Carbonation Drops..

bbam

Hi..
I'm ready to bottle my pilsner and have carbonation drops to go into the bottles..
My question is about splitting them.. I'll need 1.5 per bottle, I've tried and I can split them easily with a knife.. My problem is contamination, I'm handling them allot to cut them and it just doesn't seem right... I used sugar to prime the last brew??

What do others do, good scrub of the hands and cut away??

BeerNut

Count out the number of drops you need, dissolve and boil them up in a small amount of water and if you have a spare bucket sanitise it, put the solution into that, siphon the beer on top and bottle from there.

Alternatively you could try doing half the bottles with one and half with two and see what happens. But carbonation drops sound like a lot more trouble than they're worth.

bbam

BeerNut wrote: »

But carbonation drops sound like a lot more trouble than they're worth.

Definitely sounds like it..
TBH I got them by accident, they were in the "recommended" stuff with the kit and I didn't notice

Think I'll just use sugar like the last time, it worked a treat then..

Thanks again..

Eddieken

I use these all the time (keg 19 litres and bottle about 6-10 500ml bottles). One carb drop per bottle is enough, no need to put any more in unless you have the 750ml bottles. Carbonation levels are fine using one drop even for wheat beers.

irish_goat

Get some sterilised rubber/latex gloves and some sterile cling film. Wrap the drops up, give them a good whack with some heavy like a rolling pin and then you can put them in bit by bit (although it will be hard to get exactly 1.5 in each).

A sterile knife + gloves would work too.

For the cost of sugar though it's just as easy to make up a priming solution.

Zebra3

bbam wrote: »

Hi..
I'm ready to bottle my pilsner and have carbonation drops to go into the bottles..
My question is about splitting them.. I'll need 1.5 per bottle, I've tried and I can split them easily with a knife.. My problem is contamination, I'm handling them allot to cut them and it just doesn't seem right... I used sugar to prime the last brew??

What do others do, good scrub of the hands and cut away??

1 per half litre bottle.

Handle them with my bare hands.

Never had a problem with them.

rubadub

BeerNut wrote: »

But carbonation drops sound like a lot more trouble than they're worth.

+1, if you are splitting them it sort of defeats the purpose of them, same as getting sugar cubes for tea and squishing them down and spooning half one in.

ian_m

You will be fine with one per 500ml bottle. I've actually put two per 500ml in my latest batch. I have also tried breaking them in half and didn't get any contamination.

leggit

Got them for free, used them for my first brew, haven't touched them since. Batch priming is, by far, the easiest method.

Don't actually taste that bad though if you want a sweet!

Khannie

leggit wrote: »

Don't actually taste that bad though if you want a sweet!

Interesting! I wonder if you could use apple drops or the like. Probably take too long to ferment out.

viper123

I'm on my third brew now since I started out about three months ago and have only used carbonation drops so far and I am convinced that they don't work! I was one carbonation drop short in my last batch and used a half spoon of dextrose instead in that bottle and after three weeks it's the only bottle that actually carbonated up properly.

Khannie

I would definitely imagine you'd get more predictable results in a predictable timeframe with batch priming. I certainly wouldn't be arsed with carbonation drops.

RGDATA!

the last coopers kit i did i ran out of carbonation drops. i was already bottling when i realised i was short, so i just used sugar cubes and hoped for the best.
in fact, i found the bottles i used the regular sugar cubes in carbed up quicker and better than those with the carbonation drops. i didn't notice anything different in the flavour either of the beer, not that i allowed it particularly long to age.

based on that i will probably forgo the carbonation drops altogether on my next batch (although I might also try getting a second bucket and batch priming in that)

Baneblade

i used them on the first few brews i did and put 1.5 in each bottle. i just cut them with a clean knife. definatly think it was more hassle then it was worth cutting them. if you have enough you could just put 2 in each bottle.

cml387

I found 1 wasn't enough for 500ml. I split them by hand.beer is now bottled over 2 months and no problems.
I have old pint bottles, and I'm tempted to go for two in them,at least as a trial bottle.

Killgore Trout

I used cooper's carbonation drops for my first brew, but I had bottles of different sizes, So i got 19L worth of drops and boiled them in water and batch primed racking the beer into a bottling bucket. Bottles carbonated just fine with them.

Found dextrose much less hassle for my second brew as it dissolves much better for boiling.

I used this site to calculate the amount
http://hbd.org/cgi-bin/recipator/recipator/carbonation.html

I only bottled on Friday - so i have no idea how the carbonation worked out yet.

bbam

Just bottled tonight.
Primed with sugar into the bottles as before.
Fingers crossed now, I'll be keeping them at ~20 degrees. Hope it's ready for three weeks time.

Zebra3

viper123 wrote: »

I'm on my third brew now since I started out about three months ago and have only used carbonation drops so far and I am convinced that they don't work! I was one carbonation drop short in my last batch and used a half spoon of dextrose instead in that bottle and after three weeks it's the only bottle that actually carbonated up properly.

When I use the drops, I find it's carbonated decent enough after 4 weeks, but by 8 weeks, it's fantastic. :cool:

Not sure, how quickly it works for those batch priming, anyone want to let me know?

Baneblade

i find mine are carbonated after 2 weeks, after that its just down to how long you you want to condition them.

opened a wheat beer that had been bottled 2 weeks to taste test it, was like a champane bottle the amount of head pouring out but that was the only one in the batch so far

DeadSkin

I use the drops as well. I have no reason to fault them. The longer the bottles are left to condition, the better.

wet-paint

I'll usually do half a batch with one drop, and half with two. It does take longer for the one drop bottles to carb up, but they get there eventually.

TempPeck

I have had no problem with the drops. I use 1 per 220ml bottle (old budweiser bottle) and they are fine. I never open them before 4-8 weeks though. For convenience they are excellent.

sharingan

Never used carb drops before. What is their main benefits, and how do they work? They seem a lot more hassle than priming (and I find the sugar + funnel is not too much effort).

Do carb drops work without yeast?

rubadub

sharingan wrote: »

Never used carb drops before. What is their main benefits, and how do they work? They seem a lot more hassle than priming (and I find the sugar + funnel is not too much effort).

They are basically little sugar cubes that easily drop into your bottles, instead of getting sugar all over the neck. They can be made of malt or other sugars, these ones do not look like malt.
http://www.monsterbrew.com/Prod_CarbonationTabs.cfm#

I think the coopers ones are malt. They are precise amounts so take some measurement calculations out of it.

Those ones I listed are smaller than the coopers so some might pefer them.

Recommended dosage: 5 tabs per 12 ounce bottle for high carbonation, 4 tabs for a normal carbonation, or 3 tabs for a light carbonation.

sharingan wrote: »

and I find the sugar + funnel is not too much effort.

Less effort than this is adding the priming sugar to all of the beer in one go and then bottling. -as mentioned earlier on.

You still need yeast in the bottle, which would be there anyways. You can't go carbonating water with them if thats what you meant.