Priming sugar vs conditioning tabs?

Does anyone have thoughts on the difference (pros/cons) between using priming sugar in the bottling bucket and conditioning tablets?

Sometimes the priming sugar solution doesn’t get mixed into the beer well, and you can end up with uneven carbonation or bottle bombs. The tabs are more expensive, but they’re more consistent and you don’t have to boil them first. I use the tabs and attach the bottling wand to my siphon, then bottle directly out of the fermenter, bypassing the bottling bucket.

My experience has been the opposite. Adequately mixed priming sugar in a bottling bucket gave much more consistent results than the conditioning tabs. I never seemed to get the carbonation level dialed in with the tabs, even when adding more tabs than suggested on the package. Plus, they never seemed to dissolve fully, and left a lot of gunk in the bottle. The only advantage that I found was that they save a little time, and are slightly more convenient.

I use the tablets all the time when I wanna bottle a 6 or 12er before kegging the rest. Love them. but use the ones that are sugar and not the compressed DME. the DME ones sometimes leave a little ring at the top of the bottle

I had a simular question about the Cooper drops. Seems to be the same response I got but here is the thread to my post if you want to check it out.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=113581

I had already bought the Cooper drops and passed on using them on my last batch. However, I’m going to bottle 6 of my next batch (this weekend) with the Coopers so I can see for myself witch I like better. I still haven’t even had one of my own home brews…this weekend that will change so I can’t wait!

I’ve had good luck with the Cooper’s drops when I’ve used them (generally for 1-gallon mini batches so I can just bottle straight from the fermenter). I do prefer to use a measured amount of priming sugar, however, so I can target a specific carbonation level.

Same here. I hate the tabs. I’ve used them maybe 10 times and i won’t use them again. Very inconsistent carbonation and almost always too low.

Denny I am having the same issue with the sugar. Used what came with my kit. Believe it was 5 oz boiled in water and put into bottling bucket. Mixed it every 10ish beers or so. It has been two weeks (one week with swirling the bottles every day) and the carb level is very low. Stored at about 73 F.
thoughts?

[quote=“davepelton”]Denny I am having the same issue with the sugar. Used what came with my kit. Believe it was 5 oz boiled in water and put into bottling bucket. Mixed it every 10ish beers or so. It has been two weeks (one week with swirling the bottles every day) and the carb level is very low. Stored at about 73 F.
thoughts?[/quote]

Wait. Sometimes it takes a week, sometimes it takes 3 weeks.

+1.