Coopers Carbonation drops

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xbabyboy4021x

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has anybody tried coopers carbonation drops? i saw them when looking around the LHBS and wondered if they were worth buying...and if they do work well does this mean i would jus leave it in the fermentor for longer and add the drops and bottle and drink? or how does this work?
 
o i just read a page about them and from my understanding they are just dropped into a bottle of beer that is just being bottled instead of using a priming sugar mixture, is that right?
 
The Coopers drops and the Munton's tablets are just sugar. You just drop them in the bottle but it still takes a few weeks for the beer to carb. They work just fine but they don't do anything more than bulk dextrose.
 
I've used both. I wasn't impressed with either one but the Munton's tabs were definitely worse. They never seemed to completely disolve so you'd end up with tiny gritty white specs in each bottle. The Coopers drops were slightly better but the carbonation seemed to differ from bottle to bottle. I suspect that happened because each Coopers drop lost some amount of its sugar in the bag and therefore no drop was exactly the same size.
 
But they're easier than dextrose, and take the guess work out of how much dextrose to use because you won't always want to bottle the entire 5 gallons, sometimes you won't have that much, sometimes you will have more, sometimes you will keg 5 gallons and have 3-4 bottles left over, etc... stuff like that.

Don't have to worry about how much beer you have or how much priming sugar, just drop a piece of candy in the bottle, fill it with beer, put the cap on and wait.
 
I have used them for the last 4 batches. I keg, but bottle about 6 flip top Grolsh bottles so I can sample at different time periods and know when to put the keg in the 'fridge. I would say they take a little longer to carbonate the beer, and the carbonation levels are at the lower end of the spectrum. So - if you want a highly carbed style, or are using a larger bottle than the standard 12 oz., you need to add more. The Muntons carb. tabs are smaller and take 4 for each 12 oz. bottle, so I usually use one Coopers and three Muntons (or two Muntons on a low carb style beer) for my 16 oz. Grolsh bottles - and the carbonation ends up about right.
 
Aww, just add table sugar dissolved in hot water to the bottling bucket before transferring the beer. The transfer will mix the sugar in just fine. You'll get a consistent mix through the batch, and the amount of carbonation is in your control. About 5/8 cup per 5g.

Don't even think of scooping sugar directly into the bottles. w-a-a-a-y too much variation that way. Some will be flat, some bottle bombs.
 
I have to violently disagree with previous post. I always add sugar to my bottles using a teaspoon and funnel. The human eye and brain is nearly as clever as the yeasties !. I bottle into a mix of 333 ml, 500 ml, 750 ml, 1L, 2L and 3L bottles. I put one dollop into the 3 smallest bottles, and a dollop and a half into the bigger bottles. I have only ever had one bottle explode in 40 years, that was a St Peters thin green glass medicine bottle shape, ie useless. Enjoy brewing, enjoy drinking, don't worry yourself to death.
 
I use the carbonation drops. They seem to provide a consistent amount of sugar for gassing the beer. Coopers and Morgans both supply an apparently identical product. Two drops (they look like sweets) added to the 740ml bottle after the beer, seal and invert a few times. What could be easier?

I have seen a clever little scoop that only holds the correct amount of sugar that can be used too, but I'm sticking to the drops for now. The clever thing about the scoop it that if you use it upside down it holds half as much which is correct for a 370ml bottle.
 
Aww, just add table sugar dissolved in hot water to the bottling bucket before transferring the beer. The transfer will mix the sugar in just fine. You'll get a consistent mix through the batch, and the amount of carbonation is in your control. About 5/8 cup per 5g.

Don't even think of scooping sugar directly into the bottles. w-a-a-a-y too much variation that way. Some will be flat, some bottle bombs.

Yea that is the best way, however if any one kegs (like I do) and only wants to bottle a 6 pack up this way would not work. That is were the carb tabs would come in handy. However I have used Munton's tablets and wasn't very happy with the little white chunks that were floating in the bottles.



Fred_Nerk, I to would love a link to this scoop.
 
I'm sorry but I can not find a link with a picture. The scoop is available at many homebrew supply shops and online stores. It is known as a "priming scoop" or less accurately as a sugar scoop. Look in the accessories area.

The scoop resembles a tiny spirit measuring jigger. It has slots to ensure it only holds the right amount of sugar and a handle to make it easy to scoop and then pour into a bottle.

I hope this helps.
 
I have to violently disagree with previous post. I always add sugar to my bottles using a teaspoon and funnel. The human eye and brain is nearly as clever as the yeasties !. I bottle into a mix of 333 ml, 500 ml, 750 ml, 1L, 2L and 3L bottles. I put one dollop into the 3 smallest bottles, and a dollop and a half into the bigger bottles. I have only ever had one bottle explode in 40 years, that was a St Peters thin green glass medicine bottle shape, ie useless. Enjoy brewing, enjoy drinking, don't worry yourself to death.

I use domino's sugar cubes one per 12 ounce bottle easy as pie and dirt cheap
 
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