What Is Better, Carb Drops Or White Sugar?

[thedragon]

One per PET bottle. B)

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I've never thought of this, but now that you say it it sounds so obvious... Thanks for bringing this up.

You say to use 1 per PET bottle. The coopers carb lollies that I've been using are 4.2g per lollie (I use 2 per long neck) compared to 4.5g per CSR cube. Would I be over carbonating and risking bottle bombs is I used 2 CSR cubes per bottle?

 

[bowie in space]

Do you predisolve your sugar? Or are you trying to stir it in?

Yep, just boil it in about half a cup of water for 5 or so minutes, cool down and tip into empty priming vessel. Then empty beer into priming vessel onto disolved dextrose via whirlpool action and it will mix in evenly (hopefully) with your beer.

Bowie

 

[Trusty1]

Icing sugar often has various kinds of crap in it to stop it going gluggy such as starch.

You can get pure icing sugar but you'd want to be sure.

The product labelled 'Icing Sugar' is pure icing sugar. 'Icing Mixture' has a % of corn flour added as an anti caking agent. this is what to look out for if for whatever reason you chose icing sugar to prime your beer. If you are bulk priming, plain old pure white sugar is the go. The cheapest you can find will do the job, especially if you are mixing with water and boiling as described on this thread briefly.

I have used carb drops, bulk primed, and also force carbonated, which is another dilema for another thread! If you told me I had to choose a method now and not change I would go for bulk priming. The process might seem to take longer, but if you are organised it will absolutely be quicker. While the beer is being transfered from FV to primer, there are lots of wee jobs for you to do! Plus it's heaps cheaper

 

[going down a hill]

Yep, just boil it in about half a cup of water for 5 or so minutes, cool down and tip into empty priming vessel. Then empty beer into priming vessel onto disolved dextrose via whirlpool action and it will mix in evenly (hopefully) with your beer.

Bowie

I mix 8g of sugar / 10ml of water to each litre of beer. So a 23L brew I would use 184g of sugar and mix it with 230ml of water. Less amount of priming sugar water the better for me, but writing this it probably doesnt matter. I find it to be less mucking around and every beer I have done this way is very consistent with carbing.