Anywhere in Dublin to buy carbonation drops ?

Muahahaha

Silly me, due to bottle this weekend and I forgot to get carbonation drops. Tried Tesco Clearwater but while they're still stocking home brew gear they have no drops. Anyone know of a Tesco that does have them ? Or if not is there a readily available alternative?

BeerNut

Half a teaspoon of ordinary sugar per bottle and you'll be grand. If you absolutely must have carbonation drops, The Bottle Shop in Kimmage will most likely have them.

Wils110

Tesco in finglas sell the coopers gear

Muahahaha

Wils110 wrote: »

Tesco in finglas sell the coopers gear

yeah but they have none on the shelves at the moment.

@Beernut , I like my beer fizzy and for it to maintain a good head. Would half a teaspoon be enough for what I want. Or should I go the full teaspoon ? I'm using 500ml bottles and before I used to put two carbonation drops into each bottle and was happy with the result so wanna achieve the same again.

Wils110

The beer club on sun drive road(next door off licene) it's also an off licence

BeerNut

Muahahaha wrote: »

should I go the full teaspoon ?

Sounds about right. It's not an exact science. Carbonation level isn't connected to head retention though, AFAIK.

Tube

Carbonation plus a nucleated glass equals head formation/retention/generation.

Easy rule of thumb is 100g of sugar for 20L of beer. Not very scientific but you won't really go wrong with it.

Carawaystick

Using the 100g for 20l rule, you could boil the sugar in enough water to dissolve it and use a syringe to dose the beer bottles more accurately

So if you get 160ml of syrup just put 8ml in each bottle

Pharmacies should have syringes for 5-10 ml
And if you've smallies, nurofen syringes work.
Obviously syringes mentioned don't have needles...

Saruman

Carawaystick wrote: »

Using the 100g for 20l rule, you could boil the sugar in enough water to dissolve it and use a syringe to dose the beer bottles more accurately

So if you get 160ml of syrup just put 8ml in each bottle

Pharmacies should have syringes for 5-10 ml
And if you've smallies, nurofen syringes work.
Obviously syringes mentioned don't have needles...

That sounds time consuming though. The bottling bucket method is better. Boil up a little water, add the sugar, bring it to the boil for a few minutes.
Sanitise a bucket/spare fermenter. Transfer the beer and as it enters the bucket, pour in your sugar solution. This sterilises the sugar and perfectly mixes the beer. Then just siphon in to your bottles.

Carawaystick

Saruman wrote: »

That sounds time consuming though. The bottling bucket method is better.

It is.
But you are saving the cost of a bottling bucket in the short term and the space of a bottling bucket in the long term...

rubadub

Carawaystick wrote: »

Pharmacies should have syringes for 5-10 ml

Pet shops can have bigger syringes for feeding small animals. You can usually eject the water quicker too. I have 60ml syringes.

You can get syringe guns too, which connect to a vessel and just dispense the same amount each time.

Saruman

Carawaystick wrote: »

It is.
But you are saving the cost of a bottling bucket in the short term and the space of a bottling bucket in the long term...

I know this will sound pedantic but a bucket costs about €12 and doesn't take any more space than your fermenter because the buckets stack in to each other.

How much does a syringe cost? Probably a little less but not that much. Anyway, whatever method works best for you is what you should do.