Priming sugar Vs Coopers Drops

Besides cost what benifits priming sugar over Coopers Drops. Bottling High ABV beers and need to know which will give best Head retention.

Head retention will be determined more by the proteins in your beer. Coopers drops are just sugar...no difference from priming sugar except there will most likely be binding compounds present in the coopers drops to keep the sugar in a sphere shape.

Priming sugar can be calculated and measured precisely for any desired carbonation level. Using priming drops you're pretty much stuck with whatever level they yield per bottle, which for 12 oz bottles is usually a pretty high level of carbonation, and not well suited for a lot of beer styles. Priming sugar shouldn't have any effect (positive or negative) on head retention, and shouldn't be an issue with a high ABV beer.

If you use different size bottles, its a pain in the arse to cut those suckers.

Never used Munton's CarbTabs, but they are a bit more flexible in that you have to use several for 12oz. Coopers work ok except that as mentioned above cutting them accurately is impossible. The CarbTabs do have "heading powder", A specially prepared food grade propylene glycol alginate extracted from brown seaweed. Priming sugar is great, just need to make sure it is evenly distributed in the beer.

btw- I now keg 99% of my beer to avoid messing with the above and bottle from keg except when I have a bottle or two extra after filling a keg.

I have been using the Coopers drops for a year with great head height and retention at about 4-6 weeks in bottle. I had read on here that someone was have head retention problems with a barley wine they brewed and used drops. I bottle in 22oz and put 2-3 per bottle depending on gravity but most of my beers have been in the 4-6% range. I am making three beers for xmas that are large ABV in long secondaries Barley Wine OG 1.080 ,Wassail OG 1.079, Belgian strong golden OG 1.097. I was wondering do i increase the drops or go with a priming sugar. I read that Beet Sugar candi syrup is good.

When I bottle I only use Coopers carb drops. I've had issues with irregular carbonation using priming sugar.

GreenDragon said:

When I bottle I only use Coopers carb drops. I've had issues with irregular carbonation using priming sugar.

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And this goes just fine? I have done 6 batches now and one carbed up correctly. 2 didn't carb at all and 2 are under carbed but are a porter and a stout so it fits the style well enough.

Btw I have been using 4 oz of priming sugar for each batch. The porter was also over 10%, but a my black IPA and my hefe were both around 6% and neither one carbed at all.