A question we see quite often, when should you add your priming sugar? We break it down in this week's episode of BrewTalk with Mr. Beer.

A question we see people asking quite often, do I add my priming sugar before or after I fill my bottles?

I think a good second question to that would be do I shake my bottles once they are filled and the priming sugar has been added?

So, let's tackle the first question.

We do think and recommend in our instructions that you add your sugar or carbonation drops before you add the beer to your bottle.

A few reasons for this, it does make it a little easier to handle your bottle when it's empty vs when it's full of beer.

Also, adding carbonation drops or sugar to your bottles when they are full, could kick up very small splashes of beer which can lead to the protentional of oxygenation.

As we have mentioned in past videos that is one of the most common off-flavors people get when bottling, so you always want to be careful to not kick up the beer.

Now, this brings us to the second part of this, shaking your bottles.

This is something that you do not want to do. All this will do is create oxygen in your beer which will lead to off-flavors.

When bottling your beer, you want to be as gentle as possible. Treat it like a newborn baby and make sure to always handle your brew with care.

So to recap, add your priming sugar or carbonation drops before you fill your bottles and never shake your bottles.

Cheers, 

Robert