Priming solution or add sugar to individual bottles?

From what I've read, it seems that the old technique of adding a given amount of sugar to each bottle for priming isn't recommended anymore. Instead, just about every source recommends boiling priming sugars in water and adding the cooled solution to the wort before bottling.

Why is this? It seems to me that by adding sugar to individual bottles, I don't have to worry about uneven carb levels from a non-uniform mixture of my priming solution.

Reasons I've thought of:

  • Convenience: not having to measure out the sugar for 50 bottles
  • Convenience: not having to worry about bottles with different volumes
  • Sanitation: the sugar gets pasteurized (is this really a concern?)

Are there other compelling reasons I haven't thought of, or does it just come down to convenience?

EDIT: This motivation for this question was bottling small batches, in which priming just a few bottles is an equivalent amount of work to batch priming.

Topic small-batch priming bottling techniques homebrew beginner

Category Mac

1
answered at

You do have the answer in your question. When brewing my first kit, I put the sugar in each bottle and here is my experience:

  1. Have to measure sugar for each bottle, difficult and time consuming when using different sizes.
  2. I did experience gushing when filling bottles that had sugar in them
  3. I did get a few bottles that where not as good (due to sugar not sanitized perhaps?)

Making a priming solution is easier. I have made more than 20 batches with this technique. My experience :

  1. Faster calculation, just one quantity
  2. Adding boiling water to sugar will kill bacteria and helps disolve the sugar
  3. You still need to mix it well to ensure the whole batch is equally primed
  4. Faster bottling, no gushing
  5. Transfering beer to bottling bucket also helps getting rid of sediments, less chances of getting those mixed while bottling

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