Carb Tablets / Primary bottling, looking for some insights.

[Aleforge]

I scoured the forums and came across some mixed opinions on using carb tablets. Both positive and negative. Most of what I found was pretty old and I am not sure if there has been anything new more recently in regards to brands etc.

I posted on reddit and got some very limited feedback, but it was interesting none the less.

One person told me that he uses Domino sugar "dots". One dot (2.3g) in a 12oz bottle ends up being around 2.5 volumes of CO2. It sounded interesting, cheap and simple so I was curious if anyone has used them.

A second question I had was "can you bottle directly from the primary spigot". A person told me that they normally skipped the bottling bucket all together. My idea behind that was due to avoiding any additional risk of oxidation / infection. Hence why I asked about carb tablets to begin with.

I noticed a couple things reading through old posts, one that people had a rough time getting them to dissolve. However it was mentioned that they needed to roll the bottles a few times during carbonation. Secondly that some of their batches never carbonated at all, or at least to the desired level. Which came down to the brand it seems (some had bad luck with what they used).

Can anyone give some insight / opinions on all that?

I appreciate it!

 

[Jag75]

I've never used the carb drops. Just priming sugar when I bottle. I just transfer the beer into the botteling bucket / carboy. Purge with co2 . Then bottle.

 

[ncbrewer]

I don't have any experience with the carb drops either. But I'm not sure you're avoiding the possibility of infection. I wouldn't trust the carb drops to be sanitized. And handling them without contaminating them seems tricky. The chance of contamination this way would be extremely low, but the same can be said about transferring to a bottle bucket. I've never had an infection problem with the bottling bucket method. And you can't fine tune the carb volumes with carb drops.

I'd say the carb drops are better as far as oxidation.

 

[McKnuckle]

Domino Dots are basically a perfect product for carbonating 12 ounce bottles of beer to an average, normal level. If you were extremely nervous about infection, you could quickly dunk them in sanitizer. But I have never bothered with that - and no problems.

I have also used the carb drops that are marketed for homebrewing. They are fine too; however they are perhaps a bit more uneven in my experience. They are certainly more expensive and harder to procure. Any random grocery store has Domino Dots. They are highly recommended for ease of use vs. bottling buckets.

 

[NGD]

I’ve only bottled 3 batches with carb tabs. Don’t remember the brand bit they were smaller than the ones midwest sells. I thought I would be saving time. I’m not sure I accomplished that at 48-52 bottles per batch.

My results were mixed. The batches carbed, although I found the included instructions as more of a starting point reference. I’ve had far more consistency using a simple syrup mixture and giving several gentle swirls to mix well in the bottling bucket than adding carb tabs/drops.

If your doing small batch..domino dots would be the way to go. Fast and painless. For larger batches..I prefer corn sugar.