Simple Q - Carbonation Drops

[SerLung]

mate asked his LHBS for a packet of carbonation drops. guy at shop said nope, we keep them hidden - they are no good. a dirty product we are reluctant to sell them. use the sugar measure for your bottles, much better.

When I bottled, I never had an issue with them - is this true?

Cheers.

 

[Stormahead]

Rubbish. They work fine but just be aware as to which bottle size they're used in (its not easy to cut them to size)

 

[Deebo]

Strange thing for a store to say..
Wonder what their reasoning was, aren't the drops just sugar?

 

[mwd]

I think they are actually dextrose as opposed to sucrose.

BTW they are quite easy to cut into halves using a knife.

They are designed to be used in either stubbies or 750ml bottles so if you use odd sized bottles it is not so easy.
The other drawback is that they are expensive compared to other methods of carbonation. I am a cheapskate so use raw sugar and bulk prime.

 

[glenwal]

The size of each drop is also really inconsistant.


Though recommending a sugar spoon instead of bulk priming is nuts.

 

[jimmythehuman]

Do they add or change the flavour at all? I just realised i added one to each of the 330ml surely this isnt an issue?

 

[Deebo]

They are designed for 375ml so will be slightly more carbonated than they should be..

 

[Impy]

Do they add or change the flavour at all? I just realised i added one to each of the 330ml surely this isnt an issue?

Nope, that small of an addition won't change the flavour. They are dextrose, which is 100% fermentable and has essentially zero taste anyway (it just produces alcohol with nothing left behind)

 

[roverfj1200]

I weighed some coopers carb drops and would say that with 2 in a 750ml bottle it would be a bulk prime of around 200g.

I find it a bit high but many like it.

I have used the carb drops at half the recommended rate ( 1 drop in a 750ml bottle ) and found that to be OK.

They are easy to use as a first time brewer but if you start getting picky bulk prime is the way to go.

Coopers drops have ingredients listed as

sugar
glucose

So I can not see how this could add any taste at the correct dose.

Being easy and more accurate than a priming spoon I for one would recommend them first.

Cheers

 

[Diggs]

I would say if possible move away from drops and go to bulk priming, it's much better when you have odd sized bottles (stubbies can be 330,345 or 375) and you have more control over how much carbonisation you want for particular styles. I'm an absolute gumby novice and managed to get this step right.

I got a second "bucket" style fermenter for free that I use for this, but I've seen people mention a bucket from Bunnings for bottling???

 

[bruce86]

im with the masses bulk priming is a lot easier that you might think.

 

[bignath]

Being easy and more accurate than a priming spoon I for one would recommend them first.

If i'm going to bottle, i'll also bulk prime. It's piss easy to do provided you have another vessel (fermenter, cube, jerry can thing) lying around.

I agree that the carb drops are far easier, but i don't think they are more accurate than a priming spoon device. I've had carb drops with holes in them, sometimes they are broken in the pack and then you have to work out how to use it with another piece or just throw it out.

In my experience with almost everything in life, convenience always comes at a price, where price could be literally price, or it could be quality or quantity.....you get the picture i'm sure.

 

[ianh]

Expensive way of carbonating brews. If you don't want to bulk prime, which is the recommended way.

Go on Ebay and buy a 200 gram digital scale similar to this link for under $10. Then you can prime individual bottles with dextrose at a rate of about 6 grams per litre.

You can make a table with weights of dextrose for different size bottles, much easier than cutting carboation drops.

Balance will come in handy for weighing hops also.

 

[jimmythehuman]

That scale is $7.58 delivered. I bought one, thanks for the tip.

 

[petesbrew]

Expensive way of carbonating brews. If you don't want to bulk prime, which is the recommended way.

Go on Ebay and buy a 200 gram digital scale similar to this link for under $10. Then you can prime individual bottles with dextrose at a rate of about 6 grams per litre.

You can make a table with weights of dextrose for different size bottles, much easier than cutting carboation drops.

Balance will come in handy for weighing hops also.

Geez, that'd take forever.

 

[ianh]

Geez, that'd take forever.

It's like everything it's a compromise. If you use small bottles it takes longer to clean and fill them as well as adding the dextrose. But compared to using carbonation drops, it's far cheaper and a lot more versatile.

Attached is a simple table of the amount of dextrose required for different bottle sizes for varying carbonation levels for anyone interested.

View attachment Carbonation.xls

If you use sugar it is the dextrose weight times 0.9

cheers

Ian

 

[RobboMC]

I found the carbonation drops never produced beer with a good head.

Get yourself a bottling bucket with some food grade tubing and get into bulk priming,
so much easier and cheaper. And you can always get the priming sugar that you choose from the supermarket day or night when the HBS is shut.