Priming Sugars

[dags333]

g,day all .i am a newbie and have just made my 6 brew .just have a question about priming bottles.
i love black beer so i made a black rock German bock . added light malt , maltodextrin and dextrose. it has been bottled for just under 4 weeks .when i bottled it. i bottled half in 750 mil long necks with carb drops
and the other half with 330 mil green bottles with a level tsp of dextrose . had a taste last night
and the long necks i used with the carb drops .had a real nice flavor but tasted flat and had very little head. ( and i tried 3 of them) but the 330 green bottles i did with dextrose had a awesome taste .great head and a good fizz . just wondering if this is the normal between carb drops and dextrose ?????
if so i will piss the carb drops off . also have a tooheys old clone .which has been bottled for over 4 weeks
which i used with carb drops and it also seems a little flat . what are the use of these drops ???? .thanks in advance

 

[warra48]

Carb drops are easy to use. Other than that, you can't really do anything to change your carbonation levels between different beer styles or bottle sizes, apart from using two in longnecks. They're somewhat pricey compared to alternatives.

I prime all my brews with caster sugar. It's cheap and gets hidden in the shopping purchases. I use priming measures you can get from your HB shop or BigW, and pour the sugar into the bottle using a small funnel.

Be aware those priming measures carbonate your brew right at the top end of the range, so I'd suggest you don't use the full measure.
I've cut the openings on mine back by about 1/3rd, to ensure I get accurate measurements from bottle to bottle.
I've also cut one back to give me a consistent measure for 500mil bottles.

Here's a picture of what I use.

 

[rday]

I used carb drops when I first started out and never had an issue, but like warra said, no control either. Now I bulk prime, which means you calculate how much sugar you need (see ianh's spreadsheet) and add it to about 100 ml boiled water. Let it cool a bit, chuck it into the fermenter and give it a stir. Wait 20 mins or so and bottle away. Each beer will be carbonated to the same level.