales. Saying that though, I did a Coopers Dark Ale that I carbonated with 1tsp per 600ml bottles and I loved it. It reminded me of things like the Leffe or Erdinger Bruin lagers they do. Not nearly as nice but certainly down the same road.

 

[krispn]

I’m just about to prime a batch but was thinking about individual bottle priming instead. I have 500ml, 750ml and a couple of 1L bottles and want to prime a lager. Is 3.5g per 500ml a good guide. I’m confident I can get the measurement exact or near enough just want to be sure it’s correct for a good carbonation.

Cheers in advance

 

[RichieBeer]

I've just bottled (500ml PET) my first brew, a Woodfordes Wherry. I couldn't decide which way to prime so ended up doing half the bottles with a single sugar cube and half with a teaspoon of brewing sugar. I'm interested to see what the difference is.

 

[RLGMIlson]

For cider just put a teaspoon of the sugar you’d put in your tea or coffee,
No need to fanny around with cubes
Who the hell has cubes these days ?

 

[nigelnorris]

For cider just put a teaspoon of the sugar you’d put in your tea or coffee,
No need to fanny around with cubes
Who the hell has cubes these days ?

Those of us who don't want to fanny around with spoons and funnels?

 

[AdeDunn]

I tried using white sugar to prime beer with, gave the beer a nasty cider-ish flavour. I stick to using DME or dextrose to prime with now.

I don't bottle prime any more either, it's a lot less work if you batch prime in a bottling bucket with a tap fitted, then just put a bottling stick on the tap and off you go. :thumb:

Regarding teaspoons, I found a set of stainless steel measuring spoons on Amazon, going from 1/8th of a teaspoon up to 1tbsp. They're bang on accurate, and are specifically for brewing so no need to nick anything off my wife. :lol: They're also rectangular rather than round, meaning they go into fairly narrow jar openings quite happily. You can probably find cheaper locally if you're happy to nose around. The smaller ones would probably fit into the neck of a PET bottle comfortably too. PIC attached for reference.