[KansasBeer]

Hello all,

I belong to a homebrew forum. We were recently having a chat that requires some help from chemistry experts. I stopped by here and was hoping I could find someone who might be able to shed some light on the problem.

After beer is fermented it must be bottled. But to get the beer carbonated we must add sugar. One way to do this is by adding a teaspoon of sugar to every bottle, then pouring in the not-as-yet-carbonated beer. The problem with this is that it's time consuming and might be inaccurate. Inaccuracy in bottles leads to explosions!

A better way is to pour a solution of sugar water into the fermentor itself, stir gently (to avoid oxidizing the beer) and then, after waiting thirty minutes, bottling the beers.

Here's my question: it is commonly understood in the brewing community that simply stirring and waiting 30 minutes will sufficiently diffuse the sugar water throughout the beer. I would like someone with a science background to confirm this. Does the sugar water really diffuse with gentle stirring and waiting? It's 100% diffused? I don't understand the process...

See, otherwise we get these bottle explosions. These are bad!

Thanks!
Dave

[pjaj]

To prove to yourself that it will difuse in the time, consider adding milk to a cup of tea or coffee. Even with slight stirring it diffuses completely in a few seconds.
To further prove it, take your fermenter, fill it with cold water to the level it would usually be filled with beer. Add the a quantity of milk, ink, water based paint or dye similar to the amount of sugar solution you would have added to the beer. Stir gently and watch - I'll bet that it diffuses completely far faster than 30 minutes.

[nj_bartel]

Agreed

[billnotgatez]

KansasBeer -

How much sediment do you get at the bottom of the bottle from the sugar yeast process?
Do you decant or just drink the bottom sediment?