I have my first brew sitting in the seconday right now. Week 2 is fast approaching so I’m obviously now anxious about bottling day. I plan on using the simple recipe that came with my extract kit for a priming solution. I planned on using regular table sugar at the correct amount.
For future brews, I may consider those tablets you can buy and put individually in each bottle. Are there any pros and cons that I need to be aware of as a new brewer. Thanks.
I did a brief seach or the forum topics, in effort to avoid asking a quesstion that gets asked a lot, but had no luck, so here I am. Thanks again.
I haven’t had much luck with the tabs, especially the Munton’s. Seems like it takes a lot more than they recommend.
I used to have decent luck with the Coopers drops(1 per 12oz, 2 per 22oz), that said I have not used them a ton, I used to use them to bottle just a few beers from each batch before I started bottling from the keg.
I used to use prime tabs, but it appears they are no longer made.
When I bottled part of a batch in bottles and part in mini-kegs I would batch prime to the lower lever the mini-kegs require and then add a tab or two to each bottle. It worked pretty good.
I am new (5 extrat batches), and I have done fine with priming, but I do use dextrose (corn sugar). Be sure to gently stir the beer/priming mixture before you bottle. Go gentle, 'cause you don’t want to oxygenate the been before you bottle.
Another good idea I got from this forum - when bottling, take a sterilized platic bottle, like a 20 oz soda bottle, fill it aboyt 2/3 - 3/4 full of the beer, squeeze all of the remaining air space out of it and cap it. Let it sit with the other bottles. When it expands, you know carbonation is doing just fine.
Just to stir things up a bit. I dont bottle often but when I do I use carb tabs. Both Coopers and Muntons and have had nice consistant success with both. I love the ease of use and the ability to use them to bottle partial batches off my kegerator. I even donated my bottling bucket and wand to a friend after a few batches of success.
+1. I don’t bottle much anymore but when I did exclusively I always made a priming sugar solution, bottling bucket, etc… Now when I bottle which is not often and usually not many bottles, I use Coopers priming drops. Haven’t had a problem yet.
I never really liked them. I had ok success with them but sometimes they seemed inconsistent. I also thought they gave a little different taste to the beer. I know that’s probably not possible because it’s only sugar but I seemed to like simple table sugar over the drops.
If you’re going to bottle a full batch, I don’t see the point of the tabs unless you can’t measure. You’re not saving anytime, perhaps the 10 minutes to boil some sugar. If you want to carbonate to style try out these sites for sugar amounts. Also, try and measure the sugar by weight, not volume. Good luck!
http://www.tastybrew.com/calculators/priming.html http://www.northernbrewer.com/priming-sugar-calculator/