Carbonation Experiment Under Way

Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum

Help Support Homebrew Talk - Beer, Wine, Mead, & Cider Brewing Discussion Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

JDFlow

Well-Known Member
Joined
Apr 18, 2012
Messages
453
Reaction score
39
Location
Seattle
Tonight I bottled 11 bottles with carb tabs, 10 bottles with priming sugar not boiled or diluted with water added directly to each bottle, and 10 bottles with priming sugar boiled and diluted with water. I'll post the results in a couple weeks.
 
After about 1 week I decided to check on things...

The beer with the priming sugar added directly to the bottle is carbonated nicely, but will probably get better over the next week. The flavor is really smooth with a clean finish and there is absolutely no sediment in the bottle.

The beer with the priming sugar that was boiled with water is also carbonated nicely (about the same as above). But there is more haze in this beer.

The beer that was carbonated with tabs has more sediment than I've seen in the 3 batches that I've bottled and the carbonation seems a little low. I used Muntons tabs. The package said to use 4 tabs for "normal" carbonation, or 5 for "high" carbonation. I went with 4 for normal. The package also says the beer should be carbonated in 1-2 weeks. It hasn't been quite a week so I'm not totally ruling this method out yet. I'll wait until the 2 week mark to make a definite judgement on their quality.
 
I used those carb tabs twice, in just a few bottles. Never again. They made a mess of the beer.

Table sugar is better than both your test subjects. Use 9% less than what you used in priming sugar (dextrose). It works exactly the same as dextrose, just as fast (at least the difference was imperceptible to me), and never runs out (at my house, anyway). BTW, cane sugar and beet sugar are both the same thing, table sugar, which is sucrose.
 
Munton's tabs are made with Dextrose, DME and propylene glycol alginate...

I use Cooper's a lot. Just (according to the label) glucose. Almost no sediment and they have never failed to carbonate.

OMO

bosco
 
I subscribed to this thread to keep up with the results. Carbonation has always been one of those things I can't get consistent.

I used 3/4 tsp dextrose per bottle. Didn't boil it or sanitize it in any way and I like the results of it the best. I have another batch to bottle this weekend. I'll do a few of them with 3/8 tsp and a few with 1 tsp to get an idea of which will work for beers I'd like a higher carbonation in like a witbier or IPA.
 
I used those carb tabs twice, in just a few bottles. Never again. They made a mess of the beer.

Table sugar is better than both your test subjects. Use 9% less than what you used in priming sugar (dextrose). It works exactly the same as dextrose, just as fast (at least the difference was imperceptible to me), and never runs out (at my house, anyway). BTW, cane sugar and beet sugar are both the same thing, table sugar, which is sucrose.

I've been meaning to try table sugar. I'll try a few bottles with that in the next batch.
 
subscribed. just to see what happens. I've been having carbonation consistency issues also.

Kevin
 
My first batch of beer, I just used 3/4 tsp plain table sugar dumped into the bottom of sanitized bottles, then racked the beer on top of that. All of my bottles carbonated fully, in 7-10 days. I had no sediment in most of the bottles. The only place I got sediment was in the last 3 bottles, where I was pulling very close to the yeast cake and got a little too greedy...
 
I used 3/4 tsp dextrose per bottle. Didn't boil it or sanitize it in any way and I like the results of it the best. I have another batch to bottle this weekend. I'll do a few of them with 3/8 tsp and a few with 1 tsp to get an idea of which will work for beers I'd like a higher carbonation in like a witbier or IPA.

So, I bottled a brown ale recently with 3/4 tsp corn sugar per bottle for 1 gallon, 1tsp for another gallon, 1/2tsp cane sugar for a gallon, and a few 22oz bottles with 1 1/4 tsp cane sugar.

All of them have good carbonation and were carbed in 1 week. The ones with cane sugar were all a little over carbed, almost soda like, but no bottle bombs. The ones with 1 tsp corn sugar were carbed right between the ones with 3/4tsp corn sugar and the ones with cane sugar. I think 1tsp corn sugar would be perfect for an IPA, pale ale, or any other beer you might want with a crisper finish. As for the cane sugar; I really liked the flavor of the cane sugar compared to the corn sugar. The corn sugar seems to add a little more alcohol taste to the beer, but after a few weeks it really dried the beer out.
 
Next time I'm going to try a few with less cane sugar and try to find the sweet spot for it's amount per bottle addition.
 

Latest posts

Back
Top