Carbonated Drops Vs White Sugar

[KillerRx4]

what exactly are the carbonation drops? Are they the same as candi sugar?

when i used to bottle i used them a few times.

I would eat a few while bottling & they dont taste like sugar. THey taste more like the old hard toffee i had as a kid.

 

[lucas]

i cant belive there are people doing AG who dont feel comfortable with bulk priming :huh:

 

[Boozy the clown]

I'm a KKK man who does the drop.

Works for me, if the drop looks too small i eat the bugger.

 

[Barramundi]

i have used carb drops without any problems , just tried a bulk prime fro the first time so will have to wait and see how that turns out ...
as for scooping sugar into each bottle ive never done that , i used a kangabrew sugar dispenser theyre about $25-30 but well worth it saves a lot of hassle and adjustable for longnecks and stubbies...
now the majority of my brews are kegged so the little grey bottle does all the work for me ....

 

[mika]

I'm a drop man, just for ease of use. There seems to be a fair bit of variation in the size between the drops but I don't bother changing it for the now mostly 330mL bottles I use.
I've tried on a couple of occasions dropping 3 drops into a long neck and never noticed a difference.
Never got round to Bulk priming as I generally don't have the spare fermentor and the sugar distribution problems that some people have come across have just put me off.

 

[Screwtop]

i cant belive there are people doing AG who dont feel comfortable with bulk priming :huh:

I'm with him

forget the AG. Anyone who brews and bottles should use this dead simple method, can bottle to any size container.

Easy as shittin in bed an kickin it out with ya foot.

 

[Adamt]

Easy as shittin in bed an kickin it out with ya foot.

Charming :S

really can't see how bulk priming can give a more even distribution of sugar in each bottle. surely the beer at the bottom is going to be more carbonated.

If properly stirred (both after adding the solution and during bottling), and the sugar is kept in solution, it will not "sink" to the bottom. Sugar completely dissolves in water in quantities encountered by bulk priming (few hundred grams in 20L). It's possible, yet highly improbable there's any macroscopic difference with the sugar concentration in 2 bottles. A more likely/noticeable situation with bottling is there will be more proteins and other large molecules around the bottom of the bottling bucket that havent completely sedimented but are falling in the beer, perhaps affecting body and head retention. I have never come across any inconsistencies with bottles from which I have bulk primed, definitely not with carbonation.

I ensure I stir very well (without splashing of course) when I add my priming solution and keep stirring every 5 or so bottles.

The syringe idea sounds a go'er if you don't have a bottling bucket or anything. Make sure you keep stirring the priming solution though!

 

[Beer Baron]

Hi Scott

Welcome

I always use Carb Drops now as they are less messy. I haven't noticed a difference in head retention betwen white sugar and drops. I have heard a few complaints on this Forum about Carb drops but I honestly can't fault them.

I tried bulk priming into the secondary a couple of times with corn syrup without success. 2 Flat brews - not sure why.


Best of luck with your brews.


Jimmy :beer:

Correct me if I'm wrong but isn't corn syrup non-fermentable? That would explain why you got flat brews because carbonation depends on fermentation of the priming sugar

 

[phonos]

You're right Beer Baron, corn syrup (maltodextron) is basically non fermentable, which means the yeast isn't producing any carbon dioxide - and hence no bubbles. You need to use something fermentable - dextrose (glucose) and white sugar are most popular, although some people use malt or honey.

 

[Steve]

Bulk prime with plain white sugar :beerbang:
Cheers
Steve

 

[SJW]

I can't beleive the amount of people that use these things. Why? I guess there is just a lot of people out there that have not got a second container to bulk prime? I would doubt anyone that said that Carb Drops were easier to use than bulk priming, and it only makes about 100% improvement on your final product. But each to there own.

STEVE

 

[Trough Lolly]

Before kegging, I bulk primed every time with a 300ml solution of sugar or malt extract - as long as you have a whirlpool from the racking hose, you'll be fine...

TL

 

[Stuster]

Just to clarify Trough Lolly's post before anyone goes off and makes some bottle bombs. I doubt TL means 300g of sugar, but a quantity of sugar dissolved in 300ml of water. I always use Beerisgood's bulk priming calculator to work it out. Promash has one too. (Beersmith?) I do it just like TL. Quick, easy and you can adjust the priming rate for different beers.

 

[RobboMC]

I got a bottling bucket for Fathers Day and have had one go with it. Had a lot of trouble with the tubing. I used to use the syring idea but it's very messy, fiddly and time consuming. Turned out sanitising and then washing out the bottling bucket was also messy, fiddly and time consuming. Bottling bucket may be great for different sized bottles, but the syring idea is a great way to go to get away from the sucrose in the drops. When I went to priming with brew enhancer my head seemed to improve a lot.

 

[lucas]

in terms of ease

bulk priming > carb drops/sugar scoop > syringe

the beer is only in the bulk priming vessel for well under an hour so it needs little more than a good rinse in hot water, very little additional cleaning in exchange for not stuffing about priming every bottle, nice even carbonation and not having to worry about disturbing the yeast cake while bottling. using an inline irrigation filter means you barely even have to worry about disturbing the cake while racking since clumps will be caught, and the filter can even catch any stray hops.

if all my fermenters were busy id probably use the sugar scoop, or maybe the carb drops (though i object to paying so much for clumps of sugar).

using a syringe just sounds painful, and i cant wrap my head around how you would make it accurate. you measure out some amount of water, then heat and disolve the sugar into it and now have an unknown quantity of water. how you'd split this evenly between a yet unknown number of bottles I cant imagine. I know I always clean more bottles than i think ill need, i'd doubt any two consecutive 23L batches ended up in the exact same number of bottles.

 

[hoganknowbest]

Being an amateur at HB i can't see myself buying all the set up just yet to do bulk priming. From all the post everyone has added to my question it does sound easier to bulk prime, but for now i can't be bothered using my sugar measure so being the lazy person i am.....it's carbonated drops for me!

What is eveyones thoughts on using mapel syrup? only about 30ml or so. Is it a fermentable inclusion?
For use in a draught style recipe with no hopps

 

[Adamt]

Yep, you should get some nice mapley flavours.

What you need to do is look on the maple syrup container, and see how much sugar there is per 100mL of the syrup. Work out the amount of white sugar you need, and then work out how much maple syrup you need.

 

[hoganknowbest]

Yep, you should get some nice mapley flavours.

What you need to do is look on the maple syrup container, and see how much sugar there is per 100mL of the syrup. Work out the amount of white sugar you need, and then work out how much maple syrup you need.

Mapel syrup = 74g per 100g sugar
I only used a small amount cause i still don't know what i'm doing!

 

[hoganknowbest]

What about golden syrup?

 

[Whistlingjack]

the beer is only in the bulk priming vessel for well under an hour so it needs little more than a good rinse in hot water

This is not good sanitation practice. Everything that your beer comes into contact with must be sanitised. Hot water, unless it is steam, will not adequately rid your equipment of nasties.