Carb tabs or sugar?

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HoshBrew

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Hi guys, anyone have any experience using the carb tablets for bottling. Currently I am using sugar in each bottle but I am upgrading to 5 gallon batches and using the tablets sounds much easier then pouring sugar in each bottle. Do the tablets work just the same or are there any negatives? Thanks guys
 
Never tried the tablets. But sugar is super easy. Boil 1.5 cups of water (2 minutes). Add sugar, stir, and remove heat (2 minutes). Set it aside, let it cool for 30 minutes, and dump it into your bottling bucket. It goes into solution easily and evenly. I boil the sugar before I start the santizing process on bottling day.
 
The negatives are over carbing. I would try it out at least once. They come in handy especially if you are bottling from a keg before force carbing.
 
When I bottle, I dump the boiled sugar water into the bottling buck first. No beer there yet to oxidize. Then rack the beer on top. I'll give it a gentle swirl from the racking cane a few times as it's filling, but this might not even be necessary.
 
solbes said:
When I bottle, I dump the boiled sugar water into the bottling buck first. No beer there yet to oxidize. Then rack the beer on top. I'll give it a gentle swirl from the racking cane a few times as it's filling, but this might not even be necessary.

+1 sugar all the way, easiest and cheapest way to do it. I personally never boiled my sugar, just dump it in the bucket after I put the beer in it.
 
The problem with that comes in when you have to stir the fermented beer to get the sugar crystals to dissolve. Depending on the sugar,the crystals can be big enough to make it hard to dissolve in boiled water,let alone room temp beer. I use demerara sugar on occasion to prime with,& it takes a couple minutes to dissolve in boiled water. Almost the same with table sugar. Dextrose is a finer grind than the others,& dissolves in 30 seconds or so.
But it doesn't take a whole lot of extra effort to make a priming solution to keep from mildly oxidizing the beer stiring in dry sugar. And it mixes faster/easier.
 
Awesome, I'll be dissolving some sugar and adding it to the bucket before bottling. As always you guys have the quick answers. Thanks
 
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