coopers carbonation drops?

have any of you had any luck with the coopers carbonation drops? just curious. cause i have 2 different brews bottled. one is 3 weeks old(stout) and another is a month old (pecan brown) and i have alot of carbonation when there warm, but when i put them in the ice box for 20 mins, they pour with no head! wtf! guess i gotta wait a while huh?

There was another thread not that long ago dealing with these carb drops. the overall consensus was that they work well. Just like using priming sugar you have to wait the right amount of time for them to carb up.

ok thanks alot bro!

another cool thing...I think it's the coopers...they have "heading powder" in them. It's great for the beer bottles of apfelwein I bottled still and now want carbed. They hold a head better than BMC, and taste great!

I've added them to my first batch which was bottled almost 2 weeks ago. I did not fill up the bottles to the top and from reading here was expecting poor carbonation but I was surprised to find the opposite. The beer has good carbonation after a week and I will continue conditioning it to get more.

Since I am a newb I am using these drops that came with my Coopers brewery kit. After a few batches I plan to switch to using priming sugar.

If they were about 1/3 of their price, or maybe 1/2... I would use them more.

Too much $, but really no complaints about quality. They work as intended.

The Munton's tabs have heading powder in them as well.

Kilgore_Trout said:

If they were about 1/3 of their price, or maybe 1/2... I would use them more.

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I don't think anyone intends to use them for the primary carb method....I've used them to save bottles....
I had a batch that was kegged, then My BMBF skillz were a bit n00b and I ended up with 24 flat cream ales...carb drops to the rescue!

Also like I said, I put up 1/2 batch of apfelwein with no priming sugar....now I've decided it needs to be carbed, so again I use the drops.

For a 5 gallon batch, you're WAY cheaper and easier to just use priming sugar.

I wish they made these with all dme and no heading agent. I don't want/need a heading agent. In fact they should make all kinds of drops using honey, maple syrup, belgian candy, molasses, etc; Just no heading agent, put in air tight vaccum sealed bags, and lower the price jees.

I like the idea that they take up headspace volume. Are you supposed to put them in the bottle first and then bottle because I think it would be better to bottle and then put them in so they can take up as much head space as possible. I guess either way it would be about the same.

WheaYaAt said:

have any of you had any luck with the coopers carbonation drops? just i have alot of carbonation when there warm, but when i put them in the ice box for 20 mins, they pour with no head! wtf! guess i gotta wait a while huh?

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There's your issue right there. CO2 does dissolve readily in cold liquids, but it takes a day or two to really carbonate the beer. After carbonation is reached at room temperature (after about three weeks of bottle conditioning), put the beer in the fridge for 24 hours at least. Then, when you pour, you'll have a well carbonated beer with a nice head.

I've had beers be super foamy at room temperature, but perfectly carbonated after being in the fridge for 2 days. It has to do with the co2 being mostly in the headspace at room temperature in a young beer, and the cold fridge temperature forces the co2 into solution so it'll give your beer bubbles. 20 minutes is really not long enough for this process.

What Yooper said. Leave them in the fridge for 24-48 hours and I bet you will have a satisfactory result.

man i was saying that 20mins was the least i put them for and just that little cooling kills the head. i have some that have been in the fridge for 1 1/2 weeks. and the same! nothing! how high do u guys fill your bottles to? i have some that are 2 inches away and some are 3/4 of an inch away from the bottle top? i was trying to see if there is a difference.

WheaYaAt said:

man i was saying that 20mins was the least i put them for and just that little cooling kills the head. i have some that have been in the fridge for 1 1/2 weeks. and the same! nothing! how high do u guys fill your bottles to? i have some that are 2 inches away and some are 3/4 of an inch away from the bottle top? i was trying to see if there is a difference.

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meh I've bottled with zero headspace with no problems other than it took a couple of months to carb.

hmmm? i know when i use the bottling wand, it leaves about 2 inches of head space in the bottle. i guess i should cap it off like that for now on. after i have them all filled i usually take the wand off my bottle bucket and top the bottles of alittle more with the spicket. John Palmer says to bottle with 3/4 of an inch of headspace....?

WheaYaAt said:

hmmm? i know when i use the bottling wand, it leaves about 2 inches of head space in the bottle. i guess i should cap it off like that for now on. after i have them all filled i usually take the wand off my bottle bucket and top the bottles of alittle more with the spicket. John Palmer says to bottle with 3/4 of an inch of headspace....?

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It doesn't really matter 3/4-2 inches. I've seen some Stone bottles that had huge headspace. From zero to 2 inches would be fine but IMO less is better. Only up to 30% of the o2 in headspace will be used up during priming and the rest just oxidates eventually.

ahhhh ok thanks homie !